In a depressed visible LED industry, manufacturers are looking at new opportunities to increase their revenues and margins. In this context, the IR LED market is perceived as a potential new ‘blue ocean’ with attractive opportunities for those players.

While LEDs are important, VCSEL technology is the hot topic. “IR LEDs represented around 65% of the IR light source market in 2016, but this figure is likely to decrease to 45% in 2022,” commented Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole Développement (Yole). Development of 3D cameras and autofocus applications, associated with the sensor fusion trend in smartphones and automotive, will strongly drive growth of the IR VCSEL market in the future (1).

All these topics will be discussed during the First Executive Forum on Laser Technologies created by Yole’s analysts, in collaboration with CIOE. Taking place on September 6&7 in Shenzhen, China, the Forum proposes an impressive agenda composed of 4 sessions, 19 presentations, debates and networking. All along the Forum, industrial experts will debate about the latest innovations, market trends and business opportunities. They will make a special focus on laser manufacturing and analyze the emerging applications. The agenda is now available: LASER FORUM AGENDA.

What are the technologies perspectives? What are the latest advances in semiconductor manufacturing? What will be the next applications? Innovation enables the identification of new business opportunities. It has further accelerated the adoption of laser solutions in many areas.

IR VCSEL represents a good compromise between traditional laser diodes, providing coherent and directional light, and IR LEDs, offering lower manufacturing cost and ease of integration. Additionally, IR VCSELs allow new sensing approaches, such as ToF . In this context, the IR VCSEL industry will be at the center of the attention and should experience strong growth in coming years. It is also likely that some players will work on both IR LEDs and lasers to maximize their revenues.

“Opportunities for both technologies will also be dependent on developments to overcome current limitations, towards longer wavelengths, higher performance, multi-spectral functionality and lower cost,” analyzed Yole’s expert, Pierrick Boulay. Typically, most current IR LEDs are in the 850nm or 940nm range. To enable emerging applications such as gas sensors or portable/integrated spectroscopy systems, longer wavelengths will be mandatory. In addition, integration of these light sources into sensors and modules will also be part of the challenge to be handled by the photonics industry.

Pierrick Boulay from Yole is one of the key speaker of the Emerging Applications session in the First Executive Forum on Laser Technologies agenda. Based on his strong expertise on LED lighting (general lighting, automotive lighting…) and OLED lighting, Pierrick proposes a relevant presentation, titled “IR laser: At the heart of the industry in coming years”. He will highlight the status of laser technologies and emerging applications including 3D camera, LIDAR, proximity sensors… This session also welcome other experts of the industry:
•  Rainer Paetzel, Director of Marketing, Coherent
•  Steven Hsieh, Senior Industry Analyst, ITRI
•  Hans van der Tang, Director Sales & Marketing – APAC Region, ElectroniCast Consultants

First Executive Forum’s program is also offering several networking times to discuss with industrial leaders and identify business opportunities… Discover the agenda and register today: LASER FORUM REGISTRATION