3C Featured News   Industry Focus Report

The four-day optical expo interviewed seven different companies in the industry chain, both domestic and foreign, and clearly felt the difference between Chinese and foreign companies. This difference reflects not only technology and products, but also technology foresight. Different judgments on market trends.

Many private entrepreneurs of optical modules have also frankly said that in the high-end optical module market, domestic manufacturers have always been behind foreign manufacturers because the core technology is in their hands.

So what is the so-called core technology? Are there any domestic companies to overcome it? Where is the fundamental threshold? After visiting several domestic and foreign companies, C114 tried to find the answer to the question.

Technical differences

A Chinese R & D engineer serving American semiconductor companies believes that the gap between the optical module market at home and abroad is mainly the chip in the optical device. Many domestic manufacturers have talked about integration and made their own chips, but companies that can truly achieve vertical integration Rarely. He is not at all worried about the ups and downs of the rising star, because for high-end chip products, technology accumulation is essential. For the time being, not to mention the 50-year development history of Japanese optical communication companies, and most American companies have more than 30 years of history. For precision manufacturing It is only a start to pay attention to the fact that the technical industry has a specialization and an experienced craft technician has been engaged in the industry for ten years. The reserve of talents is also a problem facing domestic enterprises.

Taking optical fiber preforms as an example, optical rods have always been regarded as the top industries of the optical fiber pyramid. Except for six breakthroughs in YOFC, Hengtong, Zhongtian, Fiberhome, Fortis and Farson, most domestic companies have not The capacity of self-research has to import a large number of optical fiber preforms from abroad, and pass the high profits of optical fiber preforms to foreign manufacturers.

There are also optical passive devices and chips in optical active devices. Most domestic manufacturers can only provide Gigabit or 2.5Gbps and below products. High-speed optical chips range from 10G to 40G and from 40G to 100G. The technical threshold is increasing and there is a huge gap. Makes enterprises discourage themselves.

Foreign manufacturers that have started early have not yet faced price competition, have funds and strength to invest in research and development, and have occupied a high-margin market, and today they have formed a virtuous circle.

At present, there are mainly two types of optical module companies in China, one is a government-supported enterprise, and the other is a purely self-reliant private enterprise.

Enterprises with a government background start early, have the financial strength, and are willing to develop their own chips, and their technology accumulation has reached a certain level. However, due to the limitations of the system, they have caused inefficiency, and even how much aid funds are effectively used. one question.

For high-efficiency and relatively flexible private enterprises, due to their late start, most of them stay in the competition of low-end manufacturing. On the one hand, the pressure of cost reduction from downstream system equipment vendors has intensified, and on the other hand, they have occupied the market and sought after. The idea of profit is still the competitive strategy of most private enterprises. They are willing to undertake some low-profit projects, but low profit margins will inevitably not allow companies to set aside a lot of funds to invest in research and development.

Differences in thinking

When asked about the development trend of the industry and the enterprise, the answers given by domestic and foreign companies also reflected different ideas and coping strategies. Domestic and foreign companies believe that there is rigid demand in the industry. Regardless of the economic crisis or not, user demand for high-bandwidth will drive the growth of the optical module industry, especially in the Chinese market. Under the idea of government investment driving the economy, on the eve of the broadband China strategy release The Chinese market has become a growth market that almost all companies are optimistic about.