MEMS Shipments to Reach 54.2 Billion Units by 2020

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The cell phone market made up over half the MEMS unit volume in 2015. The low-end smartphones have fewer MEMS, but this segment is growing faster and cannibalizing feature phones. The low-end smartphones also have a growing number of MEMS in their Bill of Materials (BOMs). Unfortunately, growth in the cell phone market has slowed as the market has matured. What will be the next driver of substantial growth for MEMS? A new research report from Semico, MEMS Market Update: IoT as a Driving Force, forecasts that IoT applications such as consumer (home automation), mobile health and fitness (wearables) and industrial applications will be the new growth segments pushing MEMS shipments to reach 54.2 billion units by 2020.

"The large volumes of cell phones helped drive innovation in the MEMS market as well as keeping ASPs low," says Jim Feldhan, president of Semico Research. "But now that the cell phone market growth has slowed, what will take its place? We believe overall MEMS sales growth will be driven by a wide variety of emerging MEMS, such as proximity, temperature, humidity, bio sensors, RF MEMS, and ultrasonic."

Key findings of this new research include:

•  By 2020, gyro sales will be $5.1 billion.
•  In 2015, automotive accounted for 25.8% of sales.
•  Accelerometers are the most widely used MEMS type, accounting for 21.6% of unit volume by 2020.
•  MEMS ASPs have been falling at a steep rate with a drop of 11.2% in 2015.

Semico Research's new report, MEMS Market Update: IoT as a Driving Force, MP109-16, details MEMS and sensors by type and provides detailed information by product type and by end market. At 59 pages long, the report includes 26 tables and 27 figures.