FREMONT, CA: Frost and Sullivan, a management consulting company, in its latest report, stated that costly electronic test and measurement (T&M) equipment used in research and development occupies around 50 percent of the total market revenue obtained from instruments priced at over $50,000.

With the development of technologies moving towards usage of higher frequencies, wider modulation bandwidth and technological innovations that include 5G and Internet of Things (IoT), the test and measurement equipment market are finding opportunities to grow. Yet providing superior equipment at competitive prices is challenging to test and measurement equipment vendors.

A recent report from Frost and Sullivan, titled “Electronic Test and Measurement Market in Research and Development—New Technologies Bring Drastic Change”, states that the electronic test equipment market earned revenues of $1.99 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $1.36 billion by 2021.

Other findings state that the increase of primary prospects for the T&M equipment market in the forecast period emerges from the radio frequency (RF), microwave (MW) and high-speed digital test segments. Function generators will be required lesser in contrast to signal generators as well as signal analyzers’ demand will be more than spectrum analyzers due to their vector capabilities. Also In power meters, complex signals will drive peak power meter adoption over average power meters.

Additionally, the increase in the greater than 60 megahertz bandwidth segment will account for considerable revenues as new technologies require over 1 GHz of modulation bandwidth and due to the lack of disruptive technology in the largest segment of oscilloscopes, the segment is vulnerable to macroeconomic trends and customer business cycles over the next 3-5 years.

Regardless of budget restraints end users have no other option but to upgrade their test equipment in the face of such rapid technological evolution. Test vendors success depends on the ability for them to provide high-performance equipment at competent prices to address this great demand.

“Technologies such as 5G and higher frequencies required in aerospace and defense and automotive radars will translate into a drastic shift in the signal generators, signal analyzers, network analyzers, and power meters segments of the electronic test equipment market,” says Jessy Cavazos, Frost & Sullivan Test and Measurement Industry Director. “Currently, the majority of the revenues for these segments come from frequencies below 6 gigahertz (GHz). In future, a much higher percentage of revenues will come from frequencies over 26.5 GHz.”