The market for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) was $611.3m in 2014 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.99% from 2015 to $2105.3m in 2020, according to the report ‘VCSEL Market: Global Forecast to 2020’ from Markets and Markets.
VCSELs are widely used in optical fiber data communication, sensing, infrared illumination, pumping and industrial heating. Their major role in all these applications comprises reducing operating cost and power consumption as well as providing high performance. The main end-users of the technology are data centers and sectors such as consumer electronics, industrial, automotive, and healthcare.
Over the past two decades, about 1 billion VCSELs have been shipped, most of which were 850nm-emitting lasers based on gallium arsenide (GaAs). Major players covered by the report include Avago Technologies, Finisar Corp, II-VI Inc, IQE plc, JDS Uniphase Corp, and Princeton Optronics Inc. The majority of shipments have been utilized in data communications and sensing. This growth can be attributed to the rising demand for VCSELs in data centers and consumer electronics products.
VCSELs are expected to be in demand in data centers in the next 5-6 years because of their low power consumption and high-speed data transmission capabilities over short ranges. Moreover, emerging applications such as 3D imaging and gesture recognition are expected to generate new opportunities in the consumer electronics sector as well. However, despite the many advantages offered by VCSELs, their limited range of data transmission restricts their deployment to a select few applications, notes the report.
VCSELs are expected to see the fastest growth in infrared illumination, pumping and industrial heating applications. Geographically, North America should be the largest market, whereas the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is estimated to exhibit the fastest growth, at a CAGR of 23.8% during 2015-2020.
