Smart Sensors Market Analysis by Mordor Intelligence
The smart sensors market reached USD 77.05 billion in 2025 and is forecast to rise to USD 172.90 billion by 2030, translating into a robust 17.54% CAGR. This growth trajectory is propelled by the convergence of edge artificial intelligence, tightening automotive and healthcare regulations, and industrial automation programs that are moving enterprises from reactive monitoring to predictive intelligence. Mandatory safety features such as automatic emergency braking in vehicles and continuous patient monitoring in medical devices are translating into non-discretionary sensor demand across developed markets. At the same time, edge-AI cores embedded in the latest sensor generations eliminate latency and bandwidth bottlenecks, allowing real-time analytics within power-constrained environments. Supply-chain pressures around gallium and germanium and the race for semiconductor self-sufficiency are keeping average selling prices firm even as unit volumes rise, giving manufacturers headroom for sustained R&D investment. Over the forecast period, performance differentiation is shifting from raw sensitivity metrics to on-board intelligence, cyber-security compliance, and integration flexibility—factors now decisive in procurement shortlists.
Key Report Takeaways
- By sensor type, pressure sensors led with 28.40% revenue share in 2024, while image sensors deliver the highest projected growth at 19.20% CAGR through 2030.
- By technology, MEMS held 46.00% of smart sensors market share in 2024, whereas quantum and photonic sensors are expected to expand at 21.50% CAGR to 2030.
- By component, analog-to-digital converters accounted for 31.20% of the smart sensors market size in 2024; embedded AI cores are forecast to post a 24.30% CAGR from 2025-2030.
- By application, industrial automation captured 24.60% of the smart sensors market size in 2024; healthcare applications are set to accelerate at an 18.40% CAGR over the same horizon.
- By geography, Asia-Pacific commanded 44.30% revenue share in 2024 and is projected to outpace all regions at 19.70% CAGR to 2030.
Global Smart Sensors Market Trends and Insights
Drivers Impact Analysis
Driver | ( ~ ) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
---|---|---|---|
Energy-efficiency push across industrial IoT | +3.2% | Global (strongest in EU, North America) | Medium term (2-4 years) |
Consumer-electronics sensor proliferation | +2.8% | APAC core, spill-over to North America | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
Automotive & e-health safety mandates | +4.1% | EU and North America, expanding to APAC | Medium term (2-4 years) |
On-sensor edge-AI lowers latency | +3.5% | Global, led by US, China, Japan | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
Source: Mordor Intelligence
Energy-efficiency Push Across Industrial IoT
Legally binding sustainability reporting is prompting manufacturers to deploy intelligent sensors that deliver measurable kWh savings and CO₂ reductions. The European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requires granular energy metrics, pushing factories to install edge-AI sensors that continuously optimise HVAC, lighting, and machine utilisation. SECO’s smart CNC retrofit cut production waste by 30% and spare-parts spend by 10%, showcasing hard-dollar returns that justify fleet-wide rollouts.[1]SECO, “Smart Connected CNC Machine,” seco.com Similar results at Lech-Stahlwerke’s 5G-enabled mill have turned energy-efficiency projects into board-level priorities. As early adopters report double-digit cost reductions, laggards face competitive pressure to follow suit, creating a self-reinforcing demand cycle for intelligent sensors.
Consumer-electronics Sensor Proliferation
Smartphone and wearable OEMs now integrate up to a dozen sensor types per device, supporting features such as air-quality measurement, advanced biometrics, and self-learning activity tracking. Bosch confirms that more than half of 2025 handset launches ship with its multi-sensor modules. High-volume consumer demand delivers scale economies that drive per-unit cost down across industrial and automotive tiers, opening new price-performance thresholds. Miniaturisation and milliwatt-level power consumption perfected for wearables are now migrating into factory condition-monitoring nodes and autonomous delivery robots, accelerating cross-industry adoption of edge-ready sensor stacks.
