Market and Technology Trends
Semiconductor Laser Industry 2024
The future looks bright: the semiconductor laser market is projected to reach $5.3 billion by 2029, poised to transform key industries
YINTR24433Key Features
- Market forecast through 2029 in US$ revenue and Units for laser bare-dies and wafers.
- Market forecast through 2029 by market segment including Telecom & Infrastructure, Mobile & Consumer, Automotive, & Mobility, Industrial, Medical, Aerospace & Defense in US$ revenue and units.
- Market forecast through 2029 by application in the different markets in US$ revenue and units.
- Market forecast in US$ revenue and units, split by technology, including discretes and PICs
- Market forecast in US$ revenue and units, split by material and wavelength
- Laser substrate market forecast through 2029 split by market segment and materials in US$ revenue and units
- Megatrends in Automotive & Mobility, Defense & Aerospace, Industrial, Medical, Mobile & Consumer, Telecom & Infrastructure applications.
- Overview of the technology trends for EELs and VCSELs.
Product's objectives
To provide context on the semiconductor lasers market in Communication, Industrial, Medical, Consumer, Automotive and Aerospace and Defense market sectors.
- Provide an overview of main applications and their sub-applications
- Review the trends the key drivers for each application leading to market growth
- Evaluating role of lasers and traditional (contact) approaches
- Create a link between laser type and application
Provide detailed market forecasts from 2024 to 2029
- Components split by 6 major market sectors → Each market sector is further split by main applications
- Components split by technology (diode design) / wavelength / material system (Substrates)
- Substrate split by material system and wafer size
Review the supply chain industrial ecosystem along the vertical
- Split by major market sectors
- Split by technology (diode design)
- Split by material system
- Mapping the regions
Examine technology trends for EELs and VCSELs
- Principle of operation and classification
- Various design advantages in concrete applications
- Positioning in the spectrum of wavelengths
- Designs comparison and benchmark
The semiconductor lasers is evolving rapidly driven by increasing demand from diverse sectors
Since lasers were developed in the 1960s, their applications have expanded significantly, transforming the laser market into a trillion-dollar industry. Today, laser technologies are widely used across various traditional and emerging fields, including optical communication, material processing, consumer devices, automotive sensing and lighting, display technologies, medical applications for therapy and diagnostics, and aerospace and defense.
The semiconductor laser market, in particular, is projected to grow from $3.1 billion in 2023 to $5.2 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9% over the period. This growth will be driven by rapid technological advancements, increasing demand across multiple industries, and the push for higher performance at lower costs. Key trends shaping the semiconductor laser market include the expansion of laser applications, a shift toward compact, energy-efficient, and precise solutions, and the integration of multiple technology platforms such as SOI, SiN, InP, and TFLN. Meanwhile, geopolitical factors and supply chain challenges are prompting manufacturers to adopt more resilient production strategies. Overall, the semiconductor laser industry is poised for substantial growth, fueled by innovation in both established and emerging markets.
The semiconductor laser industrial ecosystem is highly diversified and fragmented
The semiconductor (SC) laser industry forms the core of the photonics ecosystem. While SC lasers have seen widespread adoption in communication and sensing applications, this photonics technology represents a challenging market for newcomers. SC laser producers operate at various integration levels depending on their expertise and foundry capabilities, and they must strategically select market segments or applications based on their internal capacities. The wide array of applications requires unique laser system specifications, which impacts SC laser chip design. Furthermore, there is strong competition at the technology level among direct diodes, fiber lasers, DPSSLs, OPSLs, and gas lasers.
As a result, the SC laser industry is highly fragmented and diversified, with each application demanding a specific supply/value chain. Manufacturers must adopt distinct strategies to access different market segments. Leading SC laser manufacturers are vertically integrated, managing all steps from epitaxy and front-end-of-line (FEOL) processing to back-end-of-line (BEOL) and module assembly or laser subsystem construction. Some even produce laser machinery specifically for material processing applications.
