Competitive market analysis of the RLG – FOG – DTG - Quartz and MEMS based Inertial Measurement Units

 Get Yole’s unique global and in-depth view of the IMU market:

• Global overview across 6 fields: Defense, Aerospace, Naval, Industrial, Automotive, Consumer Electronics
• Analysis of RLG, FOG, HRG, Quartz and silicon MEMS technologies
• Market evaluation of 45 IMU applications

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) refers to a system with three mutually orthogonal gyros and accelerometers. The IMU industry in the field of aerospace is very mature, but as MEMS and quartz technologies move toward higher performance they are finding their way into these markets. The road is long before these technologies will enter in direct competition, but new uses and new applications are emerging from these advances.

The decline of mechanical accelerometers such as DTGs creates interesting business opportunities for other IMU system technologies. FOG, HRG (or other resonant devices), and MEMS technologies are good substitute solutions. The market opportunity comes both from new applications as well as the replacement market for aerospace and defense systems.

New applications are increasing in both high performance markets and low performance consumer markets. Sensors clusters are already integrating 4DOF to 5DOF solutions in gaming and handheld GPS products for example.  

Customers are currently requesting 6DOF for selected applications and the demand is only starting. The challenges to build these consumer IMUs are very high and only a handful of players will manage to provide the appropriate solution.

The key question in this field is currently: which partnerships will form to provide processing and appropriate packaging solutions to the hundreds of medium to low volume customers? Opportunities are wide open in this field in the next 3 years.  

The complexity of the IMU industry requires a complex monitoring of the market. As industry leaders are monitoring the MEMS and other miniaturized quartz technologies advances, challengers are evaluating the market opportunity of new applications and potential replacement of older systems.

Yole’s market report provides a global and in depth market overview of the IMU industry and a description of the leading players.

Yole estimates the 2007 IMU market to represent 1,85 B$.

The market is mainly dominated by aircraft and missiles applications.

The overall growth rate is limited to single digit growth but selected applications are expected to experience a significant growth.

KEY FEATURES OF THE REPORT

• 7 IMU technologies
• 6 fields investigated
• 45 IMU functions evaluated
• 20 company profiles
• 180+ Pages

This report gives an exhaustive analysis of the potential applications. It gives a segmentation of aerospace, defense, naval industrial, automotive and consumer electronics fields. The market analysis details each application using the following criteria:

• Description of the application and the benefit of Inertial Measurement Units
• Function and specification requirements for Inertial Measurement Units
• Description of the final product market players and trends
• Analysis of the competitive technologies and players
• Analysis of the IMU module market
• Global market evaluation of IMU applications: Volume in Munits, Average Single Price (ASP), and  2007-2012 value forecasts
• Description of the products and technologies: product specifications, technological and business trends
• Evaluation of major players market share and potential new entrants

This report not only describes the market at the player and application level, but it provides a global view of the IMU market allowing the report user to build diversification strategies taking into account technical requirements.

Who should buy

• Sensor manufacturers (accelerometers and gyroscopes):
• Evaluate market potential for your components depending on performance and technology in the IMU market
• Get the top 20 customer profiles (IMU manufacturers)
• Understand the system level technology trends and requirements for each application .
• Support a strategic decision to enter, exit, or find a partner in the IMU industry

IMU module manufacturers:

• Evaluate the accessible market for your modules depending on performance and technology
• Define diversification strategies on new applications
• Have an exhaustive analysis of the competition on a broad range of IMU field
• Evaluate the market potential of your product portfolio
• Get detailed company profiles with description of the product technology & process
• Get the top 20 IMU manufacturers profiles

Equipment & material manufacturers

• Evaluate your business potential in the IMU market
• Understand the level of activity of your customers
• Get the top 20 IMU manufacturer’s profiles including technology used and markets served
• Prepare new business development strategies

Financial and strategic investors

• Understand the IMU industry and the potential of each player and technology
• Evaluate the partnership opportunities in the IMU industry

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 Definition of an IMU

• Status of the IMU technology,
• Status of the gyroscope technologies,
• Status of the accelerometer technologies

 Identification of the IMU functions

 2007-2012 IMU market forecasts

• Breakdown per application,
• Breakdown per technology

2007 market shares

• Breakdown per application,
• Breakdown per technology

IMU market evaluation per field

• Aerospace
  • Civil aircraft, General aviation, Civil UAVs,
  • Civil Helicopters, Space Satellites, Skyrocket
• Defense
  • Military Fighters, Military Transport, Defense UAVs, Military Helicopters, Strategic missiles, Tactical missiles, Combatant ship, Military submarines, Armored vehicles, Soldiers
• Naval
  • Freight transport ships, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
• Industrial and Medical
  • High speed trains
  • Others: precision robotics, medical testing….
• Automotive
• Consumer  Electronics
  • Handheld GPS, Game control, Cell phones,
  • Pointing devices 

IMU market forecast per technology

• ESG, RLG, FOG, HRG, DTG, Quartz , MEMS

IMU market evaluation per function

• Navigation , Flight Control, Damping Stabilization, Cockpit instrumentation, Satcom antenna stabilization, Flight test instrumentation, Vehicle Stabilization, Sight Vision Stabilization, Ship Stabilization, Antenna stabilization, Gun Stabilization, Motion measurement

IMU market evaluation per uses

• Aircraft, UAV, Helicopter, Missiles, Ships, Submarine vehicles, Space vehicles, Land military vehicles, Soldiers, Trains, Civilian cars, Handheld consumer devices

IMU manufacturers company profile

• Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, Sagem, Litef, Kearfott, Thales, Atlantic Inertial Systems, L3Communications, IXSEA, EADS Astrium, KVH, Systron Donner Inertial, Goodrich, iMAR, Crossbow, Gladiator Technologies, BOSCH, Panasonic, Murata, Invensense

Synthesis and future challenges