Automotive & E-health Safety Mandates
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have turned advanced sensors from optional add-ons into compulsory features. The US NHTSA mandates automatic emergency braking (AEB) for all new light vehicles by September 2029,[2]National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Automatic Emergency Braking Final Rule,” nhtsa.gov while the EU General Safety Regulation II already requires emergency lane-keeping and intelligent speed assistance continental-automotive.com. At the same time, FDA clearance for over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors such as Dexcom’s Stelo expands sensor demand across broad health-conscious demographics.[3]U.S. Food & Drug Administration, “Stelo Glucose Biosensor 510(k) Summary,” accessdata.fda.gov These mandates create resilient, non-cyclical demand profiles and establish minimum performance specifications that spur sensor innovation in edge processing, functional safety, and cyber-security.
On-sensor Edge-AI Lowers Latency
Neuromorphic and TinyML architectures now deliver sub-5 ms inference directly inside the sensor package, eradicating the round-trip delay to cloud servers. Innatera’s Pulsar microcontroller demonstrates 20× lower power draw versus conventional MCUs while running spiking neural-network workloads.[4]IEEE Spectrum, “Spiking Neural Network Chip for Smarter Sensors,” spectrum.ieee.org KAIST’s self-learning memristor chip adapts in real time, enabling secure medical imaging and smart-city surveillance without exposing raw data. As enterprises prioritise deterministic response, power autonomy, and data privacy, embedded AI becomes the de-facto differentiator in the smart sensors market.
Restraints Impact Analysis
Restraint | ( ~ ) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
---|---|---|---|
High upfront deployment cost | -2.1% | Global, more acute for SMEs in developing regions | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
Complex design & integration skill gap | -1.8% | Global, highest in talent-constrained regions | Medium term (2-4 years) |
Source: Mordor Intelligence
High Upfront Deployment Cost
Comprehensive smart sensor rollouts frequently require parallel investment in edge gateways, private 5G networks, and workforce reskilling. For many small and midsized plants, total outlay can exceed 0.5% of annual revenue, deferring breakeven beyond four fiscal quarters. Milesight’s turnkey IoT kit for Seoul SMEs bundles LoRaWAN gateways and controllers to lower integration friction, yet even this “all-in-one” package strains capital budgets. Cost headwinds are easing as MEMS volumes scale, but budgetary caution is expected to temper adoption among cash-constrained operators over the next 24 months.
Complex Design & Integration Skill Gap
Deploying heterogeneous sensor networks demands expertise spanning embedded firmware, low-power RF, real-time analytics, and IEC 62443 cyber-security compliance. Workforce pipelines in many regions cannot supply enough systems architects and data engineers, forcing firms to outsource to niche integrators that charge premium day rates and have limited global coverage. The resulting delays and re-work inflate project risk profiles, particularly in brownfield retrofits where legacy PLCs and proprietary protocols add extra complexity.
Segment Analysis
By Type: Pressure Sensors Lead Despite Image Sensor Surge
Pressure sensors contributed USD 21.88 billion in 2024, translating to the largest 28.40% share of the smart sensors market. The segment’s durability stems from its irreplaceable role in ADAS braking, EV battery management, and medical ventilators. Parallel innovation in silicon-carbide diaphragms now extends operating envelopes above 600 °C for aerospace and hydrogen fuel-cell stacks. Image sensors, while smaller in revenue terms, are forecast to grow at 19.20% CAGR as autonomous driving mandates make pedestrian-detection cameras standard equipment. Integration of global-shutter and event-based pixels is allowing high-contrast performance under rapidly changing lighting, enabling vehicle OEMs to comply with AEB regulations without expensive LiDAR redundancy.
Demand diversification is also reshaping unit economics. Temperature, humidity, and flow sensors are piggy-backing on smart-city water-grid and data-center thermal-management projects, while six-axis position sensors are becoming mandatory in collaborative robots. Hybrid modules that blend pressure, temperature, and relative humidity sensing deliver installation savings and strengthen vendor lock-in by raising switching costs for OEMs.
Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By Technology: MEMS Dominance Faces Quantum Challenge
MEMS devices captured 46.00% of smart sensors market share in 2024 due to mature foundry ecosystems and cost structures tuned for smartphone volumes. Bosch alone shipped over 6 billion MEMS units in 2024, underscoring the scale advantage.[5]Bosch Sensortec, “AI-Enabled Sensors Roadmap,” us.bosch-press.com However, photonic and quantum-enhanced sensors are projected to expand at 21.50% CAGR and could clip MEMS share in high-precision navigation and medical diagnostics. Citigroup estimates the quantum sensing addressable market could reach USD 1.4 billion by 2030, catalyzing venture capital inflows. MEMS incumbents are responding by co-integrating BioMEMS channels and edge-AI DSP cores to keep volume buyers within their technology roadmap.
Industry consortia such as the US-JOINT program, which includes 3M, are accelerating material R&D to secure domestic supply chains for advanced substrates. A parallel push into neuromorphic compute tiles embedded in MEMS modules aims to deliver cognitive functionality without sacrificing the size-cost advantage that underpin MEMS leadership.
By Component: ADC Leadership Challenged by AI Core Growth
Analog-to-digital converters represented 31.20% of the smart sensors market size in 2024, reflecting the universal need to translate analog phenomena into digital streams. Yet the fastest-expanding bill-of-materials line item is the embedded AI core, projected to grow at 24.30% CAGR. TDK’s i3 Micro Module integrates MEMS motion sensing with TinyML inferencing, eliminating board-level wiring and trimming power budgets to sub-1 mW. In response, ADC vendors are embedding preprocessing functions such as delta-sigma filters and compressive sensing to maintain attach rates.
RF front-end and transceiver demand is rising as Wi-Fi 6 and 5G modems become table-stakes in remote-monitoring nodes. As a result, discrete amplifier and filter suppliers are forming joint ventures with sensor makers to bundle reference designs that cut certification lead-times, a strategy expected to raise ecosystem stickiness and boost margin capture.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By Application: Industrial Automation Leads Healthcare Surge
Industrial automation contributed 24.60% of the smart sensors market size in 2024 as factories digitised maintenance regimes and tightened OEE targets. Condition-monitoring rollouts at ABB’s Italian steel works, which inserted 290 motor sensors, cut unplanned downtime by double-digit percentages. Regulatory clarity in Europe under Machinery Directive reforms is ushering in a new wave of safety-rated sensors with integrated ISO 13849 diagnostics.
Healthcare, although accounting for a smaller base, is forecast to grow fastest at 18.40% CAGR. FDA clearance of over-the-counter continuous glucose monitoring in 2024 broadened the addressable market from insulin-dependent patients to wellness-oriented users.[6]U.S. Food & Drug Administration, “Quality System Regulation Amendments,” federalregister.govHospitals are simultaneously deploying edge-AI sensors for fall-detection and remote patient monitoring programs, responding to staffing shortages and value-based reimbursement incentives.
Geography Analysis
Asia-Pacific delivered 44.30% of 2024 global revenue and is expected to record a 19.70% CAGR through 2030, underpinned by China’s 14th Five-Year Plan subsidies for domestic sensing ICs and Japan’s coordinated quantum-sensing R&D grants. China’s domestic market hit CNY 285 billion (USD 39.8 billion) in 2024, with automotive, factory automation, and network communications each capturing above-20% share. Regional foundries benefit from captive demand and lower input-cost inflation, prompting vertically integrated OEMs to localise entire supply chains.
North America remains technological bellwether, particularly in automotive ADAS and aerospace sensing. Honeywell’s strategic partnership with NXP to co-develop AI-ready avionics exemplifies the region’s focus on functional safety and edge compute. Ongoing US industrial-policy incentives, including CHIPS Act grants, are encouraging on-shoring of MEMS lines by ams OSRAM and GlobalFoundries, improving regional resilience.
