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The first aim of the development of compact spectrometers was to bring the lab measurements to the field or into the process line. This has been accomplished in many industrial applications – optical characterization, pharmaceutics, biotechnology, chemistry etc. – by maintaining the required performance level. It was at the time when miniature spectrometers emerged (size <10000 cm3 in the study). A few years later, the same spectrometers also opened up new applications where spectroscopy had not been used before: precision farming, recycling, process control, etc. The range of potential applications became vast. The market started to be split into a wide variety of niche adoptions, each having its own requirements (performance, costs, design, operating conditions, …). This forced the development of products specific to each segment. At the same time, micro spectrometers were first presented (size between 10000 cm3 and 100 cm3), offering a similar performance to miniature devices but in a handheld, portable design. They enabled the launch of new systems for professional users. At the moment, it is still research and industrial optical characterization that possess the biggest shares within the compact spectrometer market. However, the better knowledge of end-users needs results in improving medium series applications (agriculture, environment) and also in developing further solutions for professionals (hair analyzers, textile identifiers, cannabis testers etc.). A turning point for the market is coming. It is the arrival of global leaders, both in the role of manufacturers (AMS Technologies, Osram, Viavi Solutions) and end users (Huawei, Samsung, Bosch, Henkel). Big players will drive the market towards consumer and biomedical applications (image enhancement, personal monitoring etc.). This is possible due to the emergence of chip size spectral sensors (<1 cm3).
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