Temperature Sensor Market Analysis and Forecast by Product Type

Temperature sensors are the components or devices which are used for measuring the temperature of an object or medium. They can be broadly classified into contact and non-contact sensors. Thermocouples, Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTDs), Thermistors, Temperature Sensor ICs are the main type of contact sensors in the market.

Thermopiles and Infrared detectors are the key non-contact sensors. The major applications of temperature sensors are in petrochemical industry, automotive industry, consumer electronics industry, metal industries, food and beverages industry, and healthcare. The largest application segment for temperature sensors is the petrochemical segment, together with related process applications. The electronics segment follows as the second largest application segment for temperature sensors.

IndustryARC expects the overall market size of the temperature sensors to be around $4.2 bn in 2013.

Temperature sensors can be and are being used universally in almost all the industry segments. This ubiquitous nature of these sensors has made it a mature market. However, the non-contact sensors market has a higher growth potential compared to contact sensors in different industries like process automation, discrete automation and automotive market etc.

New markets like smartphones and other mobile computing devices are potential revenue generating opportunities for temperature sensor manufacturers. Several developments have taken place in this front in 2013.

Samsung launched the Galaxy S4 with pressure and temperature sensor, making it the first major phone OEM to put a temperature sensor in its products. Microchip launched its EMC118X family of temperature sensor ICs which was the world’s first temperature sensor with 1.8V SMBus and I2C communications that are necessary for interfacing to the latest generation of smartphone, tablet and PC chipsets. In the constant quest by smartphone OEMs to differentiate their offerings, temperature,...