Optical chips are mainly classified into active optical device chips and passive optical device chips according to the classification of optical components.

Active optical chips can be divided, based on application, into laser chips and detector chips, mainly including FP, DFB, EML, VCSEL, PIN, and APD chips.

Passive optical chips mainly include PLC and AWG chips.

In the field of optical communications, optical chips can generally be categorized into two major types: active and passive, and can be further subdivided based on functionality and other dimensions.

Based on the functions of active chips, they can be categorized into laser chips for transmitting optical signals, detector chips for receiving optical signals, and modulator chips for modulating optical signals.

On the passive side, they mainly consist of PLC optical splitter chips, AWG chips, and VOA chips based on planar lightwave circuit technology for controlling optical signal transmission.

PLC (Planar Lightwave Circuit) is generally translated as planar optical waveguide circuit or planar lightwave technology.

Simply put, all optical waveguides or waveguide devices are integrated on the same plane, similar to a single-layer circuit board.

A PLC optical splitter chip is a fiber-optic coupling device with multiple input and output ports, and is one of the most important passive components in fiber-optic links.

PLC optical splitter chips offer advantages such as low cost, high reliability, flexibility, and scalability, making them widely used in transmission systems, network integration, broadband access, optical communications, and multimedia services.

Among more than 100 types of high-end optoelectronic chips worldwide, two major categories have basically achieved full-series localization domestically.

One category is PLC optical splitter chips mainly used in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) access networks, and the other is arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) chips mainly used in backbone networks, metropolitan area networks, high-speed data centers, and 5G applications.