Advancing SC laser technology is essential to unlocking the full potential of key markets and applications
VCSEL technology is advancing rapidly, with companies like Lumentum, Coherent, and Trumpf increasing power density through NIR multijunction designs, advancing from 5-6 junctions to 8 by 2024. Originally applied in automotive, these lasers are expanding into consumer and industrial markets. Efforts to extend GaAs VCSELs from NIR to SWIR, including wafer fusion techniques, are showing promise despite technical challenges, while GaN-based visible VCSELs remain in the R&D phase due to performance limitations and lower market demand. In optical communication, VCSELs are progressing from 100G/lane to 200G/lane, with the ambitious target of 400G/lane in the future.
Similarly, EEL technologies such as DML, EML, and CW-DFB are on track to achieve 200G/lane by the end of 2024. FP and QCL lasers continue to dominate industrial, medical, and automotive sectors, with goals of reaching 20W power output by 2026 to help reduce system costs. In automotive LiDAR, EELs are facing competition from advancing VCSELs and emerging FMCW LiDAR technologies. Demand for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in SC lasers is projected to reach 5% market share by 2029, driven by AI-powered optical communications. However, discrete lasers remain competitive thanks to ongoing advancements in power, efficiency, and wavelength diversity.
SC lasers depend on high-quality compound semiconductor substrates such as InP, GaAs, GaN, and GaSb. The substrate industry is focused on scaling to larger diameters to meet increasing demands for both volume and quality. For instance, GaAs substrates have reached 6-inch diameters, largely due to the high-volume consumer market's adoption of VCSELs for smartphones. But what about InP? As the push for larger diameters accelerates, questions arise: how are InP substrates progressing in this race? And how are GaSb and GaN photonics substrates adapting to meet these demands?
· Acronyms
· Methodologies
& definitions
· Identity card
· About the
authors
· Scope of the
report
· Report
objectives
· Companies
cited*
· Introduction
to lasers
· 3-Page summary
· Executive
Summary
· Forecast
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Laser bare-die market ($M)
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Laser bare-die shipments (Munits)
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Laser substrate market ($M)
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Laser substrate shipments – 6’’ equivalent (kunits)
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Laser bare-die revenue Telkom & Infra – split by
application
o
Laser bare-die shipments Telkom & Infra – split by
application
o
Laser bare-die revenue Mobile & Cons – split by
application
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Laser bare-die shipments Mobile & Cons – split by
application
o
Laser bare-die revenue Auto & Mobility – split by
application
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Laser bare-die shipments Auto & Mobility – split by
application
o
Laser bare-die revenue Medical – split by application
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Laser bare-die shipments Medical – split by application
o
Laser bare-die revenue Aero & Defense) – split by
application
o
Laser bare-die shipments Aero & Defense – split by
application
o
Laser bare-die revenue Industrial) – split by
application
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Laser bare-die shipments Industrial – split by
application
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Pump source Laser bare-die – Industrial market
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Laser bare-die revenue and shipments – split by
technology
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Laser bare-die revenue and shipments split by
wavelength
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Laser bare-die revenue and shipments)– split by
Material
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Laser substrate revenue and shipments – Split by
material
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Laser substrate ASP ($)- Split by material
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Key Takeaways
· Context
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Context technology
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Context applications
· Market trends
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Optical communication
§ Datacom
§ Telecom
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Mobile and Consumer
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Automotive and Mobility
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Industrial
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Medical
o
Aerospace and Defense
· Industry and
supply chain
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Who makes them and where are they used?
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Map of key players at component level
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Player positioning – Vertical integration in the laser
industry
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Substrates for Semiconductor Lasers
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Laser substrates ecosystem
§ Technology
trends
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Technology segmentation: by laser type
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Technology segmentation: by operation wavelengths
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Packages for semiconductor lasers
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Semiconductor laser technologies for optical
communication
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Semiconductor laser technologies: Tunable lasers
· Conclusions
· Yole Group
related products
· How to use our
data?
· Yole Group
Corporate Presentation