Thermal imager industry: the Chinese triumph
Product Related
“The COVID-19 outbreak has changed our world and will do so for years to come”. asserts Dimitrios Damianos, PhD, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole Développement (Yole). “Given the critical need for thermal detection and imaging systems to stem the spread of the virus by detecting the fever, this market has flourished. As fears about COVID-19 erupted, various organizations rushed to get thermal cameras to monitor people’s temperatures and detecting possible fevers, one of the main symptoms. This made EBT or EST thermography surge unsustainably.”
Traditionally it was a very small market, created in 2002-2003 due to the SARS epidemic. It was sustained at very low volumes thereafter, only to get slightly boosted in years when other epidemics occurred, like H1N1 flu, Ebola and Zika.
However, the current situation will create a significant EST subsegment in the thermography market, which will continue to grow in the years to come. This could stem from the eventual realization of end-users that thermal camera systems can generally come in handy at various sites for isolating sick febrile people, therefore decreasing cross-contamination.
Due to the imminent second and third waves and with no vaccine available, a possibility exists that the interest in this application will surge again. Plus, thermal imaging includes other interesting applications such as surveillance, firefighting, PVS and drones, which show promising growth. Together they will bring the total market value close to US$7.5 billion by 2025, at an 8% CAGR from 2019 to 2025.
In this context, the market research and strategy consulting company, investigates disruptive technologies and related markets in depth. Yole points out today the latest innovations and underline the business opportunities.
Released today, the Thermal Imagers and Detectors 2020 report proposes a comprehensive overview of the imaging industries. This November edition is a complimentary vision of the previous analysis, Thermal Imagers and Detectors 2020 – COVID-19 Outbreak Impact – Preliminary Report, released in May 2020 and delivering a special focus on the COVID-19 outbreak.
The November report gives detailed analysis of the thermal detectors and imagers for defense and commercial applications, including extra color on EBT/EST screening. This study points out market data on key thermal detectors and thermal imagers. Including thermal detectors and imagers volumes, market trends, values, shares, forecasts, metrics and dynamics, this new study offers key technical insights into future technology trends and challenges and delivers an in-depth understanding of the thermal imaging value chain, infrastructure, and players.
In parallel, System Plus Consulting, partner of Yole, releases a reverse engineering & costing analysis, the Guide Infrared’s 17µm Microbolometer Module report, to analyze the Chinese’s first low-definition microbolometer for integration into consumer applications. Including microbolometer die, module and lens, detailed optical and SEM photos, measurements, cost analysis, this report also compares the technology between the Guide Infrared Module, IRay RTD3172 17µm and Flir Lepton 3.
What is the status of the thermal imaging industry? What are the economic and technological challenge? What are the impacts of the COVID-19? Which are the leading companies to watch? How will the thermal detection/imaging market evolve? What is the role of the Chinese companies?
Yole’s imaging team presents, today its vision of the thermal imagers and detectors industries… More info.