Berxel Photonics Co. Ltd.

Berxel Photonics Co., Ltd.
Berxel Photonics
Native name
深圳博升光电科技有限公司
Shenzhen Bosheng Photonics Technology Co., Ltd.
TypePrivate
IndustryPhotonics
Semiconductor industry
Founded19 December 2018 (2018-12-19)
FounderConstance J. Chang-Hasnain
Headquarters
Shenzhen, Guangdong
,
China
Areas served
Worldwide
Key people
Constance J. Chang-Hasnain (chairperson)
ProductsVCSEL chips
Optical interconnect components
3D depth cameras
Websitewww.berxel.com

Berxel Photonics Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 深圳博升光电科技有限公司; pinyin: Shēnzhèn Bóshēng Guāngdiàn Kējì Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), commonly known as Berxel Photonics or Berxel, is a Chinese optoelectronic semiconductor company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong. It develops and manufactures vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), optical components employing metasurface and high-contrast-grating technology, and structured-light cameras used for optical communications, industrial automation, robotics and three-dimensional sensing.

The company was founded by electrical engineer Constance J. Chang-Hasnain, whose academic research has included VCSELs, tunable semiconductor lasers, nanophotonics and high-contrast gratings. Berxel's research has focused particularly on increasing the data-transmission speed of VCSELs and using polarization to reduce depth-measurement errors caused by glass, mirrors, water and other reflective surfaces.

History

Founding and early financing

Shenzhen Berxel Photonics was incorporated on 19 December 2018.[1] The company was founded by Taiwanese-American electrical engineer Constance J. Chang-Hasnain, a longtime professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who became its chairperson.[2] The company began operating commercially in 2019, concentrating initially on VCSEL chips for consumer-electronics and 3D-sensing applications.[3]

In 2019, Berxel received a Series A investment from TusStar, Green Pine Capital Partners and SummitView Capital, among other investors.[4] In March 2020, it announced a Series A+ round valued at nearly RMB100 million. The round was led by Harvest Capital, with participation from Legend Star, Leaguer Group, Hongtai Fund and E-Town Capital. Berxel said that the money would be used to expand production and develop new products.[4]

Contemporary reports described the company as having developed capabilities in VCSEL-device design, epitaxy, semiconductor oxidation processes and product testing. Its early products were aimed at facial recognition, augmented and virtual reality, smart-home systems, security equipment and direct time of flight (dToF) sensing.[5]

In January 2021, Berxel completed successive Series B and B+ rounds collectively reported as amounting to several hundred million yuan. The Series B round was led by semiconductor company Montage Technology, while the B+ round was led by Oriental Fortune Capital and Shenzhen Capital Group. Other investors included Lingang Innovation Management and existing investors E-Town Capital and TusStar.[6][7]

Commercial development

By 2021, the company's reported product portfolio included 940-nanometre VCSEL chips for structured light, indirect and direct time-of-flight sensing and automotive lidar, together with 850-nanometer chips for optical communications and cloud-computing infrastructure.[8]

At the 2023 China International Optoelectronic Exposition in Shenzhen, Berxel demonstrated an 800-gigabit optical transceiver using its 106-Gbit/s pulse-amplitude-modulated VCSELs. The company reported a transmission distance of 100 meters over OM4 multimode fiber and between 60 and 100 meters over older OM2 and OM3 fiber.[9] At the time, its 53-Gbit/s-per-lane VCSEL array had entered volume production, while the 106-Gbit/s device was available for customer sampling.[9]

In 2026, the Securities Times reported that Berxel had shipped more than six million high-speed VCSEL devices and more than 300,000 3D-vision products. The report said its 3D cameras had been deployed in industrial-robotics applications. Berxel was also developing 200-Gbit/s-class VCSELs and working with partners on near-packaged optics and co-packaged optics, although those systems remained at the sample-validation and engineering-development stages.[3]

