Cloud operator capex for hyperscale datacenter expansion drove Datacom optical component revenue growth by 27% to reach $4.7B in 2021, as reported in Cignal AI’s new Optical Components Report. This growth outstripped component revenue growth from Telecom, Consumer, and Industrial optical component applications. Total revenue for optical components across all four segments grew 15% to reach $14.5B in 2021.
The Optical Components Report also tracks detailed unit shipments of Datacom and Telecom transceivers across multiple module types and reaches. Shipments of 400GbE Datacom modules doubled and reached record levels in 2021, as large cloud operators and select enterprise customers transitioned from 100G to this new speed.
“The transition to 400GbE is well underway, and pluggable coherent 400Gbps technology is revolutionizing the design of the optical networks that connect datacenters,” said Scott Wilkinson, Lead Optical Component Analyst at Cignal AI. “400Gbps speeds will drive spending and bandwidth growth both inside and outside the datacenter in 2022.”
More Key Findings from the 4Q21 Optical Components Report:
- Supply chain difficulties limited Telecom optical components market growth the most in 2021. However, the segment is forecast to grow more than 8% in 2022.
- Consumer component revenue for 3D sensing applications was flat YoY as lower-cost components offset higher unit shipments.
- Industrial optical components used for welding and medical applications grew 18% in 2021, following a weak 2020. Following the acquisition of Coherent, II-VI is poised to control over 50% of this market.
- 1.8M QSFP-DD Datacom modules shipped during 2021, most of which were DR4 format. The report also tracks SR4, FR4, and LR4 Datacom transceivers.
- Over 60k 400Gbps pluggable coherent modules shipped last year, the majority of which were QSFP-DD ZR. The report captures the shipment details of all the emerging derivatives of this format, including ZR, ZR+, 0dB ZR+, and CFP2 based ZR+.
- Shipments of 200Gbps coherent CFP2 modules grew 17% to just over 200k units during 2021 as Chinese OEMs ramp this speed (which is less dependent on western technology) for longer distance metro and long haul applications.
https://cignal.ai/2022/04/datacom-optical-component-revenue-nearly-5b-in-2021/