Chinese Silicon Photonics Firm "SmartSensors" Secures Tens of Millions in Funding

SmartSensors (Lingdong Xinguang), a silicon photonics company, has announced the completion of a Series A++ funding round, raising tens of millions of yuan. The round was led by Panlin Capital, with follow-on investment from a joint fund of Tsinghua Holdings and Shenzhen Angel. Funds will be dedicated to research and development of core chip-to-chip optical interconnect technologies and product commercialization, specifically advancing the SmartComb multi-wavelength dense light source and the SmartPHY optical I/O micro-chiplet.

Founded in 2022, SmartSensors focuses on integrated silicon photonics chip design for IoT applications, including distributed fiber sensing, FMCW LiDAR, and optical I/O. Professor Chen, a founder and professor at Tsinghua University's Department of Electronic Engineering, initiated his silicon photonics research at MIT in 2009, with SmartSensors leveraging over a decade of his and his team's work. Co-founder Wang Hui, also a Tsinghua alumnus, brings extensive industry experience from companies like ONNA and Multiplex.

As AI, quantum computing, and autonomous driving advance, traditional electrical interconnects are becoming insufficient, making optical interconnects a critical area for improving computing power transmission efficiency. Silicon photonics is currently a hot research area, comparable to the early stages of integrated circuit development. While Europe and the US lead in advanced processes and design, China is rapidly closing the gap.

SmartSensors' core technology is its silicon photonics integration platform, described as a foundational technology enabling miniaturization and mass production of optical components on silicon wafers using CMOS processes. Their product pipeline includes ultra-narrow linewidth lasers, optical I/O, and FMCW LiDAR light sources. The company has achieved scaled sales and production for its self-developed, cost-effective, and low-power ultra-narrow linewidth lasers, manufactured with domestic components. Optical I/O, a key focus for future R&D, aims to address the bandwidth demands of AI computing clusters that exceed copper wire limits, enabling tens of thousands of chips to work collaboratively. SmartSensors claims a strong competitive edge in optical I/O due to its dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology.

Wang Hui highlighted silicon photonics' advantages in high integration, low cost, and low power consumption, leveraging the existing IC industry chain for mass production. Investors noted its superior energy efficiency for handling massive data throughput. The company's narrow-linewidth lasers are already deployed in various military and civilian applications requiring high spectral purity and stable coherent light sources. SmartSensors' R&D advantage in optical I/O lies in its deep understanding of optoelectronic integration, addressing complex packaging and thermal challenges, and achieving reliable multi-chip integration. Their DWDM multi-wavelength light source technology offers higher bandwidth capacity and lower system costs compared to competitors using coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM).

Wang Hui anticipates large-scale deployment of optical I/O within two to three years, driven by AI demand, with potential industry-wide adoption by 2027-2028 as the supply chain matures. He identified key breakthroughs needed for silicon photonics to achieve mass-market success similar to integrated circuits: standardization, stable yield and production capacity through advanced packaging, and a thriving application ecosystem. Panlin Capital's Managing Partner, Li Yuhui, emphasized the growing importance of silicon photonics due to the limitations of traditional integrated circuits and expressed confidence in SmartSensors' technological platform and its potential to enhance AI infrastructure.