Optical Lens Supply Chain Analysis

Optical lens can be categorized into two types: Prime lens and Zoom lens. According to the characteristics of lens, optical lens is mainly divided into three types: glass lens, plastic lens and glass-plastic hybrid lens. The three are different in terms of process difficulty and production capability.

The start optical lens’s supply chain is materials industry includes optical glass, optical plastic and other materials. Then optical components, electronic components, machinery structural parts, etc. In general, the market is in full competition. Ample supply and stable price.

Optical lens is the core component of the optical imaging system, playing a key role in the quality of imaging. Thanks to the rapid development optoelectronic technology starting from 20th century, optical lens, as an important information input port in the field of optoelectronics, is expanding its applications from the optical microscope, telescope and film cameras to the fields of security and surveillance, digital cameras, smart phones, etc.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the mobile Internet, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other technologies, optical lens applications are further enriched into machine vision, automatic driving, smart home, video conferencing, sports DV, VR/AR devices, drones, 3D Sensing, computer vision and other popular emerging applications.  New applications are driving the sustainable development of the optical lens industry.

Different types of optical lens applications are very widely, including: plastic lenses are mainly used in smart phones; glass lenses are mainly used in high-end surveillance, automotive imaging systems, machine vision and high-end emerging consumer electronics field; glass-plastic hybrid lenses are more widely used for almost all the mentioned areas.