您当前的位置：新闻>English
The 17th "Challenge Cup" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition of Hefei, together with the Hefei Selection of the 2026 "Win the Future" Entrepreneurship Contest, recently concluded. The project "Zhongke Optical Interconnection" claimed the sole Special Grand Prize. A young R&D team from USTC is committed to developing homegrown optical interconnection chips through technological innovation.
"The Zhongke Optical Interconnection project has made key breakthroughs in core optical communication devices, with technical indicators reaching the leading level nationwide," said Li Yang, a member of the project team, during the project roadshow.
In an era with surging demand for computing power, high speed and low power consumption have become the major goals for chip development. Currently relying on traditional electrical components and electrical interconnections, global data centers are severely constrained by excessive energy consumption. New-generation optical technologies represented by optical interconnection have become the key to breaking this deadlock.
According to Li Yang, optical interconnection uses photons as information carriers, with transmission loss as low as one thousandth of that of electrical interconnection. Nevertheless, since its emergence, optical interconnection technology has been hindered by narrow communication bandwidth, bulky system size and high costs, making large-scale commercial application and promotion difficult.
The core of the Zhongke Optical Interconnection project lies in the R&D and industrialization of a new type of high-speed, low-power optical interconnection chip. It aims to resolve the communication bottlenecks and excessive energy consumption plaguing data centers, high-performance computing and other fields in the AI era.
"The project will go on to represent Hefei in the Anhui SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition," an insider told reporters. Going forward, Hefei will continue to foster a sound ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship, helping more promising projects take root, thrive and flourish in the city.
Source: Hefei Daily
