Today's cars are riddled with sensors providing critical data for performance and safety. Initially, sensors were the first link in the signal path that monitors engine and drive train parameters, such as oxygen, fluids, temperatures, voltages, and currents, but their usage soon expanded to the feedback loop from various actuators and motors, including antilock-brake systems and power-window motors. Of course, they are vital to the crash sensing of air-bag-deployment systems.
According to a soon-to-be-released report RGB-323 Automotive Sensors from Business Communications Company, Inc, the $10.5-plus billion worldwide automotive sensor market in 2005 will continue to grow at an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 6.1% to $14.2 billion in 2010.
Automotive safety represents a growing and the most stable market for sensors due to the influence from national governments, consumers, and the automakers themselves. Automotive sensors have to be able to stand up to a tough environment. Dirt, humidity, salt, fuel additives, vibrations, and severe shocks call for the highest standards. Furthermore, sensors must be able to take all of this, including temperatures ranging from -400 to +1,600°C, without any significant deviation in accuracy over the entire lifetime of a vehicle.
From 2005 to 2010, sensors will show highest usage growth trend in safety with an AAGR of 13.7%, followed by in-cabin systems with an AAGR of 6.2%. During the period, position, speed, and oxygen sensors will rise at an AAGR of 6.7%; pressure and acceleration sensors at 5.7%; and mass airflow, temperature, and other sensors at 4.6%. Position, speed, and oxygen sensors will remain the largest market segment, rising from $6.2 billion in 2005 to $8.6 billion in 2010.
The automotive sensor business is a typical OEM business; there is virtually no consumer aftermarket. Either the car manufacturer or the tier-one supplier, depending on who has responsibility for a certain system, specifies the sensors. Car manufacturers and tier-one system suppliers form the customer base for the sensor supplier. On the supply side, the market can be roughly grouped into three categories:
- System suppliers with in-house sensor component manufacturing like Denso, Delphi, Siemens, Bosch.
- Semiconductor manufacturers who also have a sensor business, like Freescale (Motorola), Texas Instruments, Infineon, Philips, and Analog Devices, supply partly to OEMs and partly to system manufacturers.
- Sensor specialists like Kavlico, Melexis, Allegro, Sensonor, Ruf, Hitachi, Systron-Donner, Murata, and VTI-Hamlin supply partly to OEMs and partly to system suppliers.
The automotive sensor market is an attractive and still-growing multibillion-dollar market characterized by very high production volumes of sensors that must be extremely reliable and low in cost. Microsystem sensor technologies meet these needs and are thus widely accepted in automotive sensor applications. Growth in the market continues to be driven by increasing demands for more safety and comfort and greater reductions in emissions. Existing sensors will continue to find new applications, and new sensors will emerge to improve functionality. Although the electronics content of vehicles is continually increasing, the vehicle market itself is expanding more slowly than in previous years. The net effect is a steady increase in the value of the automotive electronics market as more onboard systems are converted to electrical/electronic systems.
