The booming drone market drives improvements in connector design

Combined sales of drones are expected to reach $90 billion over the next decade, with annual sales rising from $8 billion in 2015 to between $12 billion and $14 billion by 2025.

The military market will continue to lead the market, with an estimated market share of around 70%. The remaining market share is estimated to be around 25% for the consumer market and 5% for the civilian market.

In the next few years, the consumer and civilian sectors should achieve a 20% CAGR (compound annual growth rate), while the military sector is expected to grow at an average annual CAGR of about 5%.

Military field

The military market uses a complex array of systems and sensors for intelligence gathering, surveillance, reconnaissance and weaponry applications, which is good news for the connector industry.

The need to interconnect these various systems has clearly increased electrification and will continue to grow as they evolve to provide new and improved capabilities.

More specialized systems mean more connections. The product mix will depend on the platform and intended use, but there will be a huge boost in high data rates, RF, fiber optics, and miniaturized, rugged connector products and housings.

Most designs will be based on circular connectors, but rectangular connectors will also be increasingly used in some applications.

The booming drone market drives improvements in connector design

Civilian and consumer fields

The civil and consumer sectors include markets such as agriculture, construction, government and law enforcement. Compared to the military sector, the use of these drone control systems in the camera and the entire device is quite simple and relatively cheap, but this is reflected in their sales prices, which vary greatly depending on complexity and use.

In addition, in the civil and consumer sectors, the number of connectors for drones is less than that in the military sector, but due to the huge market in the civil and consumer sectors, the market size of connectors is also considerable.

Today, many civilian and consumer platforms use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) connectors. In many cases, these connectors are already sold in existing markets, including: industrial, automotive and computer, as well as some low-cost military-to-civilian areas. Keep in mind that the key to this market is cost, cost, cost, especially low-cost micro and nano connectors will have huge growth.

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