Technology and research

VCSEL development

A VCSEL emits light perpendicular to the surface of a semiconductor wafer, in contrast to an edge-emitting laser, which emits from the side of the chip. Berxel develops VCSELs primarily at wavelengths of 850 and 940 nanometers. Its communications products have included 25-Gbit/s non-return-to-zero devices and 53- and 106-Gbit/s four-level pulse-amplitude modulation devices.[10]

Part of the company's work is based on high-contrast gratings, also described in later research as high-contrast metastructures. These nanoscale structures can replace one of the conventional distributed Bragg reflectors in a VCSEL. The grating can be designed to control the emitted spatial mode, polarization and beam profile while reducing the thickness of the optical element.[11]

In 2022, a Berxel research team reported transmitting a 106-Gbit/s PAM-4 signal over 300 meters of OM3 multimode fiber using an 850-nanometre, high-contrast-grating few-mode VCSEL. The result was presented at the European Conference on Optical Communication.

In 2023, Berxel researchers and collaborators reported what they described as the first electrically pumped VCSEL producing circularly polarized emission at room temperature without spin injection or an externally applied magnetic field. The device used a chiral metasurface as its top reflector.[12]

A 2024 article in Optica described an 850-nanometre single-mode VCSEL made with a chirped high-contrast metastructure. The graded reflector suppressed higher-order modes, and the device transmitted a 106-Gbit/s PAM-4 signal through single-mode optical fiber. The researchers presented it as a possible means of extending short-reach optical links without requiring multimode fiber with substantially increased bandwidth.[13]

In 2026, Berxel and university collaborators presented 850-nanometre VCSEL results supporting 112-Gbit/s non-return-to-zero and 200-Gbit/s PAM-4 optical interconnections.[14]

Polarization-structured-light imaging

Berxel has also applied high-contrast-grating VCSELs to polarization-structured-light depth imaging. Conventional structured-light systems can produce incorrect depth measurements when projected light undergoes multiple reflections from glass, metal, mirrors or water. Berxel's system emits linearly polarized patterned light and analyzes polarization at the receiver to separate direct illumination from multipath reflections.[15]

The design described in Nature Communications used a high-contrast-grating VCSEL illuminator and a polarization-sensitive receiver. The researchers demonstrated improved reconstruction of objects and scenes containing mirrors, transparent materials and highly reflective surfaces.[15] The company subsequently commercialized the approach in its iHawk and mHawk camera families. Listed variants use USB or Ethernet connections and are marketed for robotics, logistics, manufacturing and other automated systems.[16]

Recognition

Berxel's iHawk P100 polarization-structured-light camera was named one of the 2024 R&D 100 Awards winners in the information-technology/electrical category.[17] R&D World described the system as combining a high-contrast-grating VCSEL transmitter with a metasurface polarizer integrated with a CMOS image sensor, allowing the camera to reduce multipath errors when imaging reflective objects.[18]

