Solid growth forecast for fiber components
Steady growth is returning to the market for active components used in fiber-optic networks, claims a new report.
Communication Industry Researchers (CIR) predicts that the market for optical and electronic transmission components will grow from just over $1 billion in 2003 to $1.6 billion in 2008.
According to the US-based analyst company, sales of lasers, detectors and modulators in particular will grow 5% in value from the 2003 figure of $368.7 million to reach $387.5 million in 2004. By 2008, this figure is expected to have grown to almost $530 million.
CIR’s Lawrence Gasman told Compoundsemiconductor.net that with 10 Gb Ethernet applications finally breaking through, the fiber-optic market was looking much healthier than of late.
Opportunities in the optical networking business are shifting from public networks to the enterprise, and towards Ethernet and Fibre Channel applications in particular, claims the CIR report.
Although lasers and detector sales are expected to increase steadily over the next five years, a fall is predicted in the market for modulators.
Fixed-wavelength distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, used predominantly in WDM applications, make up the biggest single segment currently.
DFB devices have around double the market share of both Fabry-Perot (FP) lasers and VCSELs, which are much more widely used in Ethernet applications.
On the detector side, the market is divided evenly between PIN and avalanche photodiode (APD) products. PIN detectors dominate in Fibre Channel and Ethernet applications, while APDs have the upper hand in WDM.
JDS Uniphase is still the top-ranking vendor of active components by market share. Eudyna Devices, the Japanese firm created by the merger between Fujitsu Quantum Devices and Sumitomo Electric’s electronic devices division, now sits in second place behind JDSU.
Agilent and Bookham take third and fourth spots with an almost identical market share, while the acquisition of Infineon’s product line will propel Finisar into fifth place.
More details can be found in CIR’s report, Optical Transmission Components Forecasts and Market Share Analysis.
