Shortwave Infrared Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, Segmented By Type (Area Scan, Line Scan), By Application (Security and Surveillance, Monitoring and Inspection, Detection), By Technology (Cooled, Uncooled), By Vertical (Industrial, Non-industrial), By Region, By Competition, 2020-2030F

Market Overview

The Global Shortwave Infrared Market, valued at USD 441.00 Million in 2024, is projected to experience a CAGR of 9.80% to reach USD 772.77 Million by 2030. Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) technology involves imaging and detecting light within the electromagnetic spectrum's 0.9 to 2.5 micrometer wavelength range, operating beyond human visible perception. This technology generates high-resolution, high-contrast images by leveraging reflected or absorbed photons, which enables capabilities such as penetration through certain materials and atmospheric obscurants where visible light is ineffective. The market's growth is primarily supported by increasing adoption in industrial automation for precision quality control, particularly within semiconductor manufacturing and non-destructive testing, and its expanding application in defense and military sectors for enhanced surveillance and reconnaissance. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military expenditure reached USD 2.44 trillion in 2023, representing a 6.8% increase from the prior year.

Despite these growth drivers, a notable challenge impeding market expansion is the consistently high cost associated with SWIR sensors and complete imaging systems. The reliance on Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) as a primary sensor material contributes significantly to these costs due to the inherent expense of raw materials and complex fabrication processes required for production. This cost barrier restricts broader commercial accessibility and adoption across various cost-sensitive industrial and consumer applications.

Key Market Drivers

The expanding defense and military applications represent a significant catalyst for the Global Shortwave Infrared Market. SWIR technology provides critical advantages in surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting systems, offering superior visibility through atmospheric obscurants that impede visible and longwave infrared sensors. This capability is essential for persistent monitoring, border security, and battlefield awareness. For instance, according to Teledyne FLIR Defense, in July 2024, the company received a $15 million contract to deliver over 150 ThermoSight® HISS-XLR weapon sights to a NATO partner country. This investment underscores SWIR's strategic importance in modern military operations. The broader adoption of SWIR technology is also evident across various sectors. According to BAE Systems, in February 2025, the company reported a 14% rise in revenue for 2024, reflecting robust demand within the defense sector, a key area for SWIR technology.

Concurrently, increasing industrial automation and quality control needs drive substantial growth in the SWIR market. Industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and food processing leverage SWIR for non-destructive testing, material sorting, and contaminant detection. SWIR's ability to differentiate between substances, identify moisture content, or detect microscopic defects is invaluable for ensuring product integrity and optimizing production lines. For example, in semiconductor fabrication, SWIR cameras inspect silicon wafers through their inherent transparency, revealing internal defects. According to Nippon. com, in April 2024, Japan invested ¥3.9 trillion in support for its semiconductor industry from fiscal 2021 to 2023, demonstrating a significant commitment to a sector heavily reliant on advanced inspection technologies like SWIR. This pursuit of enhanced efficiency and stringent quality standards continues to fuel demand for sophisticated SWIR imaging systems.

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Key Market Challenges

The consistently high cost associated with Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) sensors and complete imaging systems presents a significant impediment to market expansion. This challenge stems from the fundamental reliance on Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) for sensor fabrication, a material inherently expensive due to its raw material costs and the intricate production processes required. This cost barrier directly restricts broader commercial accessibility and adoption across various cost-sensitive industrial and consumer applications where the initial investment remains prohibitive.

Despite the robust performance of the wider photonics sector, where global annual revenues from the production of optics and photonics core components reached $368 billion in 2022, according to SPIE, the specialized and high-cost nature of SWIR technology limits its contribution to widespread industrial integration. This ensures that only enterprises with substantial capital expenditure budgets can fully leverage SWIR capabilities for precision quality control or advanced surveillance. Consequently, the high expense prevents more pervasive adoption in sectors like general manufacturing automation or food processing, thereby hampering the overall growth potential of the Global Shortwave Infrared Market beyond niche, high-value applications.

Key Market Trends

Miniaturization and cost reduction of Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) sensors are significantly broadening the market by making this advanced technology accessible to a wider range of commercial and industrial applications. This trend directly addresses the historical high costs associated with SWIR sensor manufacturing, which previously restricted its widespread adoption. For instance, Emberion Oy announced in October 2024 its new ultra-low-cost SWIR sensor, with a manufacturing cost projected to be less than €50 in large volumes, aimed at opening mass-market opportunities in sectors such as automotive and consumer electronics. The ability to integrate SWIR capabilities into more compact and affordable devices is essential for market expansion, especially given that the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) reported a 7% decline in North American machine vision sales from $3.116 billion in 2022 to $2.895 billion in 2023, underscoring the demand for cost-effective innovations to stimulate growth.

The integration of SWIR with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is transforming the utility of SWIR data by enabling sophisticated, automated analysis and interpretation. This synergy allows SWIR systems to move beyond basic imaging to offer enhanced capabilities in areas such as precision quality control, advanced material analysis, and intelligent surveillance. The combination of SWIR's unique imaging properties with AI's processing power enables automated decision-making and real-time insights that surpass human observational limits. A US Army SBIR topic released in April 2023 sought the development of a polarimetric SWIR camera system with incorporated AI/ML capabilities for enhanced detection and tracking of swarming unmanned aerial vehicles, illustrating the demand for such intelligent solutions. Reflecting this growing emphasis on smart vision systems, the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) reported that machine vision software sales in North America increased by 14.5% in 2024 compared with 2023, highlighting the increasing investment in intelligent processing capabilities within the vision market.

