Humidity sensors evolve from single devices to high added value combos
System Plus Consulting, the Yole Group’s reverse engineering and reverse costing company, has just released a technical and cost review of the major humidity sensors that have been available over the last five years. The report analyzes 10 devices, produced by companies including Bosch, Sensirion, Texas Instruments, SiLabs and TE Connectivity – for more details on the Relative Humidity Sensors Technology and Cost Review report.
Beyond providing each device’s technical data, process details and manufacturing costs, the report explores technical and business trends linked to humidity sensors. Those trends also impact open cavity combos that integrate temperature, humidity, pressure, sound, gas, and particle measurement, and also a few other parameters. Humidity sensing is important for industrial and medical markets, but it is still limited for consumer applications, mainly due to the lack of use cases at the moment. Consequently the humidity sensor market has moved at moderate speed, with the likes of Honeywell and TE Connectivity benefiting from significant industrial and medical applications.
Humidity sensors in open cavity combos provide totally different market dynamics and application possibilities. Bosch Sensortec has been one of the first companies to combine a humidity sensor with a pressure sensor for in the same package consumer applications, especially mobile ones (more on BME280 Sensor). This first device has had some design wins, but it is just the first step toward the release of air quality combos, integrating pressure, temperature, humidity, sound and gas sensing. When such devices appear they will drive very significant growth, as they enable a lot of use cases, such as detailed air quality mapping in cities, in-house or in-cabin air quality management, and breath-based health tracking. Yole Développement sees great potential for such open cavity combos for consumer and mobile applications – as the gas sensor report Yole Développement will be launching in the next few weeks will explore further.
The use cases are here, no doubt. However it’s not an obvious move to integrate this technology into a single package and needs precise packaging skills to make it affordable. Producers will of course need a good gas sensor – and for there to be a market, slots must be available in mobile phones! Will such devices go into the pressure sensor slot or one of the microphones? That is yet to be determined. But with the System Plus Consulting humidity sensor report providing all the technology, processing and production cost data and analysis, you will have the best chance of navigating the technology’s future.
Author: Jean-Christophe Eloy, President and CEO at Yole Développement
Source: www.yole.fr