DFB lasers at ~10 mW/dollar may follow LED's path to commodity pricing
jwt0625 · x · 2026-10-17
The interconnect boom's best outcome may be DFB lasers getting as cheap as LEDs. DFB now runs 10 mW/dollar vs LEDs' 100 mW/dollar; DFB (incl. EML) ships sub-billion units (30 MW/yr) while LEDs ship in trillions (30 GW/yr).
Per-capita: everyone owns 1,000 LEDs (10M counting micro emitters) but only 0.1 DFB lasers, half hidden in PON ONTs, half in data centers. The gap lies in applications (huge sensing potential) and availability of optoelectronic packaging knowledge and services.
Related event: DFB Lasers May Follow LEDs Into Cheap Commodity Territory(2 posts)→
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