To coincide with the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC), component manufacturers released and demonstrated a host of new products in March. According to Strategy Analytics, this activity underscores the dramatic shift to higher data consumption. The recently published Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs) viewpoint, “Compound Semiconductor Industry Review March 2011: Optoelectronics, Materials and Equipment,” captures March 2011 product, technology, contract and financial announcements for optoelectronic companies such as AIXTRON, Kopin, Cree, Philips Lumileds, Fujitsu, Spire Corp. and XSunX.

“Consumer and business adoption of data-intensive applications is driving changes in the entire electronics industry,” noted Eric Higham, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service. “The optical transport layer is the backbone of this increased demand. The industry is responding with higher data rate capacity.”

Asif Anwar, a Director in the Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice, added, “We are seeing the majority of new optical networking products and components with data capability of at least 40 Gbps per second, many at 100 Gbps, providing faster processing.”

This viewpoint summarizes March 2011 financial, product, contract and employment announcements from major optoelectronic material, device and equipment suppliers. These announcements are categorized by material and equipment, laser, LED and compound photovoltaic activity.