Nine O-S-D Product Categories Achieved Record High Sales in 2015

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In 2015, nine product categories within the optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discretes (O-S-D) marketplace reached record-high sales compared to seven in 2014 and six in 2013. In 2015, five sales records were achieved in optoelectronics and four in the sensors/actuators market (including total sensor sales and MEMS-based semiconductors, which are made up of pressure sensors, accelerometers, gyroscope chips, and actuators). No records were set in discretes.  Ten new sales records are expected to be set in the O-S-D marketplace in 2016.  All the products shown in Figure 1 are forecast to increase in 2016, which will lift them again to new record-high levels. In addition, a new 2016 sales record is expected to be set in magnetic-field sensors, which include electronic compass chips used in smartphones and other portable systems for navigation and location-identification applications.

Sales of MEMS-based products are forecast to rise 4.4% in 2016 to reach a new record high of $8.8 billion, surpassing the all-time peak of $8.4 billion set in 2015, when revenues grew 5.1%.

Combined O-S-D revenues increased 3.4% in 2015 to a record-high $66.6 billion and accounted for 18.8% of the semiconductor industry’s $353.7 billion total sales in 2015, compared to 15.3% in 2005 and 12.7% in 1995.  Modest improvements in the global economy, steady increases in electronics production, and new end-use applications—such as wearable systems and widespread connections to the Internet of Things (IoT)—are forecast to lift all three O-S-D markets in the next five years—with optoelectronics growing by a CAGR of 8.3%, sensors/actuators rising by an annual rate of 5.6%, and discretes increasing by an average of 3.5% per year in the 2015-2020 forecast period.