Temperature sensor market sees 5% CAGR through 2016

According to MarketResearch.com's report titled "2011 Temperature Sensors," high volume and fast growing items such as computers, mobile phones, LCDs and personal electronics including cameras and MP3 players will boost the market for temperature sensors—found on many PCBs and in most hard drive-equipped devices. The upbeat forecast is also attributed to other applications such as power supplies, white goods and HVAC. Currently valued at $573 million, the market will grow at CAGR of 5 percent, increasing market size to $739 million by 2016.

For now, it appears that the automotive market will yield opportunities that are more attractive for temperature sensor suppliers because of the advancements in technology—the emphasis upon improving fuel economy and lowering emissions, amid other possible applications.

One current design trend in temperature sensors is the popularity of wireless sensors designed for surface temperature measurements for devices that have very wide temperature ranges. Recently, a family of temperature sensors was released that included non-volatile registers and serial EEPROM memory. The addition of integrated memory allows user settings to be saved across the different power cycles.