Europe, while trailing APAC in volume, benefits from regulatory pull. The EU General Safety Regulation II sets a baseline of mandatory sensor suites in every new vehicle, guaranteeing steady volume ramps even in economic downturns. Additionally, corporate carbon-reduction targets are stimulating demand for building-automation and industrial-efficiency sensors across Germany, France, and the Nordics.
Emerging markets in the Middle East, Africa, and South America show accelerating sensor uptake through smart-city and resource-sector digitisation agendas. Saudi Arabia’s giga-projects require dense environmental and traffic-management sensor grids, whereas Chilean copper mines are installing ruggedised vibration sensors to raise extraction efficiency. Low-latency satellite backhaul solutions are easing connectivity barriers, allowing these regions to adopt advanced sensing without legacy telecom infrastructure.

Competitive Landscape
The smart sensors market displays moderate concentration. The top five suppliers collectively command an estimated 55–60% revenue share, driven by Bosch, Honeywell, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, and Sony’s image-sensor division. Their vertical integration—from design IP to 200 mm and 300 mm wafer fabs—supports continuous cost reductions and proprietary process tweaks that smaller rivals struggle to match. Bosch aims to ship 10 billion intelligent sensors annually by 2030, 90% featuring embedded AI.
Competitive boundaries are blurring as compute vendors encroach on sensing and vice-versa. Infineon’s AURIX family of RISC-V microcontrollers targets software-defined vehicles with integrated sensor-fusion accelerators infineon.com. Meanwhile, neuromorphic start-ups such as Innatera pursue ultra-low-power edge inference, threatening to re-set incumbent roadmaps with step-function gains in energy efficiency. Patent filings by Meta in terahertz and UWB sensing hint at potential new entrants from big-tech ecosystems.
Supply-chain strategy is emerging as a pivotal differentiator. China’s curbs on gallium and germanium exports risk squeezing compound-semiconductor supply, a scenario that could trim US GDP by USD 3.4 billion. In response, TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and STMicroelectronics have unveiled multi-billion-dollar capex plans to regionalise production, thus insulating customers from geopolitical shocks and boosting their own bargaining position across the value chain.
Smart Sensors Industry Leaders
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ABB Ltd
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Honeywell International
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Analog Devices Inc.
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Siemens AG
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General Electric
- *Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order

Recent Industry Developments
- June 2025: TSMC earmarked USD 42 billion for nine new fabs and advanced-packaging lines to meet surging AI-sensor demand, signalling an aggressive capacity-first strategy to lock in long-term supply agreements
- June 2025: GlobalFoundries committed USD 16 billion to expand US capacity, aligning with federal reshoring incentives and diversifying risk away from Asian geopolitics
- May 2025: Infineon introduced trench SiC super-junction switches for EV drivetrains, aiming to raise sensor-fed power-stage efficiency by 40%
- April 2025: STMicroelectronics launched a restructuring to boost Agrate 300 mm output, aligning fab footprint with rising mixed-signal sensor demand
- January 2025: Honeywell and NXP deepened collaboration on AI-ready avionics, reinforcing vertical integration from cockpit displays to sensor interfaces
Global Smart Sensors Market Report Scope
A smart sensor is a device that takes input from the physical environment and uses built-in compute resources to perform predefined functions upon detection of specific input and then process data before passing it on. A smart sensor is also a crucial and integral element in the Internet of Things (IoT)
The Smart Sensors Market is segmented By Type (Flow, Humidity, Position, Pressure, Temperature), Technology (MEMS, CMOS, Optical Spectroscopy), Component (Analog-to-Digital Converter, Digital-to-Analog Converter, Amplifier), Application (Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, and Transportation, Healthcare, Industrial Automation), and Geography (North America (United States, Canada), Europe (Germany, United Kingdom, France, and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, and Rest of Asia-Pacific), Latin America, and Middle East & Africa).
The market sizes and forecasts are provided in terms of value (USD million) for all the above segments.
