The global market for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) reached $426m in 2016, and is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.5% from $539m in 2017 to $1.8bn in 2022, according to BCC Research’s report ‘Silicon Photonics: Technologies and Global Markets’, which covers materials incluuding indium phosphide (InP), gallium arsenide (GaAs), lithium niobate (LiNbO3), silicon, and silica-on-silicon, and spans monolithic integration, hybrid integration and module integration.
Photonic integrated circuits find application in various sectors including optical communications, sensing, biophotonics and optical signal processing.
Optical communications accounted for the largest market share of $254m in 2016, and is expected to continue to lead the market, growing at a CAGR of 26.5% from $320m in 2017 to $1bn in 2022. In particular, increasing demand for high-speed communication with fewer disruptions is one of the major factors fueling the demand for photonic integrated circuits.
The optical signal processing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.3% from $68m in 2017 to $246m in 2022.
The report notes that, while the industry faces the challenge of high initial investment, application in various products ranging from the low frequency range to the high frequency range is increasing constantly. At present, photonic integrated circuits are also being successfully integrated into small devices such as mobile devices and radios, and they are expected to be used in high-end RF and sensing operations in the near future.
