A brave new MEMS world: $18.2B market by 2026

Last year when COVID-19 erupted, the effects on various industries were felt immediately, which in turn had an after-effect on the MEMS business. But the crisis did not impact all end-markets the same way, according to Jérôme Mouly, team lead analyst, sensing & actuating at Yole Développement.

“The MEMS market relies heavily on consumer applications, which are 62% of the total market, and the automotive industry, which is 16% of the total market,” says Mouly. “We therefore expected that last year the MEMS market would suffer due to COVID-19’s negative effects on end-system shipments of smartphones and cars. But, this was not the case. MEMS sensor sales recovered during H2 2020.”

Manufacturers resumed refilling their inventories after signs of stabilization and recovery in key end markets. In fact, the strong demand for consumer MEMS has completely offset the automotive industry slow-down. Therefore, the MEMS market was worth almost US$12.1 billion in 2020, up more than 2% from the year earlier. After a weak 2019 and 2020, Yole’s analysts expect the market to grow by 11% in 2021, reaching US$13.4 billion. After that, high-single digit growth will increase annual MEMS revenue to US$18.2 billion by 2026.