PIC Market to Reach 11 Billion dollars in 2006

摘要

Photonic integrated circuits (PICS) are the monolithic integration of two or more integrated optical circuits (IOCs) on a single substrate. They are the photonic equivalent of microelectronic chips, which integrate two or more transistors on a chip to form an electronic integrated circuit (IC). However, instead of guiding electricity, a photonic integrated circuit routes lightwaves. In PICs, waveguides (usually made of silica or polymers) act as the photonic analog of copper circuits, serving as interconnects among various discrete components on a chip. The market for these devices has reached a critical commercial threshold. Since the introduction of PICs in 1997, the optical component industry has slowly been migrating from the manual assembly of discrete optical devices to automated, semiconductor wafer-processing techniques and single-chip solutions. According to a soon-to-be-released study from BCC, Photonic Integrated Circuits: New Directions, the market for photonic integrated circuit (PIC) subsystems and components is currently estimated at 4.3 billion dollars. It is expected to grow at an AAGR (average annual rate) of 20.5 percent to reach almost 11 billion dollars by 2006.