By Type | Flow Sensors | |||
Humidity Sensors | ||||
Position Sensors | ||||
Pressure Sensors | ||||
Temperature Sensors | ||||
Image/Optical Sensors | ||||
Other Types | ||||
By Technology | MEMS | |||
CMOS | ||||
Optical Spectroscopy | ||||
Quantum and Photonic | ||||
Other Technologies | ||||
By Component | Analog-to-Digital Converter | |||
Digital-to-Analog Converter | ||||
Amplifier | ||||
Transceiver / RF Front-End | ||||
Embedded AI Core | ||||
Other Components | ||||
By Application | Aerospace and Defence | |||
Automotive and Transportation | ||||
Healthcare and Medical Devices | ||||
Industrial Automation | ||||
Building and Home Automation | ||||
Consumer Electronics | ||||
Agriculture and Environmental | ||||
Other Applications | ||||
By Geography | North America | United States | ||
Canada | ||||
Mexico | ||||
South America | Brazil | |||
Argentina | ||||
Rest of South America | ||||
Europe | United Kingdom | |||
Germany | ||||
France | ||||
Italy | ||||
Spain | ||||
Russia | ||||
Rest of Europe | ||||
APAC | China | |||
India | ||||
Japan | ||||
South Korea | ||||
Rest of APAC | ||||
Middle East and Africa | Middle East | Saudi Arabia | ||
UAE | ||||
Turkey | ||||
Rest of Middle East | ||||
Africa | South Africa | |||
Nigeria | ||||
Kenya | ||||
Rest of Africa |
Flow Sensors |
Humidity Sensors |
Position Sensors |
Pressure Sensors |
Temperature Sensors |
Image/Optical Sensors |
Other Types |
MEMS |
CMOS |
Optical Spectroscopy |
Quantum and Photonic |
Other Technologies |
Analog-to-Digital Converter |
Digital-to-Analog Converter |
Amplifier |
Transceiver / RF Front-End |
Embedded AI Core |
Other Components |
Aerospace and Defence |
Automotive and Transportation |
Healthcare and Medical Devices |
Industrial Automation |
Building and Home Automation |
Consumer Electronics |
Agriculture and Environmental |
Other Applications |
North America | United States | ||
Canada | |||
Mexico | |||
South America | Brazil | ||
Argentina | |||
Rest of South America | |||
Europe | United Kingdom | ||
Germany | |||
France | |||
Italy | |||
Spain | |||
Russia | |||
Rest of Europe | |||
APAC | China | ||
India | |||
Japan | |||
South Korea | |||
Rest of APAC | |||
Middle East and Africa | Middle East | Saudi Arabia | |
UAE | |||
Turkey | |||
Rest of Middle East | |||
Africa | South Africa | ||
Nigeria | |||
Kenya | |||
Rest of Africa |
Key Questions Answered in the Report
What is the current smart sensors market size and projected growth?
The smart sensors market stands at USD 77.05 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach USD 172.90 billion by 2030 at a 17.54% CAGR.
Which sensor type dominates revenue today?
Pressure sensors hold the largest 28.40% revenue share owing to their ubiquity in automotive, industrial, and healthcare systems.
Why is Asia-Pacific the largest regional market?
Asia-Pacific commands 44.30% share due to China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency drive, Japan’s innovation ecosystem, and strong domestic demand across automotive and electronics.
What regulatory changes are fueling sensor demand in vehicles?
The EU General Safety Regulation II and US NHTSA mandates require advanced emergency braking, lane-keeping, and pedestrian-detection systems, making image and radar sensors mandatory on new vehicles by 2029.
How is embedded edge-AI influencing sensor procurement decisions?
On-sensor AI reduces latency to sub-5 ms, cuts bandwidth costs, and strengthens data-privacy compliance, turning intelligence—not raw sensitivity—into the primary purchase criterion.
What is the biggest obstacle for small manufacturers adopting smart sensors?
High upfront integration costs and the shortage of multidisciplinary engineering talent remain key hurdles, particularly in regions with limited technical training capacity.
Page last updated on: June 19, 2025