Zhejiang Semiconductor Company Secures 200 Million Yuan in Financing to Break Through the Bottleneck of Key Laser Chips in AI | Exclusive Report by 36Kr

Text | Zhang Zhuoqian

Editor | Yuan Silai

36Kr learned that Zhejiang Huachen Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huachen Optoelectronics") announced the completion of a nearly 200 million yuan Series A++ financing round. The funds from this round of financing will be mainly used for new product R & D and market expansion. In the more than three years since its establishment, "Huachen Optoelectronics" has completed five rounds of financing totaling nearly 500 million yuan.

Founded in September 2021, "Huachen Optoelectronics" is a high - tech enterprise focusing on the R & D and manufacturing of semiconductor laser products. The company's headquarters is located in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. It provides semiconductor laser product solutions for customers in fields such as high - power lasers, optical communication lasers, and 3D sensing in the IDM (Integrated Device Manufacturing) mode. Currently, "Huachen Optoelectronics" has a wholly - owned subsidiary for optical chip FAB manufacturing in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, and a subsidiary for optical chip packaging and testing in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province.

The core team members of "Huachen Optoelectronics" all come from top overseas optical chip enterprises and have rich R & D and manufacturing experience. The team members have a full - process technical background in semiconductor laser chip simulation and design, epitaxial growth, chip manufacturing, device and optical module packaging and testing, reliability development and verification, etc.

Semiconductor laser chips are key basic components in high - end technology fields such as optical communication, lidar, and artificial intelligence. In recent years, with the rapid development of relevant domestic industries, the demand for high - performance semiconductor laser chips has been increasing day by day, but the localization rate is extremely low. At present, China almost completely relies on imports for tunable signal light sources used in long - distance backbone networks in the telecommunications field and gain amplification chips for amplifiers, with a localization rate close to zero.

The emergence of "Huachen Optoelectronics" is precisely to address this challenge. The company adopts the IDM mode, integrating capabilities such as chip design, epitaxial growth, FAB process, and module packaging and testing, forming a complete industrial chain from R & D to production. The technical R & D of "Huachen Optoelectronics" mainly focuses on the independent design and manufacturing of semiconductor laser chips.

Product applications of "Huachen Optoelectronics"

The core products of "Huachen Optoelectronics" include two directions: edge - emitting laser products (EEL) and vertical - cavity surface - emitting (VCSEL) laser products. The core business focuses on the R & D and manufacturing of high - reliability semiconductor laser chips and module products for fields such as artificial intelligence, low - altitude economy, and satellite communication.

"Huachen Optoelectronics" has mastered a number of core technologies, including the key processing technology for the cavity surface of high - reliability and high - brightness energy - type semiconductor laser chips (WXP technology), the full - process complex manufacturing technology for SGDBR - type tunable narrow - linewidth semiconductor laser chips, and the experience in the construction and management of low - cost 6 - inch GaAs and 4 - inch InP hybrid contactless FABs.

Currently, "Huachen Optoelectronics" has the manufacturing capacity to produce 5 million high - power semiconductor laser chips per year. It plans to build a manufacturing base with an annual production capacity of 20 million high - power and optical communication optical chips by the end of this year. At the same time, relying on its self - built 6 - inch epitaxial growth capacity, 6 - inch wafer manufacturing capacity, and module packaging and testing capacity, it actively cooperates with domestic and foreign scientific research institutions to conduct frontier technology research and promote the continuous improvement of product performance.