Addressable Market
Markets for microsystems will double over the next five years from $12 billion in 2004 to $25 billion in 2009, a CAGR of 16%, according to the new NEXUS III market report.
MST/MEMS sensors and actuators continue to consolidate their position in established IT peripheral markets for read/write heads and inkjet heads, in addition to creating new opportunities for microphones, memories, micro energy sources and chip coolers, for example. The automotive sector remains a major application field with several high-volume safety products, including air bags and tire pressure monitoring systems (source: NEXUS III market report).
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Figure 1 : Total market for the 26 main MNT products (Source: Nexus III market report) |
In 2009, read/write heads continue their dominance with 50% of the market. A new development is the ascendance of microdisplays (e.g. from Texas Instruments), which nudge the stable market for inkjet heads into third place. Emerging products such as microfuel cells, fingerprint sensors and liquid lenses will be worth a cumulative $250 million in five years (source NEXUS III market report).
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Figure 2: Application fields in 2004 and 2009 |
The overall aerospace segment is rather small (less than 1%). This can be explained by the low fault tolerance of aerospace systems that slowed the penetration of these new technologies. The lack of knowledge and understanding of the failure mechanisms has been the main inhibitor to the industrialization of Micro and Nano Systems. The mission of the CANEUS Reliability consortium will be to unlock technological bolts and provide technical solutions to reliability issues.
