Report points to manufacturing opportunities for European photonics community

Salisbury, England--Working with the European Photonics Industry Consortium, Harlin Ltd. has published a report that highlights current and future opportunities for the manufacture of photonics components.

Conard Holton

Feb. 28, 2012

Working with the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC; www.epic-assoc.com), Harlin Ltd has published a report that highlights current and future opportunities for the manufacture of photonics components. The report--Manufacture of Photonics Components: A European Perspective--says that within the €9 billion European photonics component market, the most important component segments are:
- Photonics integrated circuits
- Optics
- Sensing, imaging, and projection
- Packaging
- Test, measurement, and reliability

The report sees certain common themes that represent windows of opportunity: 1) increased integration; 2) developing, participating in, and deploying standards; 3) the rise of wafer-level processes in photonics components production; and 4) the continued importance of customer proximity in high-performance applications, despite the globalization of many photonics markets.

To take advantage of opportunities, the report states that the European community must realize that the challenge to be met is not always technological or about adding photonic functionality. Rather, the hurdles and opportunities lie in up-front process such as market development and design, and back-end processes such as packaging, measurement, and standardization.

SOURCE: Harlin Ltd

About the Author

Conard Holton

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.