IR Camera Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

IR Camera Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The IR camera market was valued at USD 8.29 billion in 2020 and expected to reach a value of USD 10.24 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 7.4% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). With the increasing demand for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in the future and investments in autonomous cars, IR cameras are expected to witness significant adoption in vehicles. The COVID-19 is expected to have a significant impact on the market in the current year. It is anticipated to continue to impact the first two quarters of the year following it, as the supply chain has experienced a considerable disruption owing to the COVID-19 being declared as a pandemic.

Key Highlights

• The demand for surveillance has increased across various applications, including military and defense, energy, commercial spaces (such as banks). With energy usage becoming a crucial part of the global strategy to manage natural resources, solar energy is gaining prominence. As solar power is becoming increasingly popular, and solar panels are a costly and vulnerable commodity, good security is a must.
• An increasing need for continual and rigorous surveillance in the military is likely to provide an opportunity through these solutions for the use of the government. The governments across the world have already deployed drone cameras in large numbers, which cover around 100 kilometers of area.
• Industry 4.0 fueled the development of technologies like robots playing a crucial role in industrial automation, with many core operations in industries being managed by robots. InGaAs cameras offer new applications, such as vision-guided robotics and automated butchering. These vision-guided robots are a combination of IR imagers that finds and picks random parts in a bin, and then a camera analyses the orientation of each part and places them on the conveyor belt.
• Companies are making continuous product innovations for the fight against coronavirus. For instance, in May 2020, Santa Barbara Infrared Inc. (SBIR), a manufacturer of advanced infrared (IR) and electro-optical (E-O) test hardware for medical, aerospace, and defense applications, has introduced the Nightingale Body Temperature Reference Blackbody System for human body temperature detection.

Key Market TrendsCooled Detectors is Expected to have Significant Growth

• Cooled detectors used for IR cameras are the most sensitive type of cameras having small differences in scene temperatures. They offer high thermal contrast images due to blackbody physics, particularly for the MWIR band of the spectrum. The higher thermal contrast allows the easier detection of targets with a better distinction compared to uncooled IR cameras.
• One of the main factors driving the traction of cooled IR cameras is their ability to easily perform spectral filtering in order to uncover details and take measurements that otherwise would be unachievable with the uncooled thermal camera.
• Recent developments in cooled IR detector technology have led to the rapid development of many IR remote sensing instruments for a broad variety of environmental applications, like hyperspectral remote sensing, space imaging & surveillance. Due to the extraordinarily high sensitivity of cryogenically cooled detectors, IR systems have been developed for imaging in a variety of spectral bands with wavelengths up to 25 μm.
• In April 2020, Quebec-based infrared camera manufacturer TELOPS announced that it had added a new line of cooled Mid-Wave Infrared (MWIR) cameras developed for high-performance in general-purpose thermography applications.

North America Region is Expected to Have a Significant Share in the Market

• IR imaging is a boon to the armed forces, primarily the army, navy, and air force, because of its day-night working capability and ability to perform well in all weather conditions. ​In the studied region, the army and navy use IR cameras for border surveillance and law enforcement. They are also used in ship collision avoidance and guidance systems in the naval sector. However, in the aviation industry, they have significantly mitigated the risks of flying in low light and night conditions. Aviation also uses them to identify, locate, and target enemy forces. Recently, it has also been incorporated in civil aviation for the health monitoring of aircrafts. ​
• For the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY2020), the Department of Defense's budget authority was approximately USD 721.5 billion. About USD 712.6 billion was discretionary spending with approximately USD 8.9 billion in mandatory spending. In June 2020, the US Army and Navy have ordered more than 160 FLIR Systems’ Centaur UGVs, plus related spares and accessories. Totaling USD 23.5 million, the two contracts are being sourced through the Army’s Man Transportable Robotic System Increment II (MTRS Inc II) program. Deliveries are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2020.
• It is a medium-sized UGV, Centaur provides a standoff capability to detect, confirm, identify, and dispose off hazards. The open-architecture robot weighs approximately 160 pounds and is equipped with an advanced EO/IR camera suite, a manipulator arm that reaches over six feet, and the ability to climb stairs. Modular payloads can be used for CBRNE detection and other missions.
• Government initiatives, such as Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, which has undertaken to make the industry, various universities, and the federal government invest in the emerging automation technologies, will increase the production of machine vision systems.
• In Canada, in January 2021, Axon, a global provider in connected public safety technologies, and its subsidiary Axon Public Safety Canada Inc., announced that Cancom Security Inc. joined the Axon network by purchasing Axon Body 3 (AB3) cameras and licenses to the digital evidence management solution, Axon Evidence.

Competitive Landscape

The IR camera market is highly competitive with a large number of players in the market. Some of the major players in the IR camera market are, FLIR Systems Inc. and Opga. Moreover, the key vendors in the market offering InGaAs IR cameras are also seeking to form alliances to take initiatives against COVID-19.

• March 2021 - Lynred announced an investment of EUR 2.8 million in developing next-generation infrared (IR)detectors. Lynred will receive EUR 900,000 in R&D funding from the French government, as part of a program to revamp the microelectronics ecosystem in France.
• February 2021 - HGH developed a new field test bench for the maintenance and test of military equipment called the OPAL. It is a multispectral portable bench dedicated to the test and the maintenance of military electro-optics devices, such as night vision goggles, visible to IR cameras, and laser rangefinders. It has been designed to be robust and very easy to use in a lab or in the field. OPAL is based on a compact collimator for field application and includes infrared and visible reference sources, such as a blackbody and an integrating sphere, as well as specific targets and filters. It was showcased for the first time at IDEX 2021.
• April 2020 - Hamamatsu and Kiko Knowledge Hub Join Inspirata’s effort to offer free remote pathology solutions for healthcare institutions affected by COVID-19.

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• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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