OIDA: Optoelectronics Market 'Vibrant'

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 -- The market for optoelectronics is vibrant, especially from a global perspective, said Michael Lebby, executive director of the Optical Industry Development Association (OIDA), in a presentation at SPIE's Optics East 2005, held last month in Boston.

He said that without factoring in the 1999-2002 optoelectronics business "bubble," the worldwide laser diode market exhibits 12 percent annual sustainable growth.

"In Asia, companies are focused more on the use of optoelectronics for entertainment and consumer applications, so they did not see the same 'bubble' as those companies focusing on the communications segment," Lebby said. "In Japan, for example, OIDA predictions show that optoelectronics will become a trillion dollar market by 2015."

OIDA will explore overall growth trends of optoelectronics for the next decade. The association has developed 10-year "roadmaps" on communications, sensors, photonics foundries and 40 Gb/s components, and did a comparison between communications technology in Japan and the US.

Lebby also focused on the rapid growth of the high-brightness LED (HBLED) in noncommunications markets such as mobile appliances, signs and displays, signals, illumination and particularly the automotive industry. He said white LEDS will likely appear in consumer vehicles in 2007 or 2008 -- in headlights, interior lighting, day-running front sidelight, indicator lights and backlights for dash consoles -- and that the HBLED market will grow to over $7 billion by 2009.

OIDA will sponsor a workshop on HBLEDs next spring. It will also host a workshop, "Wide Area Surveillance of Perimeters," Dec. 13-14 in Washington, in conjunction with the OSA Conference on Optical Solutions for Homeland and National Security.

The workshop agenda and registration information are available at: www.oida.org