50 years of cutting edge gas sensor technology

Founded in 1968, Figaro Engineering, Inc. marks its 50th anniversary on October 18, 2019. Figaro began by manufacturing semiconductor-type LP gas sensors being adopted in LP gas leak alarms. Their application field of gas sensors has expanded to a wide variety of applications such as various gas species alarms, controls for microwave ovens, air purifiers and air conditioners, and automobile damper controls. Figaro’s accumulated sensor sales have exceeded 350 million pieces worldwide.

Figaro’s first gas sensor product was based on the gas sensing principle known as “semiconductor type”. From there they expanded their products into other technologies: catalytic, electrochemical, and optical types. The company’s target is to become “A department store for sensors”, i.e. to provide customers with any type of sensor.

In addition to expanding the Figaro product line, newly developed sensors such as coin type CO sensors and ultra-miniaturised MEMS have been commercialised in response to strong market demands for miniaturised size, low power consumption and high accuracy. Figaro is also supplying new sensors to satisfy the demand for multiple sensing points in the fields of IoT and AI. Figaro’s expertise in development and their volume production technology for high quality sensors enables them to annually supply over 20 million sensors worldwide.