Silicon photonics: Key market research findings
- North America dominates the market geographically
- Communications sector accounts for a majority of the market’s revenue
- Key vendors – Aifotec, Aurrion, Avago Technologies, Bright Photonics, Cisco, Finisar, Huawei, IBM, Infinera, Intel, Keopsys, Luxtera, Mellanox, NeoPhotonics, Oclaro, OneChip, Skorpios, and STMicroelectronics
Technavio’s market research analysts predict the global market for silicon photonics to reach around $280 million by 2020. The rapid growth of this market can be accredited to the rising need for higher network bandwidth. Silicon photonic devices are capable of transmitting data using far less power and move information more quickly by achieving speeds of up to 40 Gbps. A large number of companies are pushing to bring this technology to market, even though the current progress is slow in its development, as it is essential for exascale-level computing. The global silicon photonics market was dominated by North America in 2015 with a market share of more than 51%. The presence of a large number of Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, and AWS and data center infrastructure vendors such as Dell, HP, and IBM will fuel the growth of the silicon photonics market in North America during the forecast period.
The new market research report from Technavio presents a breakdown and analysis of silicon photonics segments based on the application.
“The market is currently witnessing the emergence of optical data centers. Optical wavelength division multiplexing is capable of providing terabits data transmission, and optical switching can provide fast and low-energy switching capabilities for intra-data center networks. Silicon photonics is the ideal technology for realizing such ultra-high-speed optical switches. In 2013, Intel and Facebook announced they would be using silicon photonics at the rack level,” says Asif Ghani, Lead Analyst, Semiconductor, Technavio Research.
In 2015, the communications segment accounted for around 95% of the overall market revenue to become the dominant shareholder in the global silicon photonics market. The standard copper Ethernet connections are becoming inadequate for high-performance computing and data centers to manage the growing data volumes efficiently. This has compelled major network providers to take a risk on this technology. For instance, Cisco acquired a silicon photonics startup Lightwire in 2012 to deliver high-speed networks using optical connectivity. Using this technology, it will be able to meet the growing demands of video, data, voice, mobility, and cloud services.
The key vendors in the global silicon photonics market comprise of Aifotec, Aurrion, Avago Technologies, Bright Photonics, Cisco, Finisar, Huawei, IBM, Infinera, Intel, Keopsys, Luxtera, Mellanox, NeoPhotonics, Oclaro, OneChip, Skorpios, and STMicroelectronics. The entry of an increasing number of vendors is expected because of the growing data transfer and computational requirements of new technologies such as the IoT and wearable technology. Thus, with sizeable investments in R&D by key vendors, coupled with increased M&A in the technology market, the competition among vendors will intensify during the forecast period.
A more detailed analysis is available in the Technavio report, Global Silicon Photonics Market 2016-2020.
We can customize reports by other regions and specific segments upon request.
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