Active products need the integration and support of passive technologies

The application scenarios of telecommunication networks and data centers determine that the market demand for active products is much greater than that of passive products, and the driving force of network speed-up for active products is much greater than that of passive products, or one generation of passive products can often match several generations Active products are determined by the application scenario. But at the same time, we should also understand that enterprises that master passive components will also do better in their active products, because active products increasingly need the integration and support of passive technologies. For example, coherent optical modules are actually active and passive fusion. Regarding the degree of difficulty of active and passive products, neither is necessarily more difficult. For example, WSS has no more than 5 global suppliers. The development of WSS technology requires more ports, M×N port WSS, dedicated add/drop wavelength selective switch ADWSS, etc., which is more difficult.

Passive products are characterized by many specifications, the demand for each specification is far less than that of active products, and the standardization of products is difficult. Active product technology is mainly reflected in semiconductor materials and processes, as well as software and hardware design, while passive products involve much more complex optical components.

Considering the trend of backbone network technology sinking to the metropolitan area network, as well as the data center construction and fiber optic network expansion brought about by the development of AI, the more promising directions for the development of passive products in the next few years include:

● WSS, larger number of ports, M×N port WSS, ADWSS, etc.;
● large-scale matrix switches, including two-dimensional fiber arrays and two-dimensional fiber collimator arrays;
● optical modules such as optical performance monitor OPM (the core is tunable optical filter TOF), dynamic gain equalization filter DGE, etc.;
● coherent optical receiving module (integrated with active products) and its application in lidar;
● high-power optical passive devices and their applications in the laser industry;
● Customized passive devices and their application in the medical device industry.