Segmental Insights

The Cooled segment is a significant driver within the Global Shortwave Infrared Market, experiencing rapid expansion due to its superior imaging capabilities crucial for high-end applications. Cooled SWIR imagers offer enhanced sensitivity, higher resolution, and exceptional performance in low-light and challenging environmental conditions. This technical advantage minimizes thermal noise, allowing for detailed, long-range imaging and improved detection power. Consequently, these systems are indispensable in critical sectors such as security and surveillance, military and aerospace for high-precision target acquisition, reconnaissance, and industrial inspection, where accuracy and reliability are paramount. Ongoing advancements in cooling technologies are further contributing to their efficiency and affordability, thus fueling broader adoption.

Regional Insights

North America stands as the leading region in the Global Shortwave Infrared Market, primarily driven by significant investments in defense and military sectors. This region leverages SWIR technology for critical applications such as advanced surveillance, reconnaissance, and enhanced situational awareness in diverse operational environments. Furthermore, North America possesses a robust technological infrastructure and demonstrates substantial commitment to research and development, fostering innovation in SWIR sensor and camera manufacturing. The region's established industrial base, particularly in automotive and semiconductor manufacturing, widely adopts SWIR for precise quality control and inspection processes, contributing significantly to its market leadership. Government initiatives supporting advanced imaging systems further reinforce this dominance.

Recent Developments

• In October 2025, SPECIM launched the SX25, a new high-resolution SWIR hyperspectral camera designed for industrial machine vision. This camera operates within the 960-2500 nm spectral range, offering an 8nm spectral resolution and achieving a high spectral resolution of 640 pixels at a frame rate of 162 frames per second. The SX25 incorporates an effective pixel size of 18.75 µm, a 73dB dynamic range, and a GigE interface. This product is specifically engineered for precise SWIR imaging tasks, including coating layer inspections, mineral and ore classification, and food quality analysis.

• In August 2025, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Oklahoma State University, working with Ghost Display Technologies LLC, secured a grant to advance an ultralow-cost shortwave infrared (SWIR) sensor. This research project focuses on creating a high-resolution, economical SWIR imaging sensor by employing innovative OLED-based up-conversion technology. This method is anticipated to substantially reduce SWIR sensor costs from over $10,000 to below $500, simultaneously increasing resolution from less than one megapixel to over 100 megapixels. This breakthrough aims to facilitate the integration of SWIR imaging into consumer electronics and LiDAR systems.

• In October 2024, Lynred, a leading provider of high-performance infrared sensors, announced the acquisition of New Imaging Technologies (NIT), a Paris-based specialist in shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging sensors and modules. This strategic acquisition expanded Lynred's product portfolio with NIT's high-definition large array SWIR sensors and modules. The integration is intended to accelerate the delivery of advanced SWIR products to market and leverage combined industrial supply chains and technical expertise. This collaboration aims to address the growing global demand for SWIR infrared imaging in machine vision, laser detection, and defense applications.

• In August 2024, Teledyne FLIR introduced its new Forge 1GigE SWIR camera series, developed for a variety of machine vision applications. The initial camera in this series features a Sony SenSWIR IMX990 InGaAs sensor, providing 1.3-megapixel resolution with 5 µm pixels. This camera covers a wide spectral range from 400 to 1700 nm, allowing for the capture of both visible and SWIR images. Equipped with functionalities such as pixel correction and a sequencer with region of interest, this compact series is suitable for industrial inspection, food sorting, and environmental monitoring in the Global Shortwave Infrared Market.

Key Market Players

• Raptor Photonics Limited
• RTX Corp.
• Lynred
• Teledyne FLIR LLC
• Teledyne Princeton Instruments
• Exosens
• Allied Vision Technologies GmbH
• New Imaging Technologies
• Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.
• Sensors Unlimited

Report Scope:

In this report, the Global Shortwave Infrared Market has been segmented into the following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below:

• Shortwave Infrared Market, By Type:

o   Area Scan

o   Line Scan

• Shortwave Infrared Market, By Application:

o   Security and Surveillance

o   Monitoring and Inspection

o   Detection

• Shortwave Infrared Market, By Technology:

o   Cooled

o   Uncooled

• Shortwave Infrared Market, By Vertical:

o   Industrial

o   Non-industrial

• Shortwave Infrared Market, By Region:

o   North America

§  United States

§  Canada

§  Mexico

o   Europe

§  France

§  United Kingdom

§  Italy

§  Germany

§  Spain

o   Asia Pacific

§  China

§  India

§  Japan

§  Australia

§  South Korea

o   South America

§  Brazil

§  Argentina

§  Colombia

o   Middle East & Africa

§  South Africa

§  Saudi Arabia

§  UAE

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies presents in the Global Shortwave Infrared Market.

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Company Information

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