BOSTON, May 7, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- The Silicon Photonics and PICs market is
experiencing robust growth, driven by the surge in AI and datacom
transceiver demand. Key players in the industry, such as Intel,
Coherent, and Infinera, are actively using PICs within their
transceivers.
What are the benefits and challenges for
Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits?
Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) are tiny optical systems
made of materials such as Silica (Glass), Silicon, or Indium
Phosphide. PICs enable everything from complex optical designs that
allow billions of bits of information to be sent and received in a
package the size of a candy bar to artificial noses that can detect
different compounds and molecules in the air around them.
By leveraging the billions of dollars in investment in
the CMOS chips, PICs can unlock new processing scaling
potential beyond Moore's law. However, there are still significant
challenges for the PIC market, such as material limitations,
integration complexity, and cost management. Large demand volumes
are required to offset the initial cost of designing and
manufacturing PICs, and production lead times can take months. The
brand new IDTechEx report on the topic, 'Silicon Photonics and
Photonic Integrated Circuits 2024-2034: Market, Technologies, and
Forecasts', thoroughly investigates the PIC market and has
identified Photonic Transceivers for AI as an emerging segment that
is soon to be the largest source of demand for PICs.
What are the PIC materials of the future?
There is a wide variety of future PIC materials. Most of the
current market uses Silicon and Silica-based PICs for light
propagation; however, as an indirect semiconductor, Silicon is not
an efficient light source or photodetector. Therefore, Silicon is
usually combined with III-V materials for light sources and
photodetection. Silicon's market dominance is set to continue;
however, Thin Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN), with its moderate
Pockels effect and low material loss, is emerging as a strong
contender for applications that require high-performance
modulation, such as quantum systems or potentially high-performance
transceivers in the future. Monolithic Indium Phosphide (InP)
continues to be a major player due to its ability to detect and
emit light. Additionally, innovative materials like Barium Titanite
(BTO) and rare-earth metals are being explored for their potential
in quantum computing and other cutting-edge applications.
How AI is changing the demand for Silicon Photonics and
PICs
The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has spurred an
unprecedented demand for high-performance transceivers capable of
supporting the massive data rates required by AI accelerators and
data centers. Silicon Photonics and PICs are at the forefront of
this revolution, with their ability to transmit data at speeds of
1.6Tbps and beyond. As shown by Nvidia's latest Blackwell CPUs,
which, according to IDTechEx's research, require approximately two
800G transceivers per GPU, the need for efficient, high-bandwidth
communication is becoming more critical for AI, positioning Silicon
Photonics and PICs as essential components in the AI-driven future.
The biggest driver of the development of PIC transceivers is AI, as
higher-performance AI accelerators will require higher-performance
transceivers, with 3.2Tbps transceivers expected to arrive by
2026.
What are the future applications?
Other applications for Silicon Photonics and PICs vary - from
high-bandwidth chip-to-chip interconnects to advanced packaging and
co-packaged optics. These technologies are paving the way for
next-generation computing.
Photonic Engines and Accelerators: Using certain
photonic components, such as Mach-Zehnder Interferometers, and
controlling these components through electro-optical interconnects,
high-performance processors and programmable PIC devices can be
designed and manufactured, unlocking higher performance than what
is possible with electronic accelerators alone.
PIC-based Sensors: Certain PIC materials, such as Silicon
Nitride, can used for a range of different sensors, from gas
sensors to 'artificial noses'. The healthcare sensor industry may
be able to take advantage of the miniaturization of optical
components into PIC devices, which could see applications in
Point-of-Care diagnostics or Wearables.
PIC-based FMCW LiDAR has the potential to transform the
automotive and agricultural industries with applications in drones
and autonomous vehicles.
Quantum Systems: Companies investing in Trapped Ion
and Photon-based Quantum Computing are looking to PICs for more
stable and scalable quantum systems. PICs are used in photonic
quantum systems to achieve the precise control of photons necessary
for quantum computation.
The market for Silicon Photonics and PICs is experiencing
robust growth, driven by the surge in AI and datacom transceiver
demand. Key players in the industry, such as Intel/Jabil, Coherent,
and Infinera, are actively using PICs within their transceivers.
Innolight, a China-based
transceiver company, hit 1.6Tbps of transfer speed in their latest
transceivers in late 2023, which are due to start shipping for
data-center applications in 2024. Coherent, which has its own InP
wafer fab facilities, is also developing higher-performance
transceivers for 1.6T+ applications. Intel Silicon Photonics, which
is potentially going to be acquired by manufacturing firm Jabil,
sold ~1.7 million PICs in 2023, according to IDTechEx's analysis,
and is continuing to develop datacom and telecom
transceivers. IDTechEx forecasts that PIC technology will
continue dominating the high-performance transceiver market,
further solidifying its position as a critical component in the
modern technological landscape.
Key aspects of the IDTechEx report, 'Silicon Photonics and
Photonic Integrated Circuits 2024-2034: Market, Technologies, and
Forecasts', include:
- Key Player Analysis for the High-Performance PIC-based
Transceiver Market
- A breakdown of Co-Packaged Optics and its key concepts
- Analysis of Photonic Integrated Circuits for Quantum
Systems
- Benchmarks and comparisons of photonic materials, with an
industry breakdown by material. It also includes an insight into
emerging materials such as Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) and
Barium Titanite (BTO).
- Photonic Integrated Circuit Fundamentals and Key Concepts,
including important components and underlying principles.
- An analysis of how AI is changing demand for PIC-based
transceivers, with a look at how Nvidia's recommended server
architecture requires large numbers of transceivers.
- An overview of PIC manufacturing techniques.
- A look into future applications of PICs such as interconnects,
LiDAR, biosensors, and gas sensors.
To find out more about this report, including downloadable
sample pages, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/SemiPIC.
Upcoming free-to-attend Webinar
Photonic Integrated Circuits: Materials, Forecasts, and
How AI Accelerator Demand Is Affecting the PIC Market
James Falkiner, Technology
Analyst at IDTechEx and author of this article, will be presenting
a free-to-attend webinar on the topic on Thursday 30 May 2024 - Photonic Integrated Circuits:
Materials, Forecasts, and How AI Accelerator Demand Is Affecting
the PIC Market.
This webinar will include:
- What is a photonic integrated circuit?
- What are current and future applications for PICs?
- An insight into IDTechEx's Total PIC Market Forecasts
- How AI accelerator demand is affecting the PIC Transceivers
market
- The roadmap for the future of Datacom Transceivers
- PIC Material Benchmarks and Forecasts
Please click here to check timings and register for your
specific time zone.
If you are unable to make the date, please register anyway to
receive the links to the on-demand recording (available for a
limited time) and webinar slides as soon as they are available.
About IDTechEx:
IDTechEx provides trusted independent research on emerging
technologies and their markets. Since 1999, we have been
helping our clients to understand new technologies, their supply
chains, market requirements, opportunities and forecasts. For more
information, contact research@IDTechEx.com or
visit www.IDTechEx.com.
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