Growth of opto, sensor, discrete devices outpace ICs

SCOTTSDALE, USA: Continuing a trend that started a few years ago, total sales of optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discrete components (collectively, the O-S-D market), increased 8.4 percent in 2011, far surpassing the 0.4 percent growth in IC sales, according to data compiled in the newly updated 2012 edition of IC Insights' O-S-D Report, A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronic, Sensor/Actuator, and Discretes components.

IC Insights forecasts the O-S-D market to grow faster than the IC market in 2012 as well, which would mark the third consecutive year for this achievement.

Collectively, O-S-D devices accounted for 17.9 percent of the world's $320.8 billion in semiconductor sales in 2011 compared to 14.7 percent of total revenues in 2001. O S D products are expected to represent about 18.2 percent of the world's $339.0 billion semiconductor market in 2012, based on IC Insights' forecast.Source: IC Insights, USA.

Throughout the 2011-2016 period, combined sales of O-S-D devices are expected to slightly exceed the growth rate of the larger IC market segment. O-S-D revenues are projected to grow at a CAGR of 10.6 percent in the forecast period while IC sales are expected to rise by an annual average of 9.4 percent between 2011 and 2016.Source: IC Insights, USA.

The sensor/actuator market is projected to grow at the highest rate among the semiconductor segments in the forecast period with its CAGR being 16.4 percent between 2011 and 2016. IC Insights anticipates stronger and more consistent growth in the sensor/actuator market due to higher volume shipments of these devices in consumer electronics and portable systems. In addition, the automotive industry continues to gain strength after the 2008-2009 recession, and that is adding additional stability and growth momentum to the sensor/actuator market segment.

In a highly unusual situation, the discretes segment, which is composed of low-priced commodity devices, actually outperformed the market growth of ICs in 2006-2011. The discretes sales volume grew at a CAGR of 5.6% compared to IC revenues rising by a CAGR of 3.3 percent in the last five years. Discretes sales grew at a stronger rate than ICs for a variety of reasons, including intense price erosion in memory integrated circuits, the strong 2010 recovery of discretes sales, and rising prices for many power transistor products.