New research by Technavio analysts forecasts the global silicon photonics market will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 48% for 2016-2020. The study also segments the market into three categories on the basis of application – communications, consumer electronics and others – with communications accounting for 95% of the market.
Although consumer electronics accounts for only 1% of the market, Technavio predicts that segment will grow at a CAGR of more than 48% through the forecast period. The "Others" sectors, such as medical, military and robotics, also present considerable growth potential at a CAGR of close to 61% through the same period.
The Technavio report, Global Silicon Photonics Market 2016-2020, highlights four factors that are contributing to the growth of the global silicon photonics market:
- the need for higher network bandwidth
- a reduction in transportation costs and scalability beyond 40 Gbps
- huge investments through public funding
- the ability of silicon photonics to improve energy efficiency.
The report says photonics technologies form the core of today's telecommunication and data infrastructure and will be integrated into communications networks. This will improve the energy efficiency of networks as photonic transmitters, tunable lasers, receivers, and multiplexing components contribute energy savings of 5% to 10% by 2020 with the integration of photonic integrated circuits.
The report notes that government funding also should help spur advances and adoption. It notes that silicon photonics development will benefit from the US government's $600 million photonics manufacturing initiative. "These investments, will help the rapid development of silicon photonics technology and thus will continue to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period," says Asif Gani, a lead analyst at Technavio for embedded systems research.
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