The Zhitong Finance App learned that GF Securities released a research report stating that test equipment, as the core equipment of optical module production lines, is expected to benefit from the three major trends of expansion of production by downstream manufacturers, increase in value, and changes in new technology. In the future, as domestic manufacturers continue to break through in high-end product lines, the share of local companies in the optical communication testing instrument market is expected to increase further, and the domestic substitution process is expected to accelerate. New technologies such as silicon light and CPO bring new testing requirements, and optoelectronic joint testing will become mainstream.
The main views of GF Securities are as follows:
Test equipment is the core part of the optical module production line, benefiting from the dual logic of expanding downstream optical module production+increasing value
Optical module production line testing equipment includes optical signal testing equipment and electrical signal testing equipment. According to Unicom Instrument's second round inquiry response announcement, the current expenditure on testing instruments and equipment in the optical module production line accounts for about 40% to 50% of the expenditure, which is the core part of the production line. The optical module testing equipment market mainly benefits from two major logics: (1) Since 23, leading optical module manufacturers have begun a production capacity expansion cycle, with 26Q1 mid-level Xuchuang's capital expenditure of 1,929 billion yuan, +380%; as the capital expenditure of downstream optical module manufacturers expands, the test equipment market size is expected to grow rapidly; (2) As optical modules evolve from 800G to 1.6T, the inspection accuracy requirements of test equipment continue to improve, and the average value share of high-end test equipment is expected to increase further. According to the Unicom Instruments prospectus, the average unit price share of the company's sampling waveguide is expected to increase further. from It rose from 116,500 yuan in 2022 to 280,000 yuan in 2025, mainly affected by the increase in demand for high-bandwidth equipment driven by high-speed optical modules.
The competitive landscape is highly concentrated, overseas leaders are close to monopoly, and domestic production is at the right time
According to the Unicom Instruments prospectus, citing Frost & Sullivan data, overseas companies such as Keysight and Anritsu will collectively occupy about 84% of the global optical communication testing instrument market in 2024, showing a clear leading monopoly in the industry. The total market share of local companies is about 16%. Among them, Liancun Instruments ranked third in the market with a market share of 9.9%, and is also the only domestic manufacturer among the top five manufacturers. In the future, as domestic manufacturers continue to break through in high-end product lines, the share of local companies in the optical communication testing instrument market is expected to increase further, and the domestic substitution process is expected to accelerate.
New technologies such as silicon light and CPO bring new testing requirements, and optoelectronic joint testing will become mainstream
In addition to the packaging testing requirements of traditional pluggable optical modules, new technology solutions such as silicon light and CPO are expected to bring new changes to the test system. (1) Silicon optical module: As the penetration rate of silicon optical solutions gradually increases, it is expected to drive demand for silicon optical wafer testing, COC testing, and KGD sorting related to silicon optical chips; (2) CPO optical co-packaging: CPO, as the next generation architecture for optical interconnection, puts forward new requirements for the testing process. CPO testing currently requires five major steps: EIC wafer testing, PIC wafer testing, double-sided wafer testing, optical engine packaging testing, and system-level testing. It is expected that joint optoelectronic testing will become the mainstream solution.
Risk Alerts
The downstream expansion of optical module production falls short of expectations, global investment in AI infrastructure construction has cooled down overall, and there is a risk that technology iteration and the competitive landscape will deteriorate.