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The research was led by scientists from the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), together with collaborators from the University of Hong Kong and several other Chinese institutions.
Led by PhD student Wang Yi, the team said the newly developed fabrication method provides a versatile platform for producing complex three-dimensional optical structures while reducing manufacturing bottlenecks.
The researchers noted that the approach could help bridge the gap between highly customized photonic designs and large-scale production, potentially supporting the development of next-generation 3D integrated photonics for advanced computing, communications, and sensing applications.
Replacing slow chip sculpting method with new technique
The researchers moved away from traditional fabrication methods that rely on focused ion beam (FIB) techniques, which typically create optical structures one at a time. Instead, they introduced a parallel manufacturing approach capable of converting two-dimensional patterns into complex three-dimensional architectures across an entire 4 inch wafer in a single process.
The team said this method could significantly improve production efficiency by allowing multiple structures to be fabricated simultaneously, addressing a key limitation in the development of advanced 3D optical chips, the South China Morning Post reported.
Focused ion beams (FIBs) have traditionally been used for precise surface processing and material analysis, but the researchers say their new platform can overcome some of the limitations of this approach. According to the study authors, the technology achieves angular uniformity of more than 97 percent while cutting fabrication times by over two orders of magnitude compared with FIB-based manufacturing methods.
The development arrives as countries and technology companies compete to advance photonic technologies that could support future AI computing systems, where faster and more efficient data processing solutions are becoming increasingly important.
Companies race to advance next-gen optical chips
The race to advance optical computing and high-speed data transmission has attracted major investments from both industry and research institutions worldwide. Companies such as Intel, TSMC, Ayar Labs, and Lightmatter are developing silicon photonics and optical interconnect technologies aimed at improving computing performance and efficiency.
At the same time, research organisations including Belgium’s Imec and Japan’s NTT are working on next-gen photonic integration platforms. China has also increased its focus on the field, with institutions such as CAS and companies including Huawei expanding efforts to develop advanced photonic chip technologies.
As AI models become larger and more complex, the demand for faster and more efficient computing hardware is increasing. Optical interconnects offer higher bandwidth and lower energy use than traditional electrical links. By moving optical structures into three dimensions, researchers can create denser chip designs, reduce signal interference, and enable functions that are difficult to achieve with two-dimensional architectures.
Therefore, the researchers identified manufacturing as the key challenge and developed a parallel process to overcome it. Instead of shaping structures one at a time with focused ion beams, the method uses a broad ion beam to transform thousands of 2D nanostructures into 3D designs simultaneously. Combining ion beam etching with a self-folding “origami” approach, the technique enables wafer-scale production while maintaining nanoscale precision.
