SAN MATEO, Calif. -- According to a new market study released by ElectroniCast Corp., the worldwide consumption value (use) of telecommunication optical circulators is showing signs of recovery in 2003. "In year 2000, the value of optical circulators actually consumed in telecommunication networks was $71.4 million," according to ElectroniCast President Stephen Montgomery. "After seeing the market slip in years 2001 and 2002, we are now seeing a significant increase in both volume (number of units) and value in 2003. 3-Port units are leading with a relative market share of over 80 percent; however, by year 2007 the 3-Port share will slip to 70 percent," Montgomery said.

Optical circulators are used in several applications, such as bi-directional transport systems for multiplexing the forward and reverse paths of the optical signal. Optical circulators are also appropriate in sensing and fiber optic instrumentation, such as optical time domain reflectometers (OTDRs) to counter the optical signal loss associated with a double pass of a 3dB fiber optic coupler/splitter. Another application for optical circulator use is with optical Fiber Gratings to build wavelength division multiplexers (WDMs), Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (OADMs) for WDM transport systems and several other applications.

In ElectroniCast's report, the optical circulator market is presented in segments:

ElectroniCast also segments the circulator use by application:

ElectroniCast Corp.