InP 2022

Key Features

• Deep understanding of InP penetration into Photonics and Radio Frequency (RF) applications
• Complete segmentation of the InP RF Industrial & Military and photonics Datacom, Telecom, Wearable Sensing, Consumer Sensing, Medical and other applications
• Comprehensive analysis of the InP supply chain including key players’ market shares and analyses
• InP Photonics market value and volume projections to 2027, including split by applications and device types
• Description of the market and technological trends in the different applications of InP
• Device price breakdown and analysis
• Wafer, epiwafer, and device market size and market forecast through 2027, in $M value and unit volumes

What's new

• Substrate, epiwafer and bare-die market forecast and trends to 2027
• InP entering the consumer market in 2022
• Competition between InP and GaAs based laser/detectors in the consumer market
• Roadmap of InP based consumer devices and their rationales
• Company profile of new players, new entrants into the InP ecosystem

Product objective

• The aim of this report is to provide a clear understanding of the InP-based photonics and RF industries
• This report demonstrates the application markets of InP, which are divided into photonics and RF sectors
• In this report we cover the markets from wafer to bare die for photonics applications, and from wafer to epiwafer for RF applications, in unit volumes and revenue value
• We provide a market forecast from 2021 till 2027 for InP wafers, epiwafers, and bare dies
• We review the supply chain of InP by identifying the key players and analyze their revenues and capacities
• We examine the application landscape and associated technologies for InP devices

Glossary

Report objectives

Scope of the report

Methodology & definitions

About the authors

Companies cited

What we got right, what we got wrong

2021 Vs 2022 InP forecast 

Three-page summary 

Executive summary  

Context  

• InP Photonics 
• InP RF 

Market forecasts  

• InP Wafer, open Epiwafer, bare die market and forecasts split by various applications:
  Datacom, Telecom, Consumer 3D sensing, Wearable sensing, Medical sensing,
  Other (Industrial, Infrastructure…) and RF  (Military and Civil)
• InP wafer market, split by technology
• InP Wafer and EpiWafer ASP

Market trends  

• Photonics 
  • Datacom and telecom 
  • Datacom 
  • Telecom 
  • Automotive and mobility 
  • Mobile and consumer 
  • Other applications 
• RF 
  • Military and defense applications 
  • Industrial applications 

Supply chain  

• Overview of InP Photonics and RF Supply chain
• Mapping InP fabs in different geographical locations
• Estimation of InP fab capacities
• Key Wafer/Epiwafer player capacities
• Identifying key mergers and acquisitions
• Company profile of leading players
• InP Photonics bare die market shares 
• Open InP epiwafer market shares 
• InP wafer market shares

Technology Trends  

• Photonic devices  
• Photodetection  
• Integrated photonics  
• SiPh  
• Lasers for CPO  
• InP PICS  
• InP PICS vs SiPh  

RF Devices  

InP Substrate    

• InP wafer crystal growth methods
• Different substrate sizes and types
• Indium raw material pricing

InP Epiwafer   

• Epitaxial growth methods
• Focus on DFB epitaxy
• Comparison of DFB and EML ASPs

Outlook  

Appendix  

Yole Group Corporate presentation 

Acacia, Accelink, Aixtron, Amazon, Apple, Alibaba, AOI, AXT, Broadcom, Cengol, Ciena, Cisco, Coherent, Daimler, DenseLight, DXT Shenzen, Duet Microelectronics, Elbana, Ericsson, Emcore, Epic, Facebook, FBH, Finisar, GCS, Google, Hamamatsu, Hisense Broadband, Huawei, Imec, Infinera, Innolight, Intel, IntelliEPI, IQE, InPact, InPhi, JX Nippon, Keysight, LandMark, Low Noise Factory, Luminar, Lumentum, Macom, Masimo, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, MindSemi, Modulight, Northrop Grumman, NTT, Qorvo, Rockley Photonics, Sanan IC, Sensors Unlimited, Sivers Photonics, Skywater, Skyworks, Smart Photonics, Sony, Source Photonics, Sumitomo Electric, Teledyne, TrueLight, Veeco, Vertilas, VIGO photonics, Vital, Volvo, Voyant Photonics, VPEC, Wafer Technologies, Win Semiconductor, Xenics, Yunnan Germanium, ZTE and more.

Datacom and Telecom applications are the traditional markets for InP and they will continue to grow

The migration to higher data rates, lower power consumption within data centers and the deployment of 5G base stations will drive the development and growth of optical transceiver technology in the coming years. As an indispensable building block for high-speed and long-range optical transceivers, InP laser diodes remain the best choice for Telecom & Datacom photonic applications. This growth is driven by high volume adoption of high-data-rate modules, above 400G, by big cloud services and national telecom operators requiring increased fiber-optic network capacity. With that in mind, the InP market, long dominated by Datacom and Telecom applications, is expected grow from $2.5B in 2021 to around $5.6B in 2027. Yole’s InP 2022 report addresses the main drivers for the growth in the Telecom and Datacom applications. We provide the market shares at the wafer and device levels of the different technologies such as Distributed Feedback and Directly Modulated Lasers (DFB/DML), Externally Modulated Lasers (EMLs), and InP Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) that are involved in the optical communication segments.

Consumer applications will be the next milestone for the InP industry

There has been long speculation for the penetration of InP in consumer applications. The year 2022 marks the beginning of this adoption. For smartphones, OLED displays are transparent at wavelengths in the range from around 13xx to 15xxnm. OEMs interested in removing the camera notch on mobile phone screens and integrating the 3D-sensing modules under OLED displays are considering moving to InP Edge Emitting Lasers (EELs), replacing the current GaAs Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs). However, such a move is not straightforward from cost and supply perspectives. We have spotted the first penetration of InP into wearable earbuds in 2021. Apple was the first OEM to deploy InP into its AirPod 3 family to help differentiate between skin and other surfaces. This adoption has been extended to iPhone’s 14 pro family. The leading smartphone player has have changed the aesthetics of its top range smartphones, the iPhone 14 Pro family, reducing the size of the notch at the top of the screen to feature a pill shape. To achieve this new front camera arrangement some other sensors, such as the proximity sensor, must be placed under the display. Could InP penetration continue towards 3D sensing modules such as dot projectors and flood illuminators? Or could GaAs technology come back again with a different solution for long-wavelength lasers?

InP supply chain will need more investment with the rise of the consumer applications

The impact of an innovative company like Apple adding a differentiator functionality to its product significantly affects companies in its supply chain, and vice versa. Traditional GaAs suppliers for Apple’s proximity sensors could switch from GaAs to InP platforms since both materials could share similar front-end processing tools. We certainly expect to see new players entering the InP business as the consumer market represents high volume potential. Added to that, Apple’s move could trigger the penetration of InP in other consumer applications such as smartwatches and automotive Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) within silicon photonics platforms. Yole’s InP report 2022 provides and overview on supply chain movements and the InP capacity expansion roadmaps of leading players.