Exploring the Strengths of IoT Sensors and RFID Technology

With the gradual maturity of IoT technology, emerging markets such as wearables, smart home, smart healthcare, and automotive electronics are growing rapidly. As an important foundation of the Internet of Things, the demand for sensors is increasing sharply.

As the world’s largest consumer market for sensors, the construction of the IoT industry circle in China is imperative. It is predicted that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the average annual compound growth rate of China’s sensor market will reach over 30%.

Sensors, known as the “five senses” of the Internet of Things, are devices used to collect various types of information and convert them into specific signals. They can collect information such as identity identification, motion status, geographical location, posture, pressure, temperature, humidity, light, sound, and smell.

Broadly defined, sensors include traditional sensitive components, RFID, barcodes, QR codes, radar, cameras, card readers, infrared sensing elements, etc.

Data shows that the global IoT market is expected to reach $11 trillion by 2025, and the corresponding sensor market will also reach hundreds of billions of dollars. Currently, it is mainly dominated by a few companies in the US, Japan, and Germany, such as Bosch, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Freescale, Infineon, and Philips.

The technology of sensors in China started relatively late, only establishing itself as a national key project during the 7th Five-Year Plan. It has now basically mastered the relevant technologies for mid-to-low-end sensors and formed a complete industrial system. Local companies in China have a small market share, with representative companies such as Hanwei Electronics and Huagong Technology.

The author has summarized the basic situation of current domestic and foreign IoT sensor providers.

Overview of domestic and foreign IoT sensor providers

Bosch is one of Germany’s industrial enterprises, engaged in automotive and intelligent transportation technology, industrial technology, consumer goods, and energy and building technology.

Bosch has over 20 years of experience in MEMS sensors. As a global leader in automotive parts supply, Bosch’s MEMS sensor journey began with automotive electronics. Today, more than 50 MEMS sensors are applied in automobiles, such as well-known automotive safety features like ABS, ESP, and airbags, as well as comfort features like navigation and in-car voice entertainment systems, where Bosch automotive electronic sensors play an indispensable role. Since 2005, Bosch has started to focus on consumer electronics sensor field and quickly become a market pioneer.

Bosch’s inertial motion sensors and environmental sensors enable consumers to enjoy a convenient, efficient, and safe life. 75% of Bosch MEMS sensors are used in consumer electronics, and Bosch sensors are installed in three-quarters of smartphones worldwide.

In 2013, Bosch established a dedicated IoT devices and solutions department to seize new growth opportunities. Based on sensors, Bosch has developed and produced a series of solutions for different industries. In the industrial field, companies do not need to invest in entirely new equipment for large-scale intelligent production lines; by applying the sensors provided, factories can connect existing equipment to the Internet of Things, achieving data-driven management in Industry 4.0. In addition, Bosch’s IoT sensors, devices, and solutions can also be applied in various fields such as smart homes, interconnected transportation, and smart logistics.

A previous report from Honeywell indicated that there are 14 major categories of sensors in the world, which can be classified into 65 families, and if further divided by technology, there are 366 types. Honeywell’s sensors encompass 32 of the 65 sensor families, covering nearly 50%.

Honeywell sees applications for sensors not only in food, water, and air but also in healthcare and medical-related markets, as well as in transportation and logistics, including commercial vehicles, passenger cars, and public transport.

STMicroelectronics is a diversified global leader in automotive semiconductors. Currently, STMicroelectronics has three major business segments and six product lines, with the sixth product line being sensors, such as MEMS sensors and image sensors.

STMicroelectronics utilizes FD-SOI technology, which can reduce power consumption by over 50%. Derivative fields include RF, ultra-low power, and embedded flash memory. The MEMS sensor field includes motion sensors, environmental sensors, microphones, and micro actuators.

As a world-leading provider of IoT products and solutions, STMicroelectronics will focus on four major sub-markets: smart industry, smart cities, smart homes, and smart hardware.

Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) is a leading supplier of semiconductor sensors and signal processing ICs. ADI’s inertial detection products and technologies have been highly praised and are currently causing a new generation of design revolution in various application fields such as industrial, medical, consumer electronics, communication, and automotive.

Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in semiconductors, headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA. It focuses on embedded processing solutions and provides technologies including microprocessors, microcontrollers, sensors, analog integrated circuits, and connectivity.

Freescale’s RF product portfolio is very rich, mainly applied in wireless infrastructure, wireless personal area networks, general amplifiers, broadcasting, consumer electronics, medical, smart energy, military, and industrial markets, leading the development of RF technology and continuing to be a leader in developing high-performance, high-quality, and highly reliable products using the latest technology.

Texas Instruments is the world’s largest manufacturer of analog circuit technology components and a leading multinational semiconductor company, known for developing, manufacturing, and selling semiconductors and computer technology, mainly engaged in innovative digital signal processing and analog circuit research, manufacturing, and sales. In addition to semiconductor business, it also provides solutions including sensors and control, educational products, and digital light processing solutions.

Texas Instruments’ sensing and control department provides sensors and control technologies that make various home appliances, such as televisions, cars, airplanes, computers, camcorders, refrigerators, microwave ovens, and toasters, safer and more efficient. Its RFID systems are also changing the landscape of security, inventory management, and retail consumer identification applications.

Infineon Technologies was officially established on