[News] Major Breakthroughs in China’s Storage and Silicon Photonics Chip Technologies

---

---

As the AI wave sweeps the globe, the continuous enhancement of computational power and large-scale storage capacity has become a key challenge for national infrastructure and chip companies.

Recently, Chinese chip teams have achieved significant breakthroughs in silicon photonics chips and new high-capacity storage chips, driving advancements in China’s AI and high-performance computing fields.

Chinese Research Team Achieves Breakthrough in Silicon Photonics Chips

According to reports, the Jiufengshan Laboratory (JFS) in Hubei has made milestone progress in the field of silicon photonic integration. They have successfully integrated a laser light source into a silicon-based chip, marking the first time this technology has been achieved in China. This breakthrough addresses the physical bottleneck in large data transmission between chips.

The achievement was made using JFS’s self-developed heterogeneous integration technology, involving complex processes to integrate an indium phosphide laser within an 8-inch SOI wafer. This technology often referred to as “chip light emission,” replaces electrical signals with more efficient optical signals for transmission. Its core purpose is to overcome the physical limitations of electrical signals in chip-to-chip communication.

Currently, the greatest challenge in developing fully integrated silicon photonics platforms lies in the creation and integration of high-efficiency light sources on silicon substrates.

Compared to traditional discrete external optical sources and flip-chip (FC) micro-assembly light sources, JFS’s on-chip light source technology effectively addresses issues such as low coupling efficiency, long alignment time, and insufficient alignment precision in traditional silicon photonics chips. It also overcomes bottlenecks like high production costs, large size, and difficulty in large-scale integration.

China Unveils Its Largest-Capacity Next-Generation Memory Chip

Recently, Wuhan-based company Numemory announced the successful development of China’s first largest-capacity next-generation 3D memory chip, the “NM101.”

This chip employs innovative 3D stacking technology. Based on the principle of resistance changes in new materials, using advanced processes, it integrates billions of non-volatile memory devices on a single chip, achieving a significant breakthrough in memory architecture.

Compared to other large-capacity non-volatile memory products on the market, the “NM101” chip boasts a significant advantage in storage capacity, with a single chip capable of holding up to 64 Gb. It supports random read/write operations, with both read and write speeds exceeding 10 times that of current products, while its lifespan is extended fivefold. These improvements will significantly enhance system solution performance, providing better and more efficient services for applications such as virtualization and databases.

This chip offers new large-capacity, high-density, high-bandwidth, low-latency storage solutions for Chinese data centers and cloud computing providers.