Sensors: "Overtaking" leveraging the Internet of Things

A dozen sensors are used in a smart phone, and hundreds of sensors may be used in a high-end car. The number of sensors used in a modern smart factory is tens of thousands. Sensors have penetrated into all aspects of people's production and life.

Industry presents a "scattered" shape

With the vigorous advancement of the "Made in China 2025", "Internet +" Action Plan and the "National Outline for the Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry", the importance of sensor technology and sensor industry has become increasingly prominent. CCID Consulting predicts that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the annual compound annual growth rate of the sensor market in China will reach 31%. According to the bold conjecture of Jeremy Rifkin, author of The Third Industrial Revolution and the Zero Marginal Cost Society, by 2030, the number of globally applied sensors will surge from 3.5 billion in 2013 to more than 100. A trillion people, human and natural environment will be closely linked through sensors.

"Sensors are the best breakthrough for upgrading our country's modern information technology and driving the development of industrialization." Wang Xiao, director of the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, stated that "in the global semiconductor industry, sensors started as a whole. The gap between foreign countries is relatively small, and now is the key stage for the transition from traditional to new sensors. With the rapid development of the Internet of Things, the layout of China's sensor industry is likely to achieve 'overtaking of corners.'

What is the current level of development of China's sensor industry? Guo Yuansheng, chief engineer of the Electronic Components Industry Development Research Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, summarizes it with a “scatter” word.

“In the development process of China’s sensor industry, there is a shortage of professional talents for technical development and industrialization, incompatible industry culture and industrialization, low market adaptability and fit, high overall costs, and insufficient interoperability with international markets. There are many problems such as serious constraints on the enterprise system and mechanism. From the overall perspective of the industry, it is concentrated as a 'spread' word," said Guo Yuansheng.

According to industry statistics, China’s 2014 sales of sensitive components and sensors exceeded 120 billion yuan; in 2015, the demand was about 65.29 billion, a growth rate higher than 18%, and sales will exceed 130 billion yuan. At present, there are more than 1,700 enterprises and institutions engaged in the research, development, production and application of sensors in China. Sensor products have reached 10 categories, 42 subcategories, and more than 6,000 varieties.

Urgent high-end breakthrough

Although China's sensor industry has formed a complete industrial system from technology research and development, design, production to application, and some of the subdivided areas have reached the world's leading level, on the overall level, domestically produced sensor products are still dominated by low-end and high-end technologies. The level is relatively backward. The import of medium-to-high-end sensors in the Chinese market accounts for 80% of the total, and digital, intelligent and miniaturized products are seriously deficient.

“The products of domestic companies are mainly concentrated on low-value products such as low-end pressure, temperature, and strain gauges. In recent years, several companies have started production of MEMS products, of which microphone products are developing well, but others such as pressure, acceleration, Gyro is also a relatively low-end product,” said Professor Wang Wei of the Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University in an interview with a reporter from China Electronics News.

Compared with Europe, the United States, Japan, the domestic industry in the entire sensor industry is relatively backward, manufacturing technology and packaging technology is more obvious. The problem of basic links is not completely solved, and the number of original innovative products is small, resulting in low added value and market share.

Fortunately, the rapid development of the Internet of Things has brought opportunities for China's sensor industry. At present, China's Internet of Things has initially formed a complete industrial system, and won a certain amount of international discourse power. It has formed large-scale applications in various fields such as transportation, electricity, and security. In the future, the Internet of Things will usher in the development of blowouts and become an important force in promoting economic and social intelligence and sustainable development. The sensor is an important part of the perception layer of the Internet of Things and assumes the important task of data collection and transmission. It is the basis and prerequisite for the realization of the Internet of Things. The data shows that the global IoT market is expected to reach US$11 trillion in 2025, and the corresponding sensor market will also reach a market size of several hundred billion US dollars.

Wang Hao believes that the entire semiconductor industry will benefit from the development of the Internet of Things. Although China's semiconductor industry started relatively late, the rapid development of the Internet of Things not only allows China's semiconductor industry to have a larger market space, but also brings the opportunity to catch up with the international advanced level and achieve the world's first. The overall development of the sensor industry is relatively late. The gap between China and foreign countries is relatively small. Now, it is a crucial stage for the transition from traditional to new sensors. It is possible to achieve a “curve overtaking” when properly deployed.

Specifically, a large number of sensor chips required for the Internet of Things only need to complete simple data acquisition, storage, and transmission. This requires that the chips must have low power consumption and low price. With existing materials and packaging technology, these features can be perfectly represented on 45nm chips. Our country has a mature industrial layout on 45nm process and 8-inch wafers. With the development of the Internet of Things, these production capacities will be released to the maximum.

Therefore, on the one hand, the ultra-large-scale market of the Internet of Things will greatly stimulate the development of the integrated circuit industry; on the other hand, the characteristics of the sensors required for the Internet of Things are also expected to change the development path of integrated circuits and allow more integrated circuits for existing processes. To make room for this is a great opportunity for the development of our integrated circuits.