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In the smart manufacturing environment, where is the incremental market for sensors?

According to the industrial control editor, the global sensor market in 2017 exceeded 200 billion US dollars, and it is expected to reach about 250 billion US dollars in 2018.

Sensors, which began in 1950, have matured in technology and applications after more than half a century of development. With the development of smart manufacturing, the future of sensors is even more clear.

At present, the industry generally believes that in the future, higher integration, more intelligent, and smaller size is an inevitable trend of sensor development, which means that it will meet the application requirements of more industries, fields and scenarios, and the installation is more convenient. .

At the same time, in order to adapt to the development of intelligent manufacturing, intelligence has become an important direction for sensor development. The so-called intelligence, that is, the "sensing" ability of traditional sensors is redefined and given the ability to "analyze" and "issue instructions." In fact, this change is also going on.

At present, sensors are undergoing a process from a single material to a composite material, a simple structure to a system structure, and the original physical quantity sensing function is also intelligently transformed. This article will focus on three types of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones, CMOS image sensors and capacitive fingerprint sensors.

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microphone

From the development path of sensors, MEMS microphones belonging to the family of sound sensors are gradually replacing traditional ECM microphones and ultrasonic sensors.

According to Yole development's forecast, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of MEMS microphones is expected to grow by 11% in the next three years. In the application industry, IHS data shows that the growth of MEMS sensors is mainly in the field of automotive electronics. This growth is related to the positive and rapid development of automotive electronics. According to data from the Prospective Industry Research Institute, the global automotive electronics market will continue to grow in the next five years, and by 2023, this scale will exceed $350 billion.

In addition, the advantages of the MEMS microphone itself are gradually highlighted in the pace of synchronization and intelligence in various industries. For example, in the aspect of artificial intelligence interaction, traditional sensors such as ECM microphones are relatively cumbersome and are not the best choice for intelligent voice assistant applications that require an array architecture. Secondly, in the intelligent interaction, the traditional single microphone is gradually replaced by multiple microphone arrays, which also promotes the use of MEMS microphones.

As a highly integrated sensor product, the difficulty in MEMS microphone manufacturing is mainly concentrated in the packaging of various heterogeneous micro-machines, microelectronic components, and micro-energy in a micro-system, and its manufacturing technology and IC wafer fabrication. The class is similar but does not require advanced processes.

At present, in order to adapt to the new storage, computing and communication functions, shrinking to nano-scale internal components, and integrating more transistors and storage, that is, the packaging method and the introduction of new materials naturally become the future development trend of MEMS microphones.

CMOS image sensor (CIS)

An image sensor is an electronic device that converts an optical image into an electronic signal, and is mainly applied to a charge coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CIS) technology, wherein the CCD is a linear sensor whose output is received and received. The number of photons is directly related, and CIS is a relatively new parallel readout technique. At present, the manufacturing cost of CIS is much lower than that of CCD sensor, which means that CIS will develop greatly in the future.

IC insight data shows that the global CIS market in 2017 exceeded $12 billion, an increase of nearly 20% from the previous year. In this market size and increment, the application of smartphones is relatively high. According to IC Insight statistics, from 2012 to 2017, the global mobile phone application accounted for an average annual growth rate of 12% in the overall market size of CIS. In the future, with the development of automotive intelligence, CIS will have a larger market in the automotive field.

Currently, the mainstream technologies of CIS are back-illuminated technology (BSI) and stack back-illuminated technology. In addition, multi-layer stacked BSI and hybrid stacked BSI have also become the future development trend. Industrial Control Xiaobian believes that whether it is multi-layer stacking or hybrid stacking, it is an upgrade to the original single traditional sensor, the direction is more integrated and smaller, and the ultimate goal is to be able to adapt to more scenes. It is also "the same way."

Fingerprint sensor

When it comes to fingerprint recognition, you can't get around your smartphone. As an epoch-making symbol in the field of smart phones, Apple's mobile phone launched the iPhone 5s with fingerprint unlocking function in September 2013. The fingerprint sensor has since opened its market in the mobile phone field. According to IHS statistics, the fingerprint sensor market has grown from a market size of almost zero in 2013 to $2.55 billion in 2016, of which 88% are for mobile applications. It is no exaggeration to say: the introduction of fingerprint unlocking technology in mobile phones has driven the rapid development of the entire fingerprint sensor market.

Fingerprint sensors technically include capacitive, optical, thermal, and ultrasonic sensing. Among them, capacitive fingerprint sensors are traditional technologies, and it is commonly used in the market. With the development of mobile phone technology and technological innovation, the market for optical and ultrasonic fingerprint sensors under the screen has gradually expanded.

In the future, the traditional capacitive fingerprint sensor market will decline in size, and the screen fingerprint technology that represents the latest technology of mobile phone unlock technology will become the main growth driver. According to IHS, by 2023, the fingerprint sensor market will exceed $5.5 billion and CAGR will be about 6%. In addition to mobile phones, security, medical and industrial fields are also a significant market for fingerprint sensors.

The intelligent development of manufacturing is a cross-industry technological change, which includes industrial production, automobile manufacturing, medical, agriculture, consumer electronics and many other fields. With the gradual landing of the concept of the Internet of Everything, the era has also put forward more new requirements for smart sensing technology.