With the rapid development of the Internet of Things, big data and cloud computing technologies, the amount of transmission required for information interaction has shown explosive growth. Among them, semiconductor lasers are the basic components supporting the development of optical communications, and their mechanisms are constantly being optimized to meet the needs of modern communications.

Compared with 4G base stations, 5G base stations have undergone some changes, evolving from 4G's BBU and RRU bipolar structure to 5G's three-level structure of centralized unit (CU), distributed unit (DU) and active antenna processing unit (AAU). In turn, three networks were derived: front pass, middle pass, and back pass.

After the concept of 5G was put forward, the demand for optical modules increased significantly. This demand is mainly reflected in two aspects. On the one hand, the demand for the number of optical modules, in addition to the traditional fronthaul and backhaul optical module requirements, is now in mid-haul The link also needs to add new optical modules; on the other hand, there is the demand for optical module speed. 4G fronthaul and backhaul use 10G optical modules, while 5G fronthaul requires tens of millions of 25G/50G optical modules. Transmission requires a 100G optical module, and even a 200G or 400G optical module is required at the convergence layer of the backhaul.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 5G networks will be commercialized in 2020. In the process of establishing standards, 25G and 100G optical module standards have been affirmed by most operators. According to survey agency data, the construction of 5G bearer network base stations will be a period of rapid development before 2022. The construction of bearer networks will drive the demand for optical modules rapidly. The total expenditure on 5G networks is estimated to be 1.4 trillion, and the optical module market is expected to reach 62 billion. Optical module investment will account for 4.4% of the total 5G network expenditure.

At present, the packaging challenges of optoelectronic devices are faced with the following problems: the first is how to design an efficient coupling system and temperature control system; the second is how to make use of the parasitic effect brought by packaging to compensate for the lack of chips while the single tube devices are moving towards the direction of high speed and large bandwidth; the third is how to realize in limited space when the array devices are developing towards miniaturization and integration Complete the feed of multi-channel microwave signal, complete structure transformation, mode field matching and other complex structure design.

In short, the opening of the 5G era will stimulate the development of the optical module industry. Based on the existing packaging technology and foundation, the development of high-bandwidth single-tube laser modules and small and highly integrated array laser modules is the current scientific research community and industry chain. Urgent problems. For the large-scale deployment of 5G communications, a large number of 25G and 100G optical modules need to be used to meet the requirements of different levels of optical interface services in fronthaul and mid-backhaul networks in different application scenarios.