Sensor industry needs its own force

In order to obtain information from the outside world, people must rely on sensory organs. And relying solely on people’s own sensory organs, their function in the study of natural phenomena and laws and production activities is far from enough. To meet this situation, sensors are needed. Therefore, it can be said that the sensor is an extension of human features, also known as electrical features.

With the arrival of the new technology revolution, the world has begun to enter the information age. In the process of using information, the first thing to solve is to obtain accurate and reliable information, and sensors are the main means and means for acquiring information in the natural and production fields.

In modern industrial production, especially in the automated production process, various sensors are used to monitor and control various parameters in the production process so that the equipment can be operated in a normal state or an optimal state, and the product can achieve the best quality. Therefore, it can be said that without numerous excellent sensors, modern production loses its foundation.

Sensor products are in urgent need of domestic development and cannot be relied on for long-term analysis of the import market: “12th Five-Year Plan” plans China's security industry to grow at an average annual output value of 20%. RFID tags will grow at an average annual rate of 21% over the next five years. Internet of Things applications have been supported by government policies. During the lead-in period, sensors are the basis of the Internet of Things and are in the upstream of the industry chain, benefiting from the beginning of the development of the Internet of Things. However, sensors have become a bottleneck in the development of China's Internet of Things.

According to the analysis, the development of China's sensor industry is lagging behind. Domestic sensor demand, especially high-end demand, is heavily dependent on imports. The localization gap is huge. At present, the import of sensors accounts for 80%, and the import of sensor chips accounts for 90%. The demand for localization is urgent. Domestic sensor manufacturers occupy the low-end market From the development trend, domestic sensor manufacturers have three situations: First, private or joint venture products occupy the low-end market, the traditional technology and equipment can meet the requirements of the vast majority of product manufacturing, The market is in good condition. In addition to individual manufacturers in the individual varieties of foreign production of chips to the domestic package of related products, occupy a larger share of the market, other high-end products are monopolized by foreign manufacturers.

2. With the rise of emerging industries such as the Internet of Things, the sensor industry has become an important area of ​​competition for high-tech development in all countries of the world. In recent years, China's sensor industry has grown rapidly, and its application model has also matured. However, due to the low industrial scale and poor technological innovation capability, the domestic sensor industry presents a low-end surplus and the market pattern of high-end foreign monopoly. The lag in the development of sensor technology has hindered the smooth progress of domestic strategic emerging industries.

At present, China has formed a relatively complete sensor industry chain from materials, devices and systems to the network. Great progress has been made in network interfaces, integration of sensor and network communications, and architecture of the Internet of Things system. However, the industry has a low grade, a small company, and a poor ability to innovate in technology. Many companies only introduce foreign components for processing, and their homogeneity is serious. The backward production equipment, process instability and other factors caused by the dispersion of product indicators, poor stability. Imitation products are also less than satisfactory in terms of agility. In areas that are relatively outstanding in R&D, basic development of industrialization has been neglected, and commercial development has lagged behind.

According to statistics, at present, there are about 6,000 sensor products in China, and more than 20,000 in foreign countries, far from meeting the needs of the domestic market. Imports of high-end and mid-range sensors accounted for 80% of the total, and sensor-chip imports reached 90%. Localization gaps are huge. There is a serious shortage of high-tech products such as digitization, intelligence, and miniaturization. The high-end products required by the country's major equipment are mainly imported. The sensors and intelligent instrumentation required for national security and major projects are often limited by foreign countries.

Foreign-funded enterprise products account for the vast majority of domestic high-end market share, and will continue to hold high-end markets for a long time to come. This momentum will not be fundamentally changed in the short term. Third, the development of state-owned enterprises is in a state of steady growth. Generally speaking, it cannot keep up with the pace of the latest foreign technology development. Except for a few manufacturers, the overall gap has widened. This is due to the rapid development of sensor technology, the rapid update of process and manufacturing equipment, and the inability of many new equipment manufacturers to manufacture. And the price of a single unit of equipment is as low as hundreds of thousands of dollars, and many millions of dollars. Most manufacturers can hardly buy new types of equipment because of their own accumulation. As a result, many new technologies and new processes cannot keep up with the rapid development of foreign companies. pace.

At present, China's sensor industry is at a critical stage of development from traditional to new sensors, which reflects the general trend of new sensors to miniaturization, multi-functionalization, digitization, intelligence, systematization, and network development. After many years of development, the sensor technology can be divided into three generations:

The first generation is a structural sensor that senses and transforms signals using structural parameter variations.

The second generation is a solid-state sensor developed in the 70s. This sensor consists of solid components such as semiconductors, dielectrics, and magnetic materials, and is manufactured using certain characteristics of the material. Such as: the use of thermoelectric effect, Hall effect, photosensitive effect, made of thermocouple sensors, Hall sensors, photosensitive sensors.

The third-generation sensor is an intelligent sensor that has just been developed. It is a combination of microcomputer technology and detection technology, which makes the sensor have a certain degree of artificial intelligence.

The country is gradually formulating policies that are conducive to the development of the sensor industry. In addition, the emergence of emerging technologies has also become a positive factor for the development of the sensor industry. According to the “12th Five-Year Plan for China Electronic Components” issued by China Electronic Components Association in July 2011, it will invest 500 billion yuan during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, mainly focusing on the research and development and industrialization of new electronic components. “Planning” clearly lists the products and technologies that will be developed in the next five years, including new chip-type, miniaturized, integrated, and highly reliable electronic component products that meet the needs of the development of the new generation of electronic whole machines; meeting China’s new traffic equipment manufacturing industry. High-quality and critical electronic components for supporting needs; electronic components and environmental protection electronic components for energy-saving and environmental protection devices; electronic components for next-generation communication technologies; electronic components for new energy and smart grid industries; new electronic components Materials and equipment. These include MEMS-based sensors, gas sensors for environmental monitoring equipment, flow sensors, and humidity sensors. In the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" of the Internet of Things released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in February 2012, the development of miniature and smart sensors and wireless sensor networks was also mentioned in the key project content.