Date: 26/02/2017

Internet of Things: a promising future for sensors

IOT and wearables is a huge market enabler for sensors, more particularly the advanced MEMS sensors. The sensors such as Inertial, pressure, temperature, (bio-)chemical and gas sensors, microphones, fingerprint and iris recognition will see huge growth as IOT gets implemented.

Market researcher Yole Développement said the wearable industry was originally supposed to reach 295 million units by 2020, with a market value of US$95 billion. However, Yole finds a consumer market slowdown, half-baked products and a lack of use cases have limited the popularity of wearables and reduced the potential value of this market in 2020.

Yole sees opportunities for the sensors in the healthcare market in products such as hearing aids, blood pressure monitors, back monitor sensors which are expected to grow at a moderate rate, according to Yole. On the industrial market, Yole projects steady growth through to 2019, with a significant uptick commencing in 2020.

"Multiple connected sensors (including infrared, air quality, visible imagers, smart thermostats, etc.) and associated services will be key for energy savings and increased security in the smart homes and buildings of the future.", as per Yole.

Fraunhofer EMFT and Yole together have announced the second MEMS & Sensors seminar focused on MEMS & Sensors technologies for IoT applications:

• The seminar, entitled “The Promising Future of Sensors for IoT”, will take place in Munich, Germany on July 3 & 4, 2017.