Hubei Jiufeng Mountain Laboratory announced today that it has achieved a significant technological breakthrough in the indium phosphide (InP) material field, successfully developing epitaxial growth processes for 6-inch InP-based PIN structure detectors and FP structure lasers, with key performance indicators reaching international leading levels.

This achievement marks the first time in China that domestic collaborative application from core equipment to key materials has been realized in large-size InP material preparation, providing crucial support for the industrialization development of optoelectronic devices.

As a core material for optical communication, quantum computing and other fields, the industrial application of InP materials has long faced technical bottlenecks in large-size preparation. The industry mainstream has remained at the 3-inch process stage, with high costs preventing it from meeting the explosive growth of downstream industrial applications.

Jiufeng Mountain Laboratory, leveraging domestic MOCVD equipment and InP substrate technology, has overcome the challenge of large-size epitaxial uniformity control. For the first time, it has developed epitaxial growth processes for 6-inch InP-based PIN structure detectors and FP structure lasers, with key performance indicators reaching international leading levels, laying the foundation for large-scale preparation of 6-inch InP optical chips.

Against the backdrop of rapid global optoelectronic industry development, demand for InP in optical communication, LiDAR, terahertz communication and other fields is experiencing explosive growth. According to Yole predictions, the InP optoelectronic market size will reach $5.6 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14%.

The breakthrough in 6-inch InP processes is expected to drive domestic optical chip costs down to 60-70% of 3-inch process costs, helping to enhance the market competitiveness of domestic optical chips.

This breakthrough by Jiufeng Mountain Laboratory, achieved through collaboration with the domestic supply chain for full-chain advancement, has significant impact on promoting the coordinated development of China's compound semiconductor industry chain and lays the foundation for industry chain autonomy and control.

For example, in this technological breakthrough, the collaboration partner Yunnan Xinyao's key technology for 6-inch high-quality InP single-chip industrialization has achieved breakthrough and is ready for mass production.

In the future, the laboratory will continue to optimize the 6-inch InP epitaxial platform, promote downstream product verification, enhance industry chain autonomy and control capabilities, and drive the upgrade of China's optoelectronic industry.