Worldwide consumption of multifiber transmit link components will jump from last year's $48.7-million mark to $1.25 billion by 2006, claims a new report from technology-based forecasting firm ElectroniCast Corp. (San Mateo, CA).
"Growth will be most rapid over the 2001-2003 span, coming off the depressed consumption level of the overall fiber optics industry in 2001, plus the fact that multifiber transceivers are now very early in their application life cycle," contends ElectroniCast founder and chairman Jeff D. Montgomery.
According to the report, the multifiber transmit link is focused entirely on short (1-2 km) or very short (1 meter) interconnects. Vendors in this space face competition on two fronts: from other multifiber transmit link vendors and from copper interconnect solutions, where the battle is waged based on cost per gigabit transported.
"The VCSEL diode, versus the edge emitter laser diode (EELD), has emerged as the lowest cost optical solution in this application," explains Montgomery. "The technical performance of VCSELs is advancing rapidly, to higher data rates (10 Gbits/sec), greater power conversion efficiency, higher power output, and both singlemode and multimode 850-nm and 1310-nm solutions. It is not surprising that several multifiber transmit link competitors have a strong base in VCSEL research and fabrication," he adds.
The report, "Multifiber Transmit Link and Components Forecast," is structured on three levels: applications, modules and assemblies, and parts and devices. The growth in production quantities of the end-application equipment and their increasing complexity in terms of number of interconnect channels and data rate per channel drive the demand for the interconnect modules and assemblies. The modules and assemblies production, in turn, drives the demand for the piece-parts and devices. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.electronicast.com.