On July 11, the Munich Shanghai Photonics Expo was in full swing, At the same time, the signing and launch ceremony of GaNray Optoelectronics, a company invested by Changguang Huaxin, was successfully held. Changguang Huaxin, together with GaNray Optoelectronics, jointly entered the visible light field, filling the domestic gap in the industrialization of gallium nitride blue-green light lasers.

▲ Signing ceremony site

Speech by Min Dayong, Chairman/General Manager of Suzhou Changguang Huaxin Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. The cooperation to establish GaNray Optoelectronics aligns with Changguang Huaxin's strategic needs and important practice of "one platform, one fulcrum, horizontal expansion, vertical extension," further expanding the material system, spectral range, and market applications of Changguang Huaxin's semiconductor laser chips. The GaNray Optoelectronics team is a top-level domestic team engaged in blue-green laser research and is at a critical stage of transforming research achievements into industrialization. Our strong cooperation will jointly explore the unlimited development prospects of the visible light field, filling another "core" gap in the domestic laser field.

Speech by Liu Jianping, Chairman/General Manager of Suzhou GaNray Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. I thank all new and old friends for their support. The establishment of GaNray Optoelectronics is of great significance to me and our team. I have personally witnessed the entire development process of GaN lasers in China. In 2004, during my PhD at the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, my doctoral advisor Researcher Yang Hui led the team to develop the first domestic GaN violet laser, and my doctoral topic was also related to laser structure. In 2008, during my postdoctoral research at Georgia Tech in the USA, I developed a GaN blue laser. After returning to China, I continued GaN laser research at the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, CAS. During this period, GaN laser applications gradually heated up, and our team grew into a well-known team in GaN laser research. The blue and green lasers we developed reached optical powers of 1.2W and 7.5W respectively, filling a domestic gap. Now, our blue-green lasers have officially sounded the charge for industrialization. We believe that relying on our leading GaN laser technology and Changguang Huaxin's mature IDM full-process platform and production line for laser chips, we will break the dependence on imported gallium nitride laser chips and achieve domestic substitution.

▲ Blue-green laser chips displayed on site

Suzhou GaNray Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.

Suzhou Changguang Huaxin Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. invested externally to establish the invested company—Suzhou GaNray Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. This company was established as a result transformation and industrialization platform based on the previously jointly built gallium nitride laser joint laboratory by Changguang Huaxin and the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, CAS, and was featured in a CCTV News report.

▲ CCTV News report

Background of establishment

The third-generation semiconductor material (wide bandgap semiconductor) gallium nitride (GaN) and its alloy nitrides are direct bandgap semiconductors. Their tunable bandgap width allows emission wavelengths covering a broad spectral range from deep ultraviolet, visible light to infrared. Gallium nitride semiconductor lasers have advantages such as direct emission, high efficiency, and high stability. GaN laser products in the blue and green bands have been widely applied in laser processing (colored metal processing, laser direct writing), laser display (laser large-screen TV, XR micro-projection), laser lighting (vehicle headlights), special communications, and other fields. The overall market demand exceeds tens of billions of yuan and shows a high compound growth trend.

However, for a long time, gallium nitride laser chip products have been almost entirely dependent on imports, representing a critical technology bottleneck urgently needing independent control.

Filling the domestic gap

GaNray Optoelectronics team is the earliest domestic team engaged in gallium nitride-based laser research, having successively overcome key core technologies and developed the first domestic gallium nitride-based blue and green laser chips, filling the domestic gap in the blue-green laser field of gallium nitride. Their research achievements and technical level are domestically leading and internationally first-class. Currently, the green laser developed by the team has reached an optical power of 1.2W, at an international advanced level. The high-power blue laser has reached 7.5W, achieving international first-class level.

GaNray Optoelectronics aims to become the first domestic and internationally first-class IDM enterprise for gallium nitride-based laser chips, independently mastering the full-process design and manufacturing capabilities including epitaxial design and material growth, chip design and manufacturing, packaging, and testing, promoting the integrity and leadership of China's laser industry chain through technological innovation.

▲ Professor Liu from Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and his team at Changguang Huaxin's process line

With the strong combination of Changguang Huaxin's mature semiconductor laser chip IDM operational experience and GaNray Optoelectronics team's top technical capabilities, GaNray Optoelectronics will greatly accelerate the industrialization process of domestic gallium nitride laser chips, with engineering samples and seed customer validation of blue and green chip products expected to be completed by the end of 2023. ， In 2024, the largest domestic gallium nitride laser chip mass production line will be established. And achieve mass production and shipment of the full series of products including violet chips, helping the gallium nitride laser industry to develop rapidly and with high quality.

Laser Gathering 2023 Keynote Speech

Progress and Application of GaN Laser Research

On July 11, at the Munich Shanghai Photonics Expo venue, Dr. Liu Jianping, Chairman/General Manager/Researcher of Suzhou GaNray Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., delivered a keynote speech titled "Progress and Application of GaN Laser Research" at the Laser Technology Empowering Intelligent Manufacturing Forum.

GaN-based blue LEDs based on spontaneous emission have been widely applied, and their inventors were awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. Gallium nitride-based lasers based on stimulated emission are also important optoelectronic devices with significant application prospects in laser display, laser processing, quantum information, underwater communication, and detection imaging.

The report introduces the research progress of Gallium Sharp Core Optoelectronics in GaN-based lasers, including the design and fabrication of GaN-based lasers with a composite optical cavity structure using GaN semiconductors and ITO transparent conductive layers as optical confinement layers, as well as their advantages in improving laser performance; it also covers the design of multi-quantum well structures in the laser gain region and material epitaxial growth, especially defect suppression methods for highly strained green multi-quantum well active regions, high quantum efficiency, and high uniformity green active region growth technologies. Due to advances in device design and epitaxial growth, we have developed high-power lasers, with the green laser threshold at 1.8 kA/cm. ² The slope efficiency is 0.8 W/A, and at 2A current, the optical power reaches 1.2W; under continuous current injection operation, the blue laser's maximum continuous operating optical power reaches 7.5W.