Development trends of infrared laser lighting technology and market applications from 2024 to 2030 ( Part 3 )

IV, there is an increasing demand for special functions and special environmental applications.

Comparison of smoke transmission effects between visible light and shortwave infrared laser lighting

With the rapid development of laser technology, the demand for the application of 1550nm short wave infrared (SWIR) laser lighting modules in high-end professional market areas such as harsh climate environments, military and police safety supervision, border and coastal defense, forest fire prevention, and industrial testing is gradually increasing. Compared with infrared laser illumination modules of other wavelengths, shortwave infrared laser illumination modules have three incomparable advantages:

    ● Has strong ability to penetrate smoke, rain, fog, and haze;

    ● Completely without any red burst phenomenon, with excellent secrecy;

    ● High laser safety level, especially for human eye safety.

The 1550nm shortwave infrared laser lighting module with an effective fill distance of 500m from 3KM Optoelectronics Company has been tested to meet the safety requirements of Class 3B lasers in terms of laser energy density. The minimum angle of eye safety distance is less than 3m. Although shortwave infrared laser lighting has such a strong competitive advantage, its market share growth is slow and relatively small in the short term due to its application requiring the use of expensive shortwave cameras. According to the development data over the past two years, it is estimated that the market share will increase from 1% to about 10% from 2024 to 2030.

In addition, the demand for infrared laser lighting modules in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) monitoring optoelectronic pods is also increasing. Especially in the coming years, industrial grade UAVs will show explosive development, with smaller and lighter requirements for infrared laser fill lights. However, the requirements for image quality and effective distance of laser night vision lighting are becoming higher and farther.

The most important characteristics of the zoom infrared laser lighting modules for drones are light weight, small size, low energy consumption, and good vibration resistance. As of December 2023, the smallest and lightest product on the market is still the 500m zoom infrared laser lighting module exclusively developed by 3KM Optoelectronics for DJI drones in 2017. It weighs only 60g and has an IP65 rating.

Thumb sized, weighing about 60g, with a fill distance of 800m

But this record has been broken by the unmanned aerial vehicle specific zoom infrared laser lighting module released by 3KM Optoelectronics in January 2024. It is only the size of a thumb, but its farthest effective lighting distance reaches 800m. Its weight, volume, and energy consumption are reduced by about one-third compared to the former. It has intelligent dimming and automatic focusing functions, making it a "the magic lamp" for drone laser night vision monitoring fill light. It can fully meet the monitoring fill light needs of industrial and professional drones, and has successfully cooperated with several well-known drone brands for application. I believe that this series of products will also firmly occupy the leading position of "lightest, smallest, and farthest" drone specific zoom infrared laser lighting modules in the next 5-10 years, and is expected to increase the market sales proportion of long-range laser illumination modules to 15-20%.

V, fixed focus infrared laser lights unintentionally insert willows and willows into emerging high-tech industries

The fixed focus infrared laser light was launched in 2017 with the aim of replacing the high-end market of LED infrared lights and filling the market gap where LED cannot reach the range of 150-300m.

Explosion proof fixed focus infrared laser lights

Although compared to LED infrared lights, fixed focus infrared laser lights have absolute advantages in effective fill distance, image clarity, and service life. Moreover, fixed focus infrared laser lights play a very important and irreplaceable role in some high-end markets and harsh environments, such as oil depots with explosion-proof requirements, extremely cold and high temperature scenarios with industrial grade working temperature requirements of -40 ℃ to+85 ℃, remote or low visibility scenarios such as energy mining and border defense. However, due to the fact that most of the close range night vision monitoring supplementary lighting market has gradually been occupied by low illumination full-color monitoring cameras, the market share of fixed focus infrared laser supplementary lighting replacing LED infrared is far from what was initially estimated.

Fortunately, in recent years, with the rapid development of modern intelligent manufacturing industry, LED infrared lighting with large lighting angles and short service life has become increasingly difficult to meet the development needs of some high-end technology equipment. For example, navigation inspection equipment, medical inspection equipment, industrial inspection, visual sensing, autonomous driving, TOF, VR, AR, MR, etc. These small and precise fixed focus infrared laser lights precisely provide high-quality lighting sources and relatively low-cost solutions for these high-precision and cutting-edge industry equipment. However, the quantity of these market application areas currently cannot be compared with security night vision monitoring, and still needs to be gradually developed, which may take three to five years, or even longer.

Overall, the research and application needs of infrared laser night vision lighting technology are mutually influencing and developing together, and the overall market capacity is expanding year by year. The demand for applications in fields such as ultra long distance, high-definition, special functions, and high-tech industries is increasing, and there will be significant growth in the three directions of ultra long distance, miniaturization, and specialization in the coming years. At the same time, it will also activate new development opportunities for visible light laser night vision lighting with many similarities in application technology, such as automotive lighting, night lighting, maritime search and rescue, laser bird repellent, laser beacon, etc. Market demand is the driving force behind industry technological development, and technological development leads market application demand, complementing each other.