**Reporters learned from the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS XOMP) that the institute has achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1 in photonics manufacturing technology and equipment by focusing on the major strategic needs of the country and conducting continuous scientific research over the years.** To date, the institute has incubated six high-tech companies in the field of photonics manufacturing and has preliminarily formed an upstream and downstream industrial chain.

**According to researchers at CAS XOMP, photonics manufacturing technology is called "cold processing" because it theoretically generates no heat during processing due to its extremely short duration of action.** It also has extremely high peak power, which can solve processing bottlenecks that traditional methods cannot achieve, such as ultra-fine, damage-free, and material-selective processing. This technology is an important supporting technology for strategic emerging industries such as large aircraft and new-generation information technology in the country and a key means to promote the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

**Xie Xiaoping, deputy director of CAS XOMP, said that the achievements of the institute's photonics manufacturing industry are due to the "Xiguang Model" formed in the continuous exploration and practice of promoting the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements.** The core content includes "‘demolishing walls and opening the institute’, innovating employment models," "the institute holds shares but does not control, incubating enterprises but not running them, making enterprises the main body of innovation," and "professional incubation, entrepreneurial ecology, building a full-chain incubation carrier of ‘co-working space + incubator + accelerator’," which maximizes the release of scientific researchers' innovation and entrepreneurship vitality and provides comprehensive support for scientific researchers to engage in the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

**In 2015, the photonics manufacturing research team of CAS XOMP incubated Xi'an Zhongke Weijing Photonics Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd., which is committed to the industrialization of laser high-end manufacturing equipment.** Together with the institute, it undertook the Hongguang Special Project "Extreme Fine Manufacturing Equipment for Aero-Engines and Spacecraft." Targeting the efficient and ultra-fine manufacturing requirements of the new generation of blades in the aerospace field and the manufacturing bottlenecks that need to be solved, it developed a series of femtosecond laser high-end precision manufacturing equipment ranging from three to seven axes. It has built five pilot production lines for core components and series of equipment and has been promoted and applied in more than 70 units in the industry.

**Yang Xiaojun, chairman and general manager of Zhongke Weijing, said that in the Hongguang Special Project, CAS XOMP focused on breaking through engineering technology, while Zhongke Weijing concentrated on the development and production of femtosecond laser high-end equipment.** It has now become one of the pioneers of China's high-end photonic manufacturing equipment, achieving nearly 100% revenue growth for five consecutive years and has launched plans for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

**Xie Xiaoping revealed that in the next stage, CAS XOMP will set up the CAS Photonics Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory to become the "engine" for the incubation of the photonics manufacturing industry, fully bridge the gap between scientific research and industry, build an accelerator for the photonics hard-tech industry, and create new types of photonics manufacturing industry clusters such as high-end laser manufacturing and photonics chip packaging to serve major national strategic projects and the construction of the national economy.**

Original link:http://news.cyol.com/app/2020-11/19/content_18857262.htm