Zhongkemi Micro's technical director: Never give up, never abandon, and tackle the "bottleneck" of MEMS chips

Jiwei.com: Zhongke Miwei's optical communication modules and LiDAR scanners both use MEMS. What are the similarities or differences in their design or process?

Zhongkemiwei: Optical communication MEMS micromirrors are generally quasi-static applications, that is, the micromirror angle needs to remain stable at a certain voltage, but the scanning mirror must always be in a scanning working state. Therefore, the two application methods have different requirements for chip structure. Specifically, the optical communication MEMS micromirror is directly voltage-controlled, and the voltage and angle correspond one to one, usually open-loop control. This places high demands on the stability of the production process. However, when the scanning mirror reaches a large angle through resonance, closed-loop control is required if the amplitude is required to be stable, so as to achieve timing calibration.

Optical communication MEMS chips and scanning mirrors have different design focuses and different process complexities. Since Zhongke Miwei's two-dimensional scanning mirror combines quasi-static and resonant driving modes, the product process is actually more complicated. At the same time, the scanning mirror also needs to realize internal feedback and be packaged into a scanning mirror drive module to make it more convenient for customers to use.

Jiwei.com: Regarding the MEMS scanning mirror products that can be used for lidar and head-up displays, will Zhongke Miwei's future development plan be to vigorously expand or just try out the technology on a small scale?

Zhongke Miwei: The specific index requirements of MEMS scanning mirror products that can be used for laser radar and head-up display are completely different. According to market demand, if the demand is clear or if we have reached a strategic cooperation with customers, we will definitely invest heavily. At present, Zhongke Miwei is still relatively small in scale, and its recent research and development focus is still on optical communication MEMS chips. However, the company will also adjust resources according to market signals in a timely manner and increase investment in the research and development and mass production of scanning mirror products.

Jiwei.com: In terms of planning, Zhongke Miwei is positioned to develop a MEMS micromirror product line, including the previous flagship product optical communication chip and the MEMS scanning mirror currently under development. However, the design forms and customer cooperation methods of these two types of products are different. From a long-term perspective, will the company have a focus bias?

Zhongkemiwei: Zhongkemiwei's products are cut into niche areas and gradually expanded, while giving full play to the advantages within the scope of technical capabilities. For example, we first made optical communication MEMS chips, and then expanded to MEMS scanning mirrors. Because their underlying processes are similar, and we have sufficient technical accumulation. In general, our current thinking is still to focus on optical communication MEMS chips, gradually iterating and upgrading, from small mirror and small angle products to large mirror and large angle products, from low-end independent mirror products to high-end micromirror array products, to provide downstream customers with the best customized services. While expanding the types of optical micromirror products from point to surface, the company will make trade-offs and follow up in an orderly manner according to the maturity of the market.