Operations

Berxel's headquarters and principal research-and-testing operation are in Shenzhen. The company also operates through Zhejiang Berxel Photonics Co., Ltd., which has been identified in research publications as maintaining an academician workstation in Jiaxing, Zhejiang.[19] A Hong Kong affiliate, Hong Kong Berxel Photonics Co., Limited, was incorporated in May 2020.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "深圳博升光电科技有限公司" [Shenzhen Berxel Photonics Technology Co., Ltd.]. Qichacha (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  2. ↑ "Constance Chang-Hasnain wins 2022 Welker Award". Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley. 13 June 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  3. 1 2 Chi, Beiyuan (20 August 2026). 常瑞华院士：AI算力竞争转向“快而宽”，VCSEL光芯片迎来发展新机遇 [Academician Connie Chang-Hasnain: AI computing competition shifts toward “fast and wide,” creating new opportunities for VCSEL optical chips]. Securities Times (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  4. 1 2 Li, Steven (25 March 2020). 博升光电获近亿元 A+ 轮融资，将持续投入 3D 传感器芯片研发 [Berxel Photonics raises nearly RMB 100 million in Series A+ financing and will continue investing in 3D sensor-chip research]. TechNode (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  5. ↑ 博升光电公布近亿元A+轮融资，嘉御基金领投 [Berxel Photonics announces nearly RMB 100 million Series A+ financing led by Harvest Capital]. ChinaVenture (in Chinese (China)). 23 March 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  6. ↑ Shi, Wei (13 January 2021). 连拿两轮融资，这家光芯片公司凭什么获资本数亿元重仓？ [After completing two financing rounds, why has this optical-chip company attracted hundreds of millions in investment?]. Sina Finance (in Chinese (China)). EqualOcean. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  7. ↑ VCSEL光芯片企业“博升光电”完成数亿元B轮及B+轮融资 [VCSEL optical-chip company Berxel Photonics completes Series B and B+ financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan]. CLS (in Chinese (China)). 13 January 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  8. ↑ VCSEL光芯片企业博升光电完成数亿元B轮及B+轮融资 [VCSEL optical-chip company Berxel Photonics completes Series B and B+ financing worth hundreds of millions]. China Fiber Online (in Chinese (China)). 13 January 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  9. 1 2 "Berxel Photonics demonstrates 106 Gbps VCSEL powered 800G transceiver with 100 meters transmission distance at CIOE 2023" (Press release). Berxel Photonics. 5 September 2023. Retrieved 22 August 2026 – via PR Newswire.
  10. ↑ "High Speed VCSELs". Berxel Photonics. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  11. ↑ Sun, Hao (2024). "Photonics Research interview with Professor Connie Chang-Hasnain". Photonics Research. 12 (10): 2288–2295. doi:10.1364/PRJ.533381. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  12. ↑ Jia, Xiangli; Kapraun, Jonas; Wang, Jiaxing; Qi, Jipeng; Ji, Yipeng; Chang-Hasnain, Connie J. (18 August 2023). "Metasurface reflector enables room-temperature circularly polarized emission from VCSEL". Optica. 10 (8): 1093–1099. doi:10.1364/OPTICA.490176. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  13. ↑ Cui, Yao; Hu, Huawen; Ji, Yipeng; Kapraun, Jonas; Wang, Jiaxing; Huang, Xuanlun; Chang-Hasnain, Connie J. (13 November 2024). "Single-mode chirped high-contrast metastructure VCSEL for 106 Gbps PAM4 transmission". Optica. 11 (11): 1567–1574. doi:10.1364/OPTICA.539252. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  14. ↑ Wang, Jiaxing; Zhang, Xiujiao; Ji, Yipeng; Chang-Hasnain, Connie J. (2026). 850nm VCSEL for 112Gbps NRZ and 200Gbps PAM4 optical interconnects. Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers XXX. Vol. 13911. SPIE. p. 139110C. doi:10.1117/12.3080681. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  15. 1 2 Huang, Xuanlun; Wu, Chenyang; Xu, Xiaolan; Wang, Baishun; Zhang, Sui; Shen, Chih-Chiang; Yu, Chiennan; Wang, Jiaxing; Chi, Nan; Yu, Shaohua; Chang-Hasnain, Connie J. (27 October 2023). "Polarization structured light 3D depth image sensor for scenes with reflective surfaces". Nature Communications. 14: 6855. Bibcode:2023NatCo..14.6855H. doi:10.1038/s41467-023-42678-5. PMC 10611810. PMID 37891193. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  16. ↑ "High Performance 3D Camera". Berxel Photonics. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  17. ↑ Heney, Paul (17 January 2024). "R&D 100 Winners for 2024 are announced". R&D World. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  18. ↑ "R&D 100 winner of the day: Berxel iHawk P100 Polarization Structured Light Camera". R&D World. 4 February 2025. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  19. ↑ Chang-Hasnain, Connie J.; Wang, Jiaxing (2026). 4×4 back-emitting VCSEL array with integrated HCG metalens for optical interconnect. Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers XXX. Vol. 13911. SPIE. p. 139110D. doi:10.1117/12.3080760. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  20. ↑ "List of newly incorporated companies and companies which have changed names" (XLS). Companies Registry, Government of Hong Kong. 25 May 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
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