Following greatly increased use in the optical communications industry over the past 15 years, the global market for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) will grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9% from $781.6m in 2015 to $2.1bn in 2020, as demand increases for VCSELs in consumer electronics products and other high-end applications, forecasts BCC Research in its new report 'Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSEL): Technologies and Global Markets'.
Optical fiber data transmission (the largest segment) should grow at a CAGR of 20.2% from $246.7m in 2015 to $618.2m in 2020, while analog broadband signal transmission should grow at a CAGR of 25.8% from $93.7m in 2015 to $295.3m in 2020, adds the report.
Extensive R&D on VCSELs by companies and defense services worldwide has produced high power-conversion efficiency of 63.4% currently (compared with typically 20-25% for other types of commercially available lasers, notes BCC). In short-range communication networks such as storage-area networks (SAN) and local-area networks (LAN), VCSELs are expected to be the key light source in the future. With the development of long-wavelength VCSELs, higher bandwidth, lower cost, wavelength tunability and low drive currents, VCSELs are the future for widespread on-site and customer premises deployment for passive optical access networks, the report reckons.
VCSELs should also play an important role in gesture recognition and 3D sensing technology in consumer electronics goods, BCC says. The continuous demand for gesture recognition technology in portable electronic devices is expected to lead to higher deployment of VCSELs in electronic devices. Greater precision in VCSELs is another key market driver that has led to their increased adoption in medical applications such as medical diagnostics and therapeutics, optical nerve stimulation and computed radiography imaging. Also, superior power efficiency over LEDs has expanded the adoption of VCSELs in proximity-sensing applications.
VCSELs have become an attractive technology for many high-volume applications, notes BCC. "VCSELs have been widely adopted in the data communications industry," says BCC Research analyst Sinha Gaurav. "The growth is attributed to increased demand for VCSELs with low-energy optical storage and fast switching in servers and high-capacity data centers. Additionally, the growing demand for VCSELs in ultra-high-density magnetic storage and industrial heating, including paint curing and commercial print shops, is further expected to contribute to the growth of the market," he concludes.
