Date: 18/06/2012

IC Insights: Sensor sales growing at 18% in 2012 to $5.7 billion

IC Insights has released the 2012 Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes (O-S-D) report. The report shows sensor sales growing at 18% in 2012 to $5.7 billion, surpassing the $4.8 billion record set in 2011. The semiconductor sales to achieve double-digit growth rates and high dollar volumes each year through 2016 as more system products gain the ability to automatically control and protect themselves, understand movement, detect changes around them and support new user interfaces.

The annual sensor sales have declined only once since late 1990s, slipping just 2% in the 2009 downturn. The sales surged 53% in the 2010 to recover. The solid-state sensor market grew 21% in 2011. Worldwide sensor sales are expected to increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% between 2011 and 2016 as it grew to $10.9 billion in the final forecast year of the report.



The sensor market including accelerometers and gyroscope devices continue to be the largest and fastest-growing product category, with dollar volumes projected to increase by a CAGR of 20% to $5.9 billion in 2016 compared to $2.4 billion in 2011. The sales of magnetic-field sensors, such as Hall-effect devices and electronic compass chips, to grow by a CAGR of 16% to $2.7 billion in 2016 from $1.3 billion in 2011, forecasts IC Insights. Pressure sensor sales are expected to rise by a CAGR of 15% to $2.0 billion in 2016 from about $1.0 billion in 2011.

MEMS-based devices account for about 70% of total sensor revenues compared to 54% in 2005. The report shows MEMS-based sensors sales growing by a CAGR of 19% between 2011 and 2016. Sensor sales accounted for 56% of this market’s overall sales in 2011, while actuators represented 44%, or $3.7 billion, last year. MEMS-based actuator sales are expected to grow by a CAGR of 15% to $7.5 billion in 2016, according to the report’s five-year prediction.

Source: IC Insights
Author: Srinivasa Reddy N