MEMS inertial sensors are mainly divided into gyroscopes, accelerometers and inertial sensor combinations (IMU, usually each IMU contains three sets of gyroscopes and accelerometers). MEMS inertial sensors have the advantages of small size, light weight and low cost, so they are widely used in consumer electronics, automobiles, industry, medical health and other fields. Among them, the gyroscope is a device that measures the rotation angle and speed of an object, and is mainly used for navigation positioning, attitude perception, state monitoring, platform stability, etc. Automobiles are the second largest market segment for MEMS inertial sensors. In the wave of the automotive industry's development towards electrification, intelligence, networking and sharing, the dual factors of high-precision positioning and navigation demand and MEMS technology drive have promoted the application of high-performance MEMS gyroscopes in the automotive industry to gradually expand to the field of autonomous driving. As one of the key components for positioning autonomous vehicles, MEMS inertial sensors will develop rapidly with the improvement of automotive intelligence. With the gradual penetration of L3 and above autonomous driving, the scale of the MEMS inertial sensor (gyroscope) industry will continue to grow.
Industry status
1. Market
According to Yole Intelligence statistics, the global MEMS inertial sensor market has grown from US$2.831 billion and 3.121 billion units in 2018 to US$3.509 billion and 3.939 billion units in 2021. It is expected that the market will grow to US$4.943 billion and 6.060 billion units in 2027, with a compound growth rate of 6.39% and 7.65% respectively.
From the perspective of market structure, in 2021, the proportions of IMU, accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer were 52.15%, 34.74%, 10.66% and 2.45% respectively. From 2021 to 2017, the MEMS IMU market continued to grow, and the market of MEMS gyroscopes showed a trend of shrinking year by year. The main reason is that independent MEMS gyroscopes are gradually replaced by IMUs in the high-end consumer electronics and automotive electronics markets. Among them, the global MEMS gyroscope market is expected to reach US$341 million and 232 million units in 2027, and the global MEMS IMU market will grow to US$2.792 billion and 2.282 billion units.
Data source: Yole Intelligence
Note: The magnetometer market is relatively small, so the data is not included in the chart
Data source: Yole Intelligence
According to Yole statistics, MEMS inertial sensors are mainly used in consumer electronics and automotive electronics. In terms of sales volume, the sales volume of MEMS inertial sensors in the automotive electronics field in 2021 was 657 million, accounting for 16.68%; it is expected that the sales volume of MEMS inertial sensors in the automotive electronics field will be 861 million in 2027, accounting for 14.21%.
According to Strategy Analytics data, the scale of China's MEMS inertial sensor market has increased from 4.57 billion yuan in 2018 to 7.74 billion yuan in 2022. Since 2022, with the rapid development of autonomous driving, the demand for high-precision positioning and navigation, and the current booming sales trend in the automotive market, the demand for MEMS inertial sensors (gyroscopes) has exploded. It is expected that the Chinese inertial sensor market will grow rapidly at a rate of 10.2%, and will grow to 12.57 billion yuan by 2027.
From the perspective of the market segment, Strategy Analytics mentioned in the "2022 China MEMS Inertial Sensor Market Analysis Report" that MEMS IMU accounts for the largest market share of inertial sensors, accounting for about 56%, and the market size of MEMS gyroscopes accounts for about 10% (the market size of MEMS accelerometers accounts for about 34%). It is expected that MEMS gyroscopes will grow from 780 million yuan in 2022 to 900 million yuan in 2025, and will reach 910 million yuan in 2027. The MEMS IMU market size will grow from 4.31 billion yuan in 2022 at a growth rate of 11.9%, to 6.18 billion yuan in 2025, and to 7.55 billion yuan in 2027.
2. MEMS Inertial Sensor Industry chain
MEMS inertial sensor industry industry chain is divided into three links. The upstream participants of the industry chain are sensor component design companies, software, raw materials and equipment suppliers, the midstream participants of the industry chain are sensor processing, packaging and testing companies, pure MEMS wafer manufacturing companies are the main processing companies of MEMS inertial sensor wafers, and the downstream participants of the industry chain are sensor application solution providers and terminal equipment system integrators.
3. MEMS Gyroscope Process
MEMS gyroscopes are mainly composed of MEMS chips and ASIC chips. The main processes are: MEMS process (silicon-based MEMS processing, including bulk silicon MEMS processing technology and surface MEMS processing technology), ASIC process (generally using CMOS process), packaging, and testing.
