Thermal imaging market to have CAGR 2021-27 of 6%

Author: EIS Release Date: Dec 20, 2022

Thermal imaging is expected to be a  $8.7 billion market in 2027 while the thermal detector market will be close to $598 million, says Yole Developpement.

 

The general technical trend is a move towards pixel pitch reduction in microbolometers.

 

Teledyne FLIR retains its historical leadership in thermal imaging but is slowing down in 2022.

 

The Chinese industry holds its position with a 38% market share by volume in 2022 and has shown notable advances.

 

The U.S. market is increasingly supplied by local players (Teledyne FLIR, and Seek Thermal), while China prefers Hikvision.

 

Therefore, from the Chinese side, the thermal imager manufacturers are clearly consolidating their positions in 2022.

 

After ramping their shipments in 2020 for fever detection systems, they have managed to maintain their position in 2022 and ship nearly 40% of thermal imagers globally.

 

Among them, Hikvision and InfiRay are the two leaders. Both companies have significantly improved the performance of their products and adapted their portfolio to be stronger in classical thermal applications, such as surveillance for Hikvision and the consumer market for InfiRay.

 

“In 2021, the thermal imaging and sensing market returned to traditional applications as the demand to test body temperature for fever detection collapsed,” says Yole’s Axel Clouet, “as a result, the thermal detector market is expected to decrease from $460 million in 2021 to $439 million in 2022”.

 

The thermal imaging market is similarly expected to shrink from $6.2 billion in 2021 to €5.9 billion in 2022.

 

The demand for classical applications is still solid, but the global component shortage results in delays for critical components necessary for manufacturing thermal cameras.

 

If the situation returns to normal in 2023, the overall imaging & sensing market is expected to grow from $6.6 billion in 2021 to $9.2 billion in 2027, with a CAGR21-27 of 6%.

 

“In thermal imagers, there is still a general trend for pixel pitch reduction, with R&D targets of 10µm to 8µm, whereas most commercial products have a 17µm or 12µm pitch,” says Yole’s Dalik Oussalah.

 

Small pixel pitches could help reduce the size of chips and so their price while maintaining sufficient resolution. There is also a growing interest in thermal and visible data fusion for commercial applications, like automotive.