CMSC: Expansion of Optical Module Production and Development Trend of Technological Iteration, Suggest Focusing on the Optical Module Equipment Industry.

CMSC released a research report stating that optical modules are the core track of AI computing power infrastructure. Downstream industries continue to increase capital expenditure on high-speed pluggable optical modules, expanding production capacity to meet the current rapid growth in demand. Meanwhile, continuous investment in new technologies such as CPO is being made to open up long-term space. The industry expansion cycle and technological iteration cycle are both beneficial to equipment. In addition, in the past, the production of optical modules relied heavily on manual labor. The trend of major players expanding production capacity overseas is increasing, with a focus on improving the production efficiency of overseas production capacity through the continuous increase in demand for automated equipment. Therefore, it is recommended to pay close attention to the optical module equipment industry. The main points of CMSC are as follows: Pluggable optical modules are core devices in optical communication for optical-electrical conversion, and are crucial hardware for high-speed interconnection within data centers. The core processes involved in their production include chip mounting, wire bonding, optical coupling, packaging, welding, and aging testing. (1) Chip Mounting: Placing the optoelectronic chip on a carrier can be done manually or automatically, mainly using wafer bonding machines and eutectic machines. (2) Wire Bonding: After the chip is mounted, metal wires are used to connect the chip's bonding pads to the PCB's pads for reliable electrical bonding, requiring wire bonding machines. (3) Optical Coupling: The goal is to efficiently and effectively couple light into optical fibers to ensure the transmission performance of the optical module. The key equipment includes fully automatic optical coupling platforms and high-precision six-axis micro-adjustment platforms, with coupling completed by UV curing machine or heat curing furnace. (4) Packaging: After optical coupling is completed, the internal optical pathway and chip need to be protected, fixed, and sealed through external packaging to form a complete optical module. The industry is currently undergoing automation upgrades in this step. (5) Aging Testing: Mainly for laser diodes, the first step is at the chip level, where after necessary production steps for the laser diode are completed, it is mounted onto a special aging fixture. The second step is at the module level, where after the laser diode is assembled into the optical module, it is tested via testing fixtures. Compared to traditional pluggable optical modules, CPO technology has higher integration and smaller size, significantly improving bandwidth, power consumption, and space efficiency. Traditional pluggable optical modules connect to switch PCB boards through pluggable interfaces, with electrical signals having to travel through long PCB traces causing signal attenuation and impacting transmission stability. CPO technology leverages advanced techniques such as silicon interposer layer or microbump interconnection to directly integrate optical components into the packaging of Switch ASIC chips, shortening the transmission distance of high-speed electrical signals to millimeters, effectively suppressing signal attenuation and crosstalk issues. The core difference in the production process between CPO and traditional pluggable optical modules lies in the nature of assembling discrete components versus advanced system-level integration. (1) Chip Interconnection: Traditional optical modules mainly use wire bonding; CPO uses advanced interconnection technologies such as flip-chip soldering, microbumps, and hybrid bonding, with higher interconnection density, accuracy, and difficulty. (2) Optical Coupling: Traditional optical modules couple optical fibers with discrete components, with larger tolerances; CPO directly couples light into silicon optical waveguides, requiring alignment accuracy at sub-micron levels and higher process complexity. (3) Packaging and Heat Dissipation: Traditional optical modules mainly use TO, BOX, COB packaging with lower heat dissipation pressure; CPO needs to be co-packaged with high-performance ASICs, with extremely high heat density, often requiring advanced heat dissipation processes and equipment such as microchannel liquid cooling, heat spreaders, and vacuum soldering. (4) Testing System: Traditional optical modules can be tested in parts; after high integration, CPO can only be tested as a whole after packaging, requiring optical-electrical joint testing systems, high-speed electrical measurement + optical measurement integration, requiring the development of new testing solutions and equipment. Risk Warning: Risks include fluctuations in downstream demand, risks related to technological iteration and route selection, risks related to customer concentration and supply chain dependence.