Taiwanese component firms including Pixart Imaging, Nuvoton, and Solid State System received wearables-related component orders from customers, and put it into mass production.

According to IHS, the worldwide market for sensors in wearables will expand to 466 million units in 2019, up from 67 million in 2013, as presented in the attached figure. Shipments of sensors will climb much more quickly than the market for the wearable devices themselves. Wearable devices will increase to 135 million units in 2019, less than three times the total of 50 million in 2013.

Many Taiwanese IC firms are on the move for wearables, Pixart Imaging,is going to unveil the cardiac sensor, Solid State System aims at microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphone. Nuvoton will keep promoting the ARM Cortex M4 32-bit MCU, covering the usage in industrial control, personal healthcare, smart home, LED control, and Internet of Things (IoT).

“Wearables are a hotbed for sensors, with market growth driven by the increasing number of these components in each product sold,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst, MEMS & Sensors, at IHS Technology.

“The main factor propelling this phenomenon is a transition in market share away from simple products like pedometers and toward more sophisticated multipurpose devices such as smartwatches and smartglasses. Instead of using a single sensor like the simpler devices, the more complex products employ numerous components for health and activity monitoring, as well as for their more advanced user interfaces.” Jérémie Bouchaud added.

The average wearable device shipped in 2019 will incorporate 4.1 sensor elements, up from 1.4 in 2013.

Smartphone brands are increasingly aware that wearables are a better platform for some types of sensors than mobile handsets. IHS expects components like humidity sensors and pulse sensors to move from handsets to wearable devices, such as new smartwatches introduced by Samsung, Apple and others. This will further boost shipments of sensors in wearables.

The types of sensors used in wearables are motion sensors, MEMS and sensors for user interfaces, health sensors and environmental sensors.

Motion sensors represent the dominant technology in the wearables segment and comprise the component categories of accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, pressure sensors and combo motion sensors. MEMS sensors for user interfaces include MEMS microphones, proximity sensors and MEMS displays.

The health sensor area is represented by pulse, pulse-oximeters, hydration and skin temperature sensors. Environmental sensors include humidity, temperature and ultraviolet (UV) components.