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Harsh Environment Fiber Optic Components/Devices Market Forecast

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    Report

  • 471 Pages
  • February 2018
  • Region: Global
  • ElectroniCast
  • ID: 4620964
This report presents estimates and forecast of global consumption and technology of fiber optic components, and their supporting devices and parts, which are designed to operate in harsh environments, beyond the environment of commercial telecom and datacom (premise) installations.

This extensive and detailed worldwide market estimates and forecast is presented for each significant fiber optic component category and the supporting devices and parts category. Regional market segmentation is provided. End applications are discussed, a competitive analysis is provided.

The environments encountered by the components included in this analysis and forecast often require custom designed packaging, with much smaller quantities required, compared to packaging of components for conventional/commercial applications. The environmental extremes that must be accommodated are greater, there often is a need for minimizing size and weight, shock and vibration environments are more extreme.

Harsh Environment Defined Harsh Environment (HE) is defined, for this report, as environment beyond the limits normally encountered by commercial telecom, datacom and commercial intra-equipment fiber data links; extremes of:
  • Temperature; above or below (-40 to +75) degrees C

  • Shock and vibration

  • Tensile strength (e.g., for fiber-guided missiles, tethered sensors/decoys, etc.)

  • High electromagnetic or radio-frequency (EMI/RFI/EMP) interference

  • Corrosive and/or solvent surroundings

  • Atomic and other Radiation

  • External pressure extremes

  • Rough handling during installation/deployment

  • Others

  • Necessary rough handling during installation or deployment also qualifies as a “harsh environment”.


The specifications of these environments also vary widely, beyond commercial specifications, depending on applications. A high temperature requirement of 85 degrees C for military/aerospace, instead of 75 degrees C commercial is most common, but there are 1000 degree C environments; 100G shock, 1500 rem/hr radiation, etc. that can be required of some fiber optic components. [Rem (roentgen equivalent man), the rem is a unit used to derive a quantity called equivalent dose.]

Although military applications, plus non-military aerospace, dominate the market value of harsh environment fiber optic communication links, commercial telecom and datacom links sometimes must withstand, and operate during, stress beyond typical specifications. Telecom cable installed in sewers and steam tunnels are examples, and also are RF signal (on optical carrier) links installed on antenna towers.

A significant concern of copper signal cables is the vulnerability of the signals to interference caused by radio signals, sparks of arc welders and motor brushes, hostile high-energy pulses, and engine cylinder ignition. As fiber signal link costs continue downward, and as transmitted data rates continue to increase, fiber increasingly will displace copper in automotive, factory and numerous other applications.

While conventional glass fiber cable and optoelectronics are immune to EMI and RFI, plastic optical fiber (POF) is equally immune, is more resistant to other harsh environments such as shock/vibration and rough handling during installation, and permits lower cost fiber links in high volume automated production.

To a large extent, harsh environment fiber optic components are designed to meet specific project specifications, rather than being semi-standard; suitable for a number of different applications. Fiber cable and connectors are exceptions; most harsh environment fiber cable assemblies use rugged connectors and cable that are standardized and commercially available from several vendors. Transmitter/receiver modules, optical backplanes, WDM modules and most other components, however, are designed, or modified to meet unique system applications. They are produced in quantities from a few dozen to a few hundred, per year, resulting in much higher unit prices (including amortization of R&D and tooling costs) compared to similar optoelectronic performance COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) components.

Through the 1990s, harsh environment fiber optic interconnect link applications typically installed the optoelectronics in a protected, benign environment such as the staffed communication compartments of ships; transportable shelters and missile launch sites. Thus, connectors and fiber cable led component value.

Now in 2018, however, numerous aircraft, missile systems and other applications that are totally in harsh environments, using fiber optic interconnect links, which are advancing into volume production.

According to the study, the worldwide value of Harsh Environment Fiber Optic (HEFO) components reached an estimated $2.74 billion last year. In this new market study, for the first-time - the author added the consumption totals of fiber point sensors used in harsh environments to the total value data.

The value of HEFO components are forecasted to increase at an average annual growth rate of 11.8% (2017-2022) and 8.6% during the 2nd-half of the forecast period (2022-2027), reaching $7.26 billion in 2027. Market forecast data in this study report refers to consumption (use) for a particular calendar year; therefore, this data is not cumulative data.

The Military/Aerospace category is set to maintain the leadership position, in terms of value, throughout the forecast period; however in terms of volume (quantity of units), the Commercial/Industrial is set to maintain the dominant leadership position; HEFO components are priced relatively much lower in Commercial/Industrial applications versus Military/Aerospace applications.

Market Forecast by Region
  • Global Summary

  • America

  • Asia Pacific (APAC)

  • Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA)


Market Forecast by Function
  • Consumption Value (US$, million)

  • Quantity (number/by 1,000 units)

  • Average Selling Prices (ASP $, each)


This market forecast and analysis, which covers the years 2017-2027, is presented for each significant fiber optic component category and the supporting devices and parts category. The Microsoft Excel-based database is structured in a hierarchical format, with data groups at the lowest structural level, summing to a higher-level category for each significant fiber optic component and the supporting devices and parts, and by applications, as detailed in Tables 1 and 2.

Table of Contents

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 Overview
1.2 Fiber Optic Components and Devices/Parts Overview
1.2.1 Applications
1.2.2 Components
1.2.3 Devices & Parts
1.3 Customers
1.4 Selected Component Trends
1.4.1 Transmitters and Receivers
1.4.2 Optical Fiber Amplifiers
1.4.2 Fiber Optic Cable
1.5 Selected Devices and Parts Trends
2 HARSH ENVIRONMENT FIBER OPTIC COMPONENT MARKET ANALYSIS & FORECAST
2.1 Overview
2.1.1 Optical Fiber
2.2 Active Component Market Analysis, by Function
2.2.1 Transmitter Receiver
2.2.2 Optical Fiber Amplifiers
2.2.3 Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOAs)
2.2.4 Other Active Function Harsh Environment Components
2.3 Passive Components
2.3.1 Cable Assemblies
2.3.2 Optical and Hybrid Backplanes
2.3.3 Photonic Switches
2.3.4 Filter Modules
2.3.5 Fiber Optic Point Sensors
2.3.6 Other Optical Components
2.4 HEFO Component Analysis, by Region
3 DEVICES AND PARTS MARKET ANALYSIS & FORECAST
3.1 Overview
3.2 Devices and Parts Analysis and Forecast
3.2.1 Active Devices/Parts
3.2.1.1 Emitters
3.2.1.2 Detectors
3.2.1.3 Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs)
3.2.1.4 Other Active Devices/Parts
3.2.2 Passive Devices/Parts
3.2.2.1 Fiber Cable
3.2.2.2 Composite Cable
3.2.2.3 Cable Connectors
3.2.2.4 Packages
3.2.2.5 Other Devices and Parts
4. APPLICATION TRENDS
4.1 Military/Aerospace
4.1.1 Military (non-commercial) Aircraft
4.1.2 Shipboard/Submarine
4.1.3 Missile and Laser Weapon Systems
4.1.4 Base Communication Facilities
4.1.5 Sensor Facilities
4.1.6 Other Military/Aerospace
4.2 Industrial/Commercial -Overview
4.2.1 Factory Applications
4.2.2 Heavy Duty/Mobile Machinery Applications
4.2.3 Transportation
4.2.4 Medical and Laboratory
4.2.5 Exploration/Resource Recovery
4.2.6 Other Harsh Environment Fiber Optic Applications
5. TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
5.1 Packaging
5.2 Integration
5.3 Radiation Hardening
5.4 Higher Data Rates Per Channel
5.5 Expanded Multichannel/Multifiber Links
5.6 Backplanes
5.7 Photonic Switches
5.8 Plastic Optical Fiber
5.9 Wavelength Division Multiplexing
5.10 Fiber Optic Sensors
6. CUSTOMER REVIEW7. COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
8. DEFINITIONS AND ACRONYMS
8.1 Acronyms, Abbreviations and General Terms
9. RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY

Samples

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Executive Summary

According to the study, the worldwide value of Harsh Environment Fiber Optic (HEFO) components reached an estimated $2.74 billion last year (see Figure 1). In this new market study, for the first-time - the author added the consumption totals of fiber point sensors used in harsh environments to the total value data.

