Toumaz Sensium Digital Plaster
While the medical field has been a steady but slow growth market for chip makers, a recent report over at Chip Design claims that one segment of the medical market, remote patient monitoring, is picking up momentum. Broadcom, IMEC, Qualcomm, Intel, TI, Toumaz and other are angling to compete with new multimode wireless chips.
While adoption is still low, the race is on for a wireless standard to emerge for the body area networking (BAN) arena. Chip Design points to the emerging IEEE 802.15.6 standard, a low power version of Bluetooth, WiFi, and Zigbee as the top contenders. Toumax, IMEC, and researchers at universities are working on various new chips that would require less energy than those currently available. At least one of the chips under development will be powered by heat generated by the user's own body, according to the publication.
According to research firm Databeans, the global market for medical semiconductors will increase from $3.8 billion in 2011 to $5.9 billion in 2016, which is about a 9 percent CAGR. This year the market will see flat growth and hit $4 billion, according to the research firm.
The medical market has three major segments for chip makers: clinical, imaging, and home health. While devices used in the clinical setting are the largest part of the market, home healthcare is the fastest growing segment since new devices beyond legacy blood press monitors, digital thermometers, and glucose meters are now entering the market.
Medtronic's announcement to wireless-enable its CareLink remote patient monitoring service was a sign that the RPM arena was ticking up, according to the report. AirStrip's recent deals with GE and Qualcomm also indicated an upswing in remote patient monitoring to the industry.
Overall, chipset makers said they need to get used to the slow pace of adoption in the medical field. One chipset executive told Chip Design that new system platforms in the medical field have IC design cycles that last as long as three years sometimes.
Many more details over at Chip Design
