WELLESELY, MA—A new technical market research report from BCC Research, Photonic Crystals: Technology and Global Markets, estimates that the global market for photonic crystals will be worth $13.9 million in 2007. The report predicts an increase to $32 million in 2008 and $666.4 million by 2013, a compound average annual growth rate (CAGR) of 84%.
The market is broken down into applications of light emission, information technology, optical sensing, energy conversion, light energy delivery, and other applications. Of these, light emission has the largest share of the market. Expected to be worth $12 million in 2008, this segment will grow to $295 million by the end of 2013, for a CAGR of 90%.
The second largest segment, information technology, will be worth an estimated $7 million in 2008. Photonic crystals are at the heart of new CMOS-based transceivers expected to begin production in 2008. These products are expected to finally establish photonic crystals in the telecom market, driving a 98% growth rate, allowing this segment to reach an estimated $211.8 million by 2013.
The light energy delivery segment is expected to be worth $5 million by the end of 2008 and reach $80.8 million by 2013, for a CAGR of 74%.
Photonic crystalline materials have existed at the leading edge of photonics research and development for the last decade. They are defined as a complex two- or three-dimensional periodic arrangement of two materials with a large difference in their indices of refraction. Progress towards commercial applications has accelerated significantly within the past two to three years. Photonic crystals appear poised to begin moving out of the lab and into the marketplace.
Early stages of this emergence have already been signaled by a migration of research reports from physics to engineering journals; a rapid increase in the number of patent applications; the launch of several governmental programs with funding targeted specifically at photonic crystal applications development; and the appearance of research and development projects at major corporate labs.