Yole: BioMEMS market to almost triple
Yole Développement has just published the report "BioMEMS".
"The BioMEMS market is expected to grow rapidly, from $1.9 billion in 2012 to $6.6 billion in 2018", says Benjamin Roussel, Technology & Market Analyst, Microfluidics & Medical Technologies at Yole. According to him, microsystems integration is fast becoming a key added-value for system manufacturers.
The BioMEMS market will almost triple in size over the next five years, with mobile care applications contributing significantly to this impressive growth.
Microsystem devices have become increasingly visible in the healthcare market by serving as solutions adapted to the requirements of various applications. The usefulness of these devices is two-fold. For one, they improve medical device performance for the patient; and secondly, they offer competitive advantages to system manufacturers.
For example, the introduction of accelerometers in pacemakers has revolutionised the treatment of cardiac diseases.
The microsystem technologies market for healthcare applications looks promising, and should reach $6.6 billion by 2018.
The devices considered in the BioMEMS 2013 report are pressure sensors, silicon microphones, accelerometers, gyroscopes, optical MEMS and Image sensors, microfluidic chips, microdispensers for drug delivery, flow meters, infrared temperature sensors, emerging MEMS (RFID, Strain sensors, Energy Harvesting).
Yole Développement has also looked at the microsystem devices dedicated to cell phone applications. Though mobile care is still in its infancy, the company believes this market will grow significantly in the coming years.
What's more, specific case studies (including technology and player-specific overviews, innovative developments, supply chain data and patent information) have been included to better address two of the industry's hottest topics: microfluidic chips and retinal implants. Indeed, these two micro devices possess the largest growth opportunity for the coming years.
Regulation overview
The medical device development sector is particularly important for microsystem device and systems manufacturers. Motivation for the acceptance of BioMEMS technologies is highly dependent on each individual market.
While the acceptance of microsystems is linked to sensibility and automation constraints in the pharmaceutical market, in the in-vitro diagnostic market it's all about portability and cost reduction; while the medical devices market is focused on addition of functionalities.
Concerning the Home Care market, the motivations are to increase system safety and connectivity. Yole's report reviews all four of these markets in a detailed manner.
The applications can be placed into five groups: patient monitoring, patient care, medical imaging, invitro diagnostic testing and drug delivery.
Yole also says a number of new Chinese microsystems players have recently entered the market.
