Since the late 1990s, annual sensor sales have declined only once, slipping just 2% in the 2009 downturn before surging 53% in the 2010 recovery year. The solid-state sensor market grew 21% in 2011. Between 2011 and 2016, worldwide sensor sales are expected to increase by a compound annual growth rate of 18%, growing to $10.9 billion in the final forecast year of the new 2012 O-S-D Report.
Within the sensor market segment, accelerometers and gyroscope devices (i.e., acceleration and yaw sensors) 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. Sales of magnetic-field sensors, such as Hall-effect devices and electronic compass chips, will grow by a CAGR of 16% to $2.7 billion in 2016 from $1.3 billion in 2011, according to IC Insights’ new O-S-D Report. 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.
Accelerometers and gyroscope devices, along with most pressure sensors, use microelectromechanical systems structures to measure and detect changes around them. MEMS-based devices now account for about 70% of total sensor revenues compared to 54% in 2005. The 2012 O-S-D Report shows MEMS-based sensors sales growing by a CAGR of 19% between 2011 and 2016. Sensors are part of a broader semiconductor market segment that also includes actuators, such as micro-mirror devices, surface-acoustic wave filters, microfluidic chips, inkjet nozzle components, and other MEMS-based products that initiate physical actions from electronic signals. 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 new O-S-D Report’s five-year forecast.
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The 340-page 2012 edition of the O-S-D Report continues to expand IC Insights’ coverage of the semiconductor industry with detailed analysis of trends and growth rates in the optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discretes market segments. The seventh annual edition of the report contains a detailed forecast of sales, unit shipments, and selling prices for more than 30 individual product types and categories through 2016. The new O-S-D Report (with 230 charts and figures) is available for $2,990, which includes Internet-accessible PDF files under an individual-user license. Additional users can be added for $695 each. A multi-user corporate license is $6,090. The report is also available in an optional CD-ROM media format for an additional price of $295.
