Drivers in the particle sensor market

Both partners combined their expertise to analyse the evolution of the sensing technologies and identify its impact within different gas and particle monitoring market segments. The reverse engineering and costing company, System Plus Consulting proposes a detailed structural, process & costing report focused on four gas sensors for consumer applications made by device manufacturers: Robert Bosch, ams and Sensirion. 

To complete this technology approach, the market research and strategy consulting company Yole has revealed its vision of the gas & particle sensor markets, with detailed market segmentation, competitive landscape, market forecasts, and technology roadmap.

Outdoor air pollution is one of the major challenges of the 21st century. About four million deaths globally are attributed to it in 2014. Later, another estimate in 2016, is that more than 90% of the world’s population lives in regions where air pollutant levels are higher than the WHO specified limits. 

Thus, there is a global drive to tackle this problem, specifically by developing and installing gas and particle sensors. For a long time, gas and particle sensor market has been restricted to industrial applications to ensure air quality control and workers’ safety. Then, gas sensing were steadily adopted for HVAC. Here the main driver was the energy consumption saving enabled by better control of the air conditioning. Nowadays, degradation of the global air quality is impacting many different places, homes, offices, hotels, cars and urban areas. 

The market has therefore evolved and the primary market driver is air quality monitoring to ensure inhabitant and user safety. Air quality control is even becoming a selling argument to promote hotels or restaurants. This trend also extends to other environments, such as personal vehicles, public transportation, and homes. 

As an example, the market for air purifier systems, which often embed gas and particle sensors, is expected to expand from $16bn in 2017 to $33bn in 2023 with a 12.5% CAGR .

Commercial vehicles have increasingly adopted gas and particle sensors onboard to ensure high quality of air for their customers. Previously sensors were embedded in-cabin to activate the air conditioning system when CO2 and VOC concentrations become critical. Now, additional sensors can be found out of the cabin to sense the outside environment and close the ventilation system if pollution is detected. 

MOS is the preferred technology because of its low cost, small size and improved sensitivity compared to previous generation. To support this increasing market demand, historical players involved in gas sensors, such as Paragon, and Amphenol, which has acquired SGX, are now developing particle sensors. The big sensor leaders like Robert Bosch and Sensirion have identified the air quality market as a very promising one. They are therefore using their know-how to develop new technical solutions for both gas and particle sensing.

Although it had big promise, the consumer segment is reportedly taking more time than expected to be a real significant share of the gas sensors market. Nevertheless consumer depollution systems for example are growing fast especially in Asia. Those systems often include both gas and particles sensors. 

“Gas sensors miniaturisation has allowed their introduction to consumer applications and their manufacture in large volumes”, explained Audrey Lahrach, Cost Analyst from System Plus Consulting. “At System Plus Consulting, we engaged a deep analysis of the technologies developed by the leading companies such as Robert Bosch, ams and Sensirion. 

Our aim was to identify and understand the technical choices as well as evaluate the related manufacturing costs. According to our results, technological choices especially at the integration level point out the performances of each device and so the market segments devices’ manufacturer targets.”

Under its miniaturised gas sensor report, System Plus Consulting has reviewed four different gas sensors from three manufacturers. The analysts propose a relevant comparison of the following components: the AS-MLV-P2 and the CCS801 from ams, the BME680 from Robert Bosch and the SGP30 from Sensirion. 

The report includes a relevant description of each structure and design, the related technical choices, process flows and costs. Under a promising gas sensor market, expected to reach more than one billion in 2022, both partners, Yole and System Plus Consulting have combined their expertise to propose a comprehensive view on both technology manufacturing disruption and business opportunities. Technical requirements, gases to be measured, market forecasts, technologies, main suppliers and regulations are fully analysed in the collection of reports performed by the partners.