With wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) applications proliferating, potential suppliers want to develop printable/flexible (P/F) sensors (fig.1) that can fulfill applications requirements in unique ways. Accordingly, Lux Research expects the P/F sensors market to grow from $17 million in 2014 to ap- proximately $400 million by 2024 - a 35% compounded annual growth rate (fig.2). Roger Grace Associates believes this growth will be driven not by a technology push, but by market pull from many significant applications in sports/wellness/medical wearable devices. These applications will exploit several inherent features of P/F sensors, including: 1.Small size / low profile 2.Low manufacturing cost based on existing batch-mode processing, with the ability to be scaled to ultra-high volume, roll-to-roll (R-2-R) manufacturing 3.Enhanced performance over discrete 3-D solutions due to size and geometry 4.Device-to-device uniformity 5.Ability to conform to the surfaces to which they are attached 6.Lower capital expenses for manufacturing 7.Ease of integration with other functions on the same or layered carriers. While several of these features are shared by existing microelectrome-chanical systems (MEMS), MEMS are typically not flexible, cannot be manufactured in an R-2-R process (batch-mode only), and can require significant capital investments (unless of course one uses a silicon foundry for wafer processing).
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