Market and Technology Trends

Edge Emitting Lasers 2022

By Yole Intelligence — Nov 2022

Edge Emitting Lasers: A $7.4B opportunity in 2027 to create integrated photonics platforms targeting multiple applications

The EEL market will still be driven by optical communications, but emerging applications will outpace traditional material processing

Since the development of lasers in the 1960s, they have been increasingly used in many applications. This has propelled the laser market to a trillion-dollar business. Nowadays, laser technologies are ubiquitous in many traditional as well as emerging applications. These span optical communications, material processing,

displays, automotive lighting, medical dermatology, surgery and 3D sensing in Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR).

The semiconductor laser landscape especially, edge-emitters are highly fragmented. They are implemented in a wide variety of laser types, including diode lasers, fiber lasers, diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSLs) and optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSLs). Traditional applications cover industrial, telecommunication, scientific and consumer markets. There are also many niche applications, including for the military and aerospace markets and spectroscopic analysis for the life science market.

We project that the Edge-Emitting Laser (EEL) market will grow from $3.5B in 2021 to $7.4B in 2027 at a compound annual growth rate for the period (CAGR_2021-2027) of 13%. The growth will continue to be driven by optical communication, such as optical modules and amplifiers for Datacom and Telecom, as well as 3D sensing applications.

Application requests have direct impacts on final laser diode technology

EELs are complex photonic devices, and a variety of device designs have been developed.

Chip:

Fabry Perot (FP) is the most common EEL design in current use. Other designs such as Distributed Bragg Reflectors (DBRs), External Cavity Lasers (ECL), Distributed Feedback (DFB), Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) and Broad Area Laser Diodes (BALDs) have been designed to improve key parameters that make them suitable for specific applications.

Packaging:

There is also a wide range of package types, including Transistor Outline (TO), pigtailed butterfly, C-mount, D-mount, high heat load, and direct chip on submount, depending on the application.

For integrators, many questions arise. What is the right laser device for my application? Which parameters are most important? Laser technology is currently thought of as essentially an interaction of light and matter. Therefore, new applications are still emerging for sensing, material processing or life sciences.

Applications define device specifications, and integrators must consider several technical parameters, including wavelength, power output, spectral resolution, light beam quality and optical intensity. Understanding application requirements and evaluating laser parameters is therefore key to making the right investment decisions. This is even more important as EEL price varies widely depending on design and technical parameters.

The laser ecosystem is highly diversified and fragmented

The EEL business is a big part of the photonics industry. Although communication or sensing applications have widely adopted semiconductor lasers, the EEL sector also represents a challenging market. EEL producers are involved in several levels of integration, depending on their expertise and equipment. They must carefully select the market segment or applications they want to target based on their internal capabilities. There is a large variety of applications that require unique laser system specifications, which also has an impact on EEL components. Moreover, there is a strong competitive landscape at the technology system level between direct diodes, fiber lasers, DPSSLs, OPSLs and gas lasers.

Consequently, the EEL industry is highly fragmented and diversified. Each application addresses a specific supply/value chain. Manufacturers must develop varying positions to access different markets. Most of the edge-emitting laser manufacturers are vertically integrated. This means doing epitaxy in-house, the front-end-of-line (FEOL) processing, comprising all process steps related to patterning of the laser diode device, and the back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing comprising interconnections and packaging.

Leading players in the material processing domain are fully vertically integrated from EEL device to laser machine tools such as automated laser dicers. This is because their customers require turnkey solutions for their specific manufacturing process. There are also players finalizing laser systems and subsystems such as laser heads, which they further implement into machine tools or robots.

For sensing or optical communication applications, vertical integration is up to module level such as an optical transceiver or LiDAR module. These players are focusing on specific EEL designs such as DFB or DBR. There are still plenty of challenges to overcome at the device level including increasing performance, beam shaping, and improving high-volume manufacturing, thus decreasing cost.

Key Features

Classification of laser technology – recognizing EELs among all laser technologies
Clarification of EEL complexity in terms of intrinsic parameters
Mapping of end markets and applications providing detailed comparison of used laser technologies, and EEL details
Detailed market revenue and volume of EELs for 2019-2027 split by different applications, wavelength and power
Detailed ASP evolution for different applications
Detailed market and technology trends of key applications for five market segments: Optical Communication, Display and Lighting, Sensing, Medical and Material Processing
Technology trends and challenges related to EEL manufacturing processes
Advanced EEL industrial landscape analysis of vertical integration extent and by laser system types

What's new

Review of External Cavity Lasers (ECLs) and Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs)
Focus on tunable lasers
Focus on blue lasers used for manufacturing key parts of electric vehicles
Extended market forecast of EELs used in the Telecom market
Mapping of end markets and applications providing detailed comparison of laser technologies used, and EEL details
Advanced EEL industrial landscape analysis split by laser system types

Product objectives

Understand the global EEL landscape in terms of laser technology for different applications
Review selected EEL market segments and their key applications with insights into the basic principles, typical lasers used and their characteristics
Straightforward and easy to understand explanations of the technology and different types of EEL
Understand the complex EEL industrial landscape and benefits of vertical integration
Provide detailed market forecasts from 2019 to 2027 for EEL devices

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Edge Emitting Lasers 2022

Edge Emitting Lasers: A $7.4B opportunity in 2027 to create integrated photonics platforms targeting multiple applications