Feb 10 2015
Chip-to-chip and on-chip optical interconnections will generate $990 million in revenues by 2020 according to a new report from Communications Industry Researchers (CIR), the optical networking industry analyst firm.
CIR has been tracking the market for optical interconnects for almost ten years and is the leading industry analyst firm providing coverage of optical interconnects.
About the Report:
This report investigates the latest architectures, devices, and materials impacting the prospects for chip-level optical interconnection. The topics covered by the report include:
- How optical engines fit into future chip-to-chip connectivity. And how optical engine architectures and materials will change as device dimensions shrink
- An assessment of how novel photonic devices will be used in chip-level interconnect, analyzing the market potential for compound semiconductors versus silicon photonics
- The market for optical interconnection using novel materials, such as polymers and carbon nanotubes
- Future commercialization of silicon photonics interconnects and the demand for optical interconnect in 3D and multicore chips.
This report also contains a 10-year forecast quantifying where and when the commercial opportunities for chip-level optical interconnection are emerging and how much they will be worth. It also profiles leading firms and research efforts involved in designing and implementing chip-level optical interconnection.
Among the companies discussed are: Aurrion, Avago, Banpil, BeSang, Cisco, Compass-EOS, Dow Chemical, Dow Corning, DuPont, Finisar, Fujitsu, Global Foundries, HP, Huawei, IBM, Innolume, Intel, Juniper, Luxtera, Mellanox, Molex, Nanoscribe, Novellus, NTT, Optalsys, Oracle, Philips, QD Laser, Reflex Photonics, Samsung, Samtec, SK Hynix, Skorpios, STMicroelectronics, TE Connectivity, Tokyo Electron, TSMC and Xilinx
From the Report:
- Once Moore's Law scales down to the 5-nm node, copper interconnection will be dead. The addressable market for the optical interconnect links could then quickly run into the billions of units. By 2025 revenues for on-chip optical interconnects will exceed $210 million. All-optical environments such as optical crossconnects, optical backplanes and optical computers present a significant market for chip-level interconnection.
- Chip-level optical interconnection can build on miniaturized optical engines, although optical engine technology is not scalable beyond a certain point. Nonetheless, revenues for optical engines for chip-to-chip interconnection will reach around $775 million by 2020
- To reduce the cost of optical interconnection, smaller, more powerful lasers need to be developed. Moving beyond VCSELs in this way may eventually be possible with silicon lasers, quantum dot lasers, transistor lasers, polariton lasers or microtube lasers.