The value of HEFO components are forecasted to increase at an average annual growth rate of 11.8% (2017-2022) and 8.6% during the 2nd-half of the forecast period (2022-2027), reaching $7.26 billion in 2027. Market forecast data in this study report refers to consumption (use) for a particular calendar year; therefore, this data is not cumulative data.

The Military/Aerospace category is set to maintain the leadership position, in terms of value, throughout the forecast period; however in terms of volume (quantity of units), the Commercial/Industrial is set to maintain the dominant leadership position; HEFO components are priced relatively much lower in Commercial/Industrial applications versus Military/Aerospace applications.

Through the 1990-2000 decade, the harsh environment active fiber optic component consumption was dominated by system contractor’s captive production. These components and parts typically were custom-designed for the specific application, starting from purchased commercial units, which were then modified (a substantial design effort) to meet the environmental requirements of a specific missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other system. Some of these system contractors now are transitioning into supplying these components to other contractors, and some commercial-component vendors are developing harsh environment versions of their commercial components. A major share of harsh environment fiber optic cable assemblies (both plastic and glass optical fiber based) are provided by connector vendors and by specialized cable assembly operations. An estimated 48% of the total worldwide value of $2.74 billion is attributed to the “available” merchant market relative to industry standard product serving the “rugged” or harsh environment demand in 2017 (see Figure 2).

The environments encountered by the components in harsh environments often require custom designed packaging, with much smaller quantities required, compared to packaging of components for conventional/commercial applications. The environmental extremes that must be accommodated are greater, there often is a need for minimizing size and weight, and shock, temperature and vibration environments are more extreme.

In military and aerospace applications, the package must be verified, by extensive tests, to withstand the specified environmental extremes. These design, tooling and test/qualification costs often must be amortized over dozens to hundreds of packages, in contrast to the thousands to hundreds of thousands (and up) involved in commercial applications; therefore, the Global consumption of packages for production of harsh environment components and devices will expand at a modest rate (as design and qualification costs increasingly have been amortized over earlier production).

According to the report, the worldwide forecast of fiber optic components used in harsh environments, including point sensors, will increase from an estimated $2.74 billion in 2017 to $7.26 billion in 2027 (Figure 1)

Companies Mentioned

  • AFL
  • Amphenol Corporation
  • Aptiv Plc (Delphi Automotive)
  • Aurora Optics Incorporated
  • Bel Fuse Inc. (Cinch Connectors-Bel Group)
  • Belden Incorporated
  • Clearfield, Inc.
  • CommScope Inc. / TE Connectivity Ltd. (Raychem)
  • Corning Incorporated (AFOP); (also see 3M)
  • Diamond SA
  • Euromicron Group (Sachsenkabel)
  • Fiber Instruments Sales Inc.
  • Fischer Connectors SA
  • Furukawa/Fitel/OFS
  • Glenair Inc.
  • Greenlee Textron Inc., a subsidiary of Textron Inc.
  • Hirose Electric Co., Ltd.
  • Hubbell Incorporated
  • ILSINTECH
  • Inno Instrument
  • ITT Cannon and Veam
  • LEMO Connectors
  • Leviton Manufacturing Co., Incorporated
  • Molex, LLC (Koch Industries, Inc.)
  • Optical Cable Corporation (OCC®)
  • Radiall
  • SEIKOH GIKEN CO., Ltd.
  • Senko Advanced Components (SENKO Sangyo Co., Ltd.)
  • Shenzhen Powerlink Electronic Technology Co. Ltd
  • Smiths Connectors
  • SOURIAU (Eaterline)
  • Sumitomo Electric Lightwave (SEI)
  • TE Connectivity
  • Techwin (China) Industry Co., Ltd
  • 3M Interconnect Solutions; (also see Corning)