Sensors are a big business that will continue throughout this decade. That’s what emanated from the 17th annual Sensors Expo held at Detroit’s Cobo Hall June 7-10, whose theme of “the next wave in sensing innovation” befits its strong technical program content and the wide range of exhibited new products.
The automotive sector alone is a large market. For example, take a look at a market study (see figure) performed by Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) and you can see why sensor manufacturers are jubilant about the future of their business in the automotive market. According to senior analyst Mark Fitzgerald, total automotive sensor demand by application will increase across all sectors, requiring nearly 1 trillion units for safety applications.
Roger Grace of Roger Grace Associates (rgrace@rgrace.com), a MEMS/MST market expert on automotive sensors, foresees a steady growth in automobile production. This will be influenced further by the continuous introduction of new safety, convenience, and performance functions, creating a market growth in MEMS/MST sensors by 2007 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% to 14%. In addition to present manifold-air-pressure (MAP), airbag-accelerometer, and wheel-speed sensor applications, he foresees future large-volume applications in tire-pressure monitoring, gyro/rate sensing for vehicle dynamic control, brake-pressure sensing, engine injection-pressure sensing, and fuel evaporation pressure sensing.
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