The Distributed Optical Fiber Sensing Industry Innovation Alliance held an expanded meeting of its standing directors at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics on January 21, attended by more than 40 entrepreneurs, experts and scholars. The meeting reviewed the alliance's charter and discussed its 2026 work plan, the formation of working committees and website development. Participants reported problems including fragmented industry standards, weak links between industry, academia and research, and brain drain. The original report said the alliance now has more than 200 members.
The Russell Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, together with the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, published a paper in High Power Laser Science and Engineering, demonstrating high-quality transmission and precision machining of high-power picosecond lasers using a single-ring anti-resonant hollow-core fiber.
The Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics formed an exhibition consortium with the Russell Advanced Optical Wave Science Center, Hengying Technology, Yinhu Laser and Tuozhi Optoelectronics to participate in the 2025 China Optoelectronic Materials Conference, held in Shanghai on December 23-24. The exhibits covered low-loss hollow-core fibers, infrared optical materials, laser micro- and nano-processing for chip packaging materials, and volume gratings. The conference focused on advanced glass materials, optical communications and laser materials, among other areas.
The Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (HIOM), serving as a proof-of-concept center, joined the HIOM Russell Center and incubated company Hengying Technology at the "New Knowledge, New Quality: Zhejiang's Best Results" showcase and trade fair ("AI+" special session). The group highlighted innovative practices and industrialization outcomes at the intersection of artificial intelligence and optoelectronic technology. On site, HIOM presented its full-chain service capabilities for early-stage scientific and technological achievements, including technical verification, pilot-scale incubation, and industry matchmaking, and used core products from the Russell Center and Hengying Technology to illustrate innovation strengths in fiber manufacturing, optoelectronic materials, and other fields.
Guangdong Telecom, Sun Yat-sen University, and the Su Bingtian Speed Research and Training Center, among others, used integrated sensing and communications equipment and a digital twin system from Liutong Photonics, a company incubated by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, to build a digital track based on communication optical fiber and a smart transportation demonstration project around the venue. The system captures vibration signals through hundreds of meters of fiber laid beneath the track and uses AI algorithms to calculate stride length, ground contact time, and other parameters, while the traffic sensing network extracts vehicle speed, trajectories, and traffic density from urban communication fiber cables.
The Russell Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics has made progress in hollow-core microstructured fiber drawing, achieving continuous drawing lengths exceeding 15 kilometers with minimum loss below 0.3 dB/km in the telecommunications band. Related industrialization is being advanced by Xinkong Guanglian (Hangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd., established by the Russell Center, targeting high-speed interconnects for intelligent computing centers and 6G communication networks. The team said this validates the feasibility of long-distance hollow-core fiber drawing and lays the groundwork for mass production of ultra-low-loss, ultra-long-distance hollow-core microstructured fiber.
Faibo, an incubated company of the Hangzhou Institute for Optics and Photonics, received the first prize of the Jiangsu Instrument and Meter Society Science and Technology Award for its project "Applied Research on Distributed Fiber-Optic Acoustic Signal Reconstruction Technology for Arbitrary Disturbances." Faibo focuses on the research, development and application of distributed optical fiber sensing (DOFS) systems, with its core technology originating from Nanjing University.
During Typhoon Hagiwara, Liutong Photonics used the SC-DAS-1550-FA integrated sensing and communications device to turn the submarine communication cable of the Guishan Offshore Wind Farm into a distributed acoustic sensor array, monitoring in real time ocean waves and currents, as well as the impact, vibration and deformation of wind turbine foundations, towers and submarine cables.
The 'Proof-of-Concept Center for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials' built by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics has been selected for Zhejiang Province's first batch of 22 proof-of-concept centers. The center has established a public service platform for laser and optical characterization, a shared semiconductor process platform in Fuyang District, and the Russell Advanced Optical Wave Science Center. The characterization platform is equipped with more than 30 instruments for optical, electrical and thermal testing. The center will focus on four major fields: optoelectronic functional materials, semiconductor materials, specialty optical fiber materials, and optoelectronic equipment, advancing proof-of-concept validation and industrialization of research results.
The Russell Advanced Lightwave Science Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, together with the Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study of UCAS, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics, and IRFIBER (Ningbo) Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., published a paper in Optica on delivering near-watt, hundred-femtosecond mid-infrared pulses in the 2.8 µm band through a 5 m-long hollow-core photonic crystal fiber with a single-core, eight-ring structure. After evacuation, overall efficiency exceeded 70%, the output was a near-diffraction-limited Gaussian spot, and the fundamental-mode energy fraction exceeded 95%.
Why we recommend it: The paper gives efficiency, pulse duration, peak power and fundamental-mode fraction, and compares the fiber with free-space optics and solid-core fluoride fiber, making it easier to judge the applicability of hollow-core fiber to mid-infrared ultrafast delivery.
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Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics · Recent HighlightsOptics industryAI score1313
On April 27, six students from Yongxing Middle School visited the Hangzhou Institute of Optics, Mechanics and Physics for a social practice program. They toured the exhibition hall to see physical optoelectronic achievements, observed the research environment and advanced equipment at the Luosu Center, and learned about next-generation optical fibers with ultra-low loss and ultra-wide bandwidth. Teacher Luo Zhuozhao gave a popular science class on "Optical Fiber Communications," covering the development of communications, 5G, transoceanic communication networks, quantum optical fiber communications and new optical fiber materials, and answered students' questions during the Q&A session.
The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has announced its 2024 class of Fellows, including Dr. Jiang Shibin, chairman of Hangzhou Yinhu Laser Technology Co., Ltd., among 170 inductees. Jiang has long been engaged in research on rare-earth-doped gain glass, gain fibers, and fiber lasers, and holds 52 U.S. patents and 36 Chinese patents. The 2024 Fellows come from 135 research universities, government, and nonprofit research institutions worldwide and collectively hold more than 5,000 U.S. patents.
Silicon photonics chip and optical module solutions from Intel, HG Genuine, Accelink Technologies and other vendors target high-speed interconnect needs in AI and data centers. Intel's OCI chipset supports 64 data channels of 32 Gbps in each direction, reaches up to 100 m and consumes 5 pJ per bit. HG Genuine, Accelink Technologies and others showcased 1.6T modules. The survey also covers 800G silicon photonics engines and modules, linear pluggable optics and co-packaged optics (CPO) light source modules.
Aio Optics has introduced the SpectrumShaper-R4 series spectral broadening module, extending the broadening range from 1-30 GHz to 1-80 GHz. An integrated single-frequency seed source is available as an option, and the built-in spectral profiles and software interaction have been optimized. Aimed at high-power narrow-linewidth fiber lasers, the module controls the seed spectrum through electro-optic phase modulation of an RF signal to suppress nonlinear effects during amplification.
Why we recommend it: Changes in the broadening range and integrated seed-source options correspond to specific design requirements for narrow-linewidth fiber lasers, useful for comparing trade-offs between spectral control and full-system integration.