CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Aug. 22 -- The worldwide market for integrated optical components will grow from $13.4 million in 2001 to $2.6 billion by 2005 asserts a report from Communications Industry Researchers Inc. (CIR), an optical networking and components consulting firm.
   According to CIR there are two reasons why the integrated optics market will grow: The strongest demand in the optical components industry is increasingly for access and metro products and these require low cost and a small footprint. These characteristics represent integrated optical components' potentiality.
   A major barrier to creating integrated optical circuits is disappearing because the optical components industry is abandoning the "pure", but hard-to-achieve, vision of monolithic optical integrated circuits on a single chip. Instead, the industry is adopting a more pragmatic vision of hybrid optical circuits in which single function chips will be bonded together within one package.