Microfluidic industry is well structured for growth

Leveraging participation in major events and numerous interviews of microfluidic players performed by Yole’s analysts, the report consolidates 2012-2014 market data and proposes a high added-value analysis of the 2015-2020 forecasts.

With the healthcare industry moving steadily toward personalised medicine, technology has evolved to fit requirements. Consequently, significant improvements in drug discovery have been made thanks to breakthroughs in genomics. Moreover, the recent Ebola epidemic underlined the critical need for inexpensive tests to be rapidly analysed in the field in order to cure the sick as soon as possible. The push to avoid future epidemics will lead to many innovations in the microfluidic point-of-care field.

In the meantime, recent sanitary scandals have had for consequence the strengthening of regulations in the agro-food and water industries, thus sharply increasing the need for tests dedicated to bacteria detection. Industrial and environmental testing are thus in full swing, and are enjoying one of the best growth rates amongst microfluidic applications.

With a microfluidic devices market reaching $5.95bn in 2020 against $2.56bn in 2015, Yole’s analysts have confirmed: “Microfluidic applications are now well established and their advantages well-known.”

Microfluidic devices market - emerging applications

Sébastien Clerc, Technology & Market Analyst, Yole, said: “We can observe fields in which existing microfluidic technologies supporting new applications are competing with other technologies. Also, emerging microfluidic technologies are used in both existing and emerging applications, where they bring new functions and/or benefits.”

Yole’s report offers a deep understanding of the technology evolution. Analysts propose an overview of the microfluidic technologies and related applications including a specific focus on emerging ones (see illustration enclosed). "Emerging microfluidic applications have the potential to significantly boost the microfluidic market in the coming years. They have been listed and analysed in our report," added Clerc.

Following what Yole foresaw several years ago, the combination of microfluidics and optics in the same device are now emerging everywhere through high-performance devices. One great example is the development of liquid lenses for camera modules, which provide high precision, continuous autofocus and low power consumption. Other new applications are coming into play, such as microfluidic cooling for integrated components.

Dr. Benjamin Roussel, Activity Leader, Yole, concludes: “Promising new technologies and applications suggest a bright future for microfluidics.”