Dr. Nie Hui and representatives from government, industry, academia, research and investment sectors explore the definite trend of "Optical Replacing Copper" and new opportunities for technological competition.
On March 23, 2026, L-NEXT 2026: OFC&CPO Trend Closed-door Meeting was held at Shanghai Future Starting Point Community. Guided by the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission and the Science and Economic Commission of Pudong New Area, Shanghai, the meeting was hosted by Shanghai Future Starting Point Community and Shanghai Future Industry Fund, co-organized by Shanghai Silicon Photonics Concept Verification Platform, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, Zhangjiang Haoxin and Zhongke Chuangxing, and supported by Pudong New Area Investment Promotion Service Center and Silicon Photonics Innovation Alliance. The event brought together leaders from government departments, industrial and scientific research experts in the field of silicon photonics, representatives from hard technology investment institutions, and scholars from universities and research institutes to conduct in-depth discussions on the technical signals released by the 2026 OFC Conference, the development trends of CPO, and the development opportunities of Shanghai's silicon photonics future industry.
Photo | Qu Wei, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission
Dr. Qu Wei, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, stated in his speech that Shanghai is actively building a "four-in-one" working mechanism featuring "project manager team taking primary responsibility, key task list for breakthroughs, future industry fund for empowerment, and future industry cluster for support" to accelerate the cultivation of future industries such as silicon photonics. As a highland for the agglomeration of integrated circuit and optoelectronic industries in China, Zhangjiang in Pudong launched the construction of a silicon photonics future industry cluster in June 2025, building a silicon photonics innovation ecosystem based on regional industrial and technological advantages.
This closed-door meeting has gathered industry experts from home and abroad. It is hoped that all participants will share cutting-edge viewpoints and practical experience, providing ideas for Shanghai to seize industrial development opportunities and strengthen the cultivation of silicon photonics future industry, as well as an important reference for municipal and district governments to formulate relevant policies and preferential measures for the silicon photonics industry. In the core report session of the meeting, four top industry experts delivered cutting-edge sharing.
Photo | Lu Guoqiang, Chief Technology Officer of AMF Singapore
Dr. Lu Guoqiang, Chief Technology Officer of AMF Singapore, analyzed the core insights of CPO and the industrial impact of MSA protocols. Combining the latest achievements of the 2026 OFC Conference, he analyzed the technical routes of enterprises such as NVIDIA and Broadcom, pointed out the certainty of CPO development and the importance of light sources in the system. At the same time, CPO is facing core challenges such as thermal management, light source reliability, testing and packaging, and discussed the transition path from pluggable to CPO and the challenges of core MSAs to the domestic industrial chain.
Photo | Hu Yonghong, Vice President of R&D at Zhejiang Lingxin Optoelectronics
Hu Yonghong, Vice President of R&D at Zhejiang Lingxin Optoelectronics, focused on the OE packaging challenges in CPO development, elaborated on the technical requirements of CPO for high-speed light sources and optical coupling, and shared Lingxin Optoelectronics' technical layout in TGV Interposer, 3D glass waveguide chips and other fields.
Photo | Yang Cheng, Scientist at JCET
Dr. Yang Cheng, Scientist at Changdian Technology, analyzed the key issues such as OE integration, 3D packaging and thermal management in CPO packaging from the perspective of packaging.
Photo | Li Yu, Associate Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Associate Professor Li Yu from Shanghai Jiao Tong University shared the new trends of the 2026 OFC Conference, pointing out industry characteristics such as the XPO Alliance emerging as a new hotspot, micro-rings beginning to penetrate into 1.6T modules, accelerated commercialization of OCS, and diversified development of 400G/Lane technical routes.
Participants conducted group discussions around three core topics. In the topic of CPO industry and technological competition, the participants believed that "Optical Replacing Copper" is a definite major trend, and the implementation of domestic optical interconnection may be faster than that in the United States; NPO is an important transitional form of CPO, and domestic enterprises can break through network layer connections and seek new opportunities in computing layer optical interconnection.
Regarding the next-generation technical routes of TFLN, Micro LED and BTO, the participants pointed out that silicon photonics still has cost and industrialization advantages, TFLN has differentiated value in high-performance scenarios, Micro LED is more suitable for short-distance scenarios, and BTO is still in the technical R&D stage.
In the discussion of "Artificial Intelligence VS Intelligent Human", experts believed that AI will replace a large number of basic work, and the core competitiveness of human engineers will focus on creative fields such as demand refinement and algorithm innovation. The cultivation of optoelectronic and computing compound talents needs to rely on large-scale interdisciplinary projects, and excellent industrial teams need to have both technical strength, product implementation capabilities and market operation capabilities.
This closed-door meeting has built an in-depth communication platform for government, industry, academia, research and investment sectors. All participants agreed that silicon photonics and CPO are key directions to break the bottleneck of computing power interconnection. In the future, it is necessary to strengthen technological collaborative innovation, improve the industrial ecosystem, and rely on Shanghai's scientific and technological innovation resources and industrial foundation to promote the high-quality development of China's silicon photonics industry.
