CCTV Reports on Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics' Optoelectronic Achievement Incubation Model

On June 19, CCTV-13 News Channel's "Oriental Horizon" program aired a special report on the development of the Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta) International Science and Technology Innovation Center. Titled "Frontier Incubation: Science and Technology Innovation and Industrial Innovation Advancing in Tandem," the report focused on frontier technology incubation in the Yangtze River Delta. In the report, Zhang Long, director of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and founder of the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, told CCTV reporters about a complete incubation model developed by SIOM. The model is now being put into practice at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, and the technological innovation and industrialization achievements of the incubated companies have drawn CCTV's attention.

The following content is from CCTV's "Oriental Horizon":

The 2025 Central Economic Work Conference called for "building international science and technology innovation centers in Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei), Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta), and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area." This marks a shift from "single-point breakthroughs" by core cities toward coordinated development emphasizing innovation communities across city clusters and regional integration. As a hub of original innovation, the expanded Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta) science and technology innovation center is leveraging Shanghai's driving role to accelerate the translation of results in basic research and frontier industries. A prime example, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM), Chinese Academy of Sciences, has led the frontier race through years of continuous institutional and mechanism innovation, achieving virtually no time lag between scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation.

Reporters visited a brand-new optoelectronic industry incubator next to the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where laser communication devices are undergoing product testing. They will be installed on satellites in low Earth orbit more than 1,000 kilometers from Earth to carry out an important mission: enabling communication between satellites. These satellites orbit Earth every 90 minutes at 80 times the speed of high-speed rail, and communication between them is carried out by a fine, invisible laser beam. Without the translation of research results, this hardcore product would be difficult to truly mass-produce.

Dong Wei, deputy general manager of Shangguang Communication Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.: In the process of transferring and translating results, it was essentially a matter of converting the drawings and experience from the institute into the company's process documents and establishing SOP (standard operating procedures) for each of our workstations. There were many difficulties at the time, and a great deal of trial and error.

SIOM has developed a complete incubation model that brings these technological achievements into a specialized incubator led by the institute. Equipped with full-chain expert teams covering finance, management, human resources, legal affairs, and marketing, it helps research teams analyze market needs, define product development directions, and match the appropriate resources.

Zhang Long, Director of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: Turning scientific results into industrial products is like a speedboat navigating a channel strewn with hidden reefs. Our job is not to let scientists keep hitting reefs and running into dead ends until the boat capsizes, but to anticipate the hazards. With this technology, we should help them carry their results from this shore to the other, planning a route that avoids the reefs. We call it a cultivation system combining standardization, specialization and modularization, plus customization.

Last March, Lü Xudong, a young scientist at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, founded a company based on the frontier technology of neutral-atom quantum computing. Empowered by the institute, technological and industrial innovation both shifted into higher gear.

Lü Xudong, Researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: Internationally, building a neutral-atom quantum computing system generally takes several years. We assembled a complete system in just a few months, which should set a world record.

To date, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics has incubated more than 70 commercialization projects in the Yangtze River Delta region, all centered on hardcore optoelectronic technology. An optoelectronics industry cluster rooted in Shanghai and reaching across China and the world is taking shape at an accelerating pace. (CCTV reporters Zhang Chunling, Dou Junyun and Yang Shaopeng)