VCSEL, or Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser, is a kind of semiconductor laser. At present, the majority of VCSELs are based on GaAs semiconductor, and the emission wavelength is mainly in the near-infrared band.
Data communication application is the first batch application of VCSEL technology. Since November 2017, Apple has released the iPhone X embedded in VCSEL for face recognition, which has driven the mobile and consumer sectors to become the largest market for VCSELs, reaching $440 million in 2018.
In 2022, the VCSEL market almost doubled compared with 2018, reaching 840 million dollars. According to the analysis of Yole Intelligence's report, the data communication market may regain its leading position from 2023, and dominate the VCSEL market in the next five years. It is estimated that in 2027, the VCSEL revenue of data communication will reach 2.1 billion dollars, and the entire VCSEL market will reach 3.9 billion dollars.
Lumentum and Coherent own 80% of VCSEL market
Since 2017, the VCSEL ecosystem has undergone tremendous changes. At that time, Lumentum dominated the market, but several other players had a large share in the market. Lumentum and II-VI (now named Coherent) are the largest participants, with 80% of the VCSEL market.
At that time, Lumentum was the only qualified supplier of Apple. Finisar is still in research and development, and is trying to provide qualified products for Apple. Other enterprises participate in other smartphone manufacturers or provide tiny VCSELs for proximity sensors. Then II-VI acquired Finisar and Oclaro, and completed the acquisition of Coherent. After the merger, the company was named Coherent. Through acquisition and merger, they strengthened their position in the optical communication market and achieved vertical integration from VCSEL equipment to the entire transceiver module.
8-inch wafer fabrication and wavelength transfer will be the next technological change
VCSEL in smartphones has not developed much since 2017. The transition from 4-inch wafer manufacturing to 6-inch wafer manufacturing is necessary to meet the explosive demand of consumer players. Yole expects that there will be two major changes in the development of VCSEL in the next few years.
In May 2022, IQE demonstrated its first 8-inch wafer based on germanium instead of gallium arsenide. These new wafers may not be designed to cope with the sudden rise in VCSEL demand, but to make it possible to integrate optoelectronic devices with CMOS technology. It also provides a potential roadmap to achieve 12 inch wafer fabrication in the long term.
The second major expected change is the use of diluted nitride active layers to shift the wavelength from 940 nm to 1380 nm. Because organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are transparent at this wavelength, this transition is needed to achieve the integration of VCSELs behind organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays. The first application may be that proximity sensors are placed under the display to reduce the size of the grooves on the iPhone.
Source: OFweek Laser Network
