Photonics technology is widely used in modern systems, where it delivers many essential functions ranging from data transmission to sensing. The datacenter & telecom photonic components market in 2018 reached a value of US$21B and is forecasted to grow to US$44B by 2025. This figure includes both discrete and photonic integrated circuit (PIC) components and includes the addition of new PIC based technologies such as polymer photonics and dielectric photonics. 

Integrated photonics will also be a critical component for IoT sensors and their connectivity. Globally, IoT sensor revenue was estimated at US$10.6B in 2016, and is expected to grow to US$47.8B in 2021 at a CAGR of 35%.

We view photonics as a systems-enabling technology, with a strong emphasis on integration, which means putting more photonic functionality onto each chip, as well as integration of photonics with other technologies, particularly microelectronics, using both hybrid and monolithic approaches. As this trend leads naturally to larger and more complex designs, there is a related trend toward greater design automation and verification capability. The trend toward higher levels of integration naturally favours the adoption of silicon photonics. However, silicon photonics chip volumes are still relatively very small, with current deployments in the high-end market (datacenters, high performance computing (HPC) etc.). 

Access barriers and costs need to be reduced in order for the use of silicon photonics to become universal and fully integrated with other high-performance technologies.