Last year, sales of  O-S-D devices (Opto, Sensor, Discretes), as a percent of total semiconductor sales, rose to 19.4% because of the steep 15% decline in the IC market, says IC Insights, and this year O-S-D sales are expected to grow 4% to $104 billion in an overall semiconductor market which is expected to decline.

By 2024, O-S-D sales are projected to represent a more typical 17.4% of total semiconductor sales with the rest coming from ICs.

The O-S-D market grew 5% in 2019 to $86.1 billion, marking its 10th consecutive year of increasing sales.

However, the economic fallout from the global Covid-19 virus crisis is expected to break the string of record-high O-S-D sales in 2020.

After 9% growth in 2019, the optoelectronics market is forecast to drop 6% in virus-plagued 2020 and then rebound with 10% growth in 2021.

Optoelectronics growth in the next five years will be driven by CMOS image sensors for embedded cameras, automotive safety, vision-based automation, laser transmitters for optical networks and new 3D imaging applications, and more powerful LEDs for solid-state lighting.

The sensor/actuator market is forecast to drop 4% in 2020, but sales are also expected to recover in 2021. Unit demand for sensors and actuator semiconductors continues to be driven by automation of embedded controls, more connections to Internet of Things, and the miniaturization of measurements.

Discrete semiconductor sales declined 1% in 2019 and are forecast to fall another 8% in 2020 to $25.0 billion and then begin a slow-but-steady recovery in 2021. Power transistors remain the growth engine in the commodity-filled discretes market.