Sensors market is `exploding`

The market for industrial sensors is "exploding" with new applications likely to emerge in the next few years, as technology and price barriers fall away, a new report* suggests. Developments in industrial sensors and related technologies are "occurring at a phenomenal rate", the market analyst Frost & Sullivan declares.

This progress is being driven by a combination of factors including developments in semiconductor technology, the emergence of "smart" sensors, and demands from industrial users for complex, yet cost-effective, sensing products. As a result, today`s sensors are faster, more sensitive, accurate, reliable, stable and durable, and exhibit reduced hysteresis, F&S reports.

But the study also warns that the rapid advances in sensing technology could have drawbacks. "While the evolving nature of technologies in this sector could propel the development of new technologies, the fast pace of development may also act as a hurdle," says F&S research analyst, Archana Jayarajah. "Companies need to constantly update, upgrade, and adopt new technologies as the existing technologies or products may face obsolescence."

In some cases, sensing technologies which already exist for non-industrial applications can be adapted readily to the needs of industry. This may mean re-optimising these technologies but, in other cases, new technologies will need to be developed from scratch for industrial applications.

* Emerging sensor technologies for industrial automation and process control (D499).