Special Optical Fiber: Empowering AI and the Low-altitude Economy

Optical fibers are widely used "passive devices" in the communication industry. With the rise of AI computing power, satellite communications, and the low-altitude economy, the demand for specialty optical fibers is constantly increasing, creating new investment opportunities.

Since its inception, optical fiber has profoundly changed the communication industry. For decades, optical fiber networks have supported telephone, television, and internet communications in human society. Currently, the demand for AI supercomputing is driving the enhancement of communication equipment performance; the trend of "fiber to the home and copper retreated" has emerged in the telecommunications field, with optical fiber penetrating into users' desktop devices. In this process, ordinary optical fibers are difficult to meet special purposes, leading to the emergence of various specialty optical fibers. This article mainly discusses several important application scenarios such as optical fiber sensing, optical fiber amplifiers, and CPO switches.

Optical Fiber Gyroscope: Serving the Low Altitude Economy and Satellite Communication

In 1976, the optical fiber gyro was officially born, replacing traditional mechanical gyroscopes and ring laser gyroscopes. The development of components such as polarization-maintaining fibers and broadband wavelength-stabilized light sources gradually improved the performance of optical fiber gyroscopes. Today, with the rise of low-altitude economy and the concept of robotics, inertial navigation based on optical fiber gyroscopes has become a complement to satellite navigation and is a core control device for unmanned tools.

Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier: Driving Multiplexing in Optical Transmission Networks

During the transition from analog to digital communication, the "electronic bottleneck" problem became prominent. Fiber optics can transmit multiple different wavelengths of optical signals simultaneously, leading to the emergence of wavelength division multiplexing technology. The invention of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers combined with dense wavelength division multiplexing technology has formed a high-capacity long-distance optical transmission network.

CPO: Challenges of High Integration and Thermal Isolation

CPO is praised for its excellent energy consumption management, but the issue of laser heat affecting the switching chip remains to be solved. Currently, many manufacturers' CPO products use external laser source solutions, requiring polarization-maintaining fiber to connect the light source and the switching chip. In the short term, the heat generation of the laser source is difficult to resolve, but the demand for polarization-maintaining fiber within CPO looks promising.

Hollow-Core Fiber: Increased Bandwidth and Reduced Latency

In February this year, many companies jointly experimented with hollow-core fibers, which reduced latency by more than 30% compared to single-mode fibers, increased light transmission speed by nearly 46%, and significantly reduced nonlinear effects. If hollow-core fibers are successfully commercialized, they could further enhance the performance of AI supercomputing communication networks, highlighting their capital expenditure advantages.

Investment Advice

Special optical fibers belong to a category of devices that are small in quantity but high in price, with high barriers to entry. It is recommended to pay attention to leading companies that have experienced the complete optical fiber and cable industry cycle, such as Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable, Hengtong Optic-Electric, Zhongtian Technology, and FiberHome; at the same time, focus on emerging companies that specialize in the application of special optical fibers, such as Taisol and Changying Tong. Internationally, attention can be given to leading companies such as Corning, Furukawa Electric, and Fujikura.

Risk Warning

• AI development has not met expectations
• The development of the low-altitude economy is not as expected
• Technology iteration risk