The uncooled infrared camera market is expected to grow 8 per cent CAGR between 2016 and 2022, reaching almost $4.4 billion at the end of the period, according to a report by Yole Développement.
Flir and Ulis own more than 75 per cent of the total market, the report stated. Flir has shipped a million Lepton core devices in three years, while Ulis achieved 30 per cent revenue growth in 2016 compared to 2015.
Other players include Seek Thermal, which has released two high-performance products namely RevealPro and CompactPro. BAE Systems and Leonardo DRS are also benefiting from the defence market growth cycle.
Newcomers are also introducing products; for example, Teledyne Dalsa released its first VOx microbolometers in 2017. In parallel, many companies in China are developing their own microbolometers, Yole found.
Yole, in collaboration with CIOE, is organising an Executive IR Imaging Forum on 7 September in Shenzhen, China at the 19th China International Optoelectronic Expo 2017.
Yole’s senior analyst, Dr Eric Mounier, commented: ‘Driven by dynamic commercial applications which continues to expand really quickly, this industry [uncooled IR imagers] is showing significant emerging applications that could impact the market evolution. We are at the very beginning of new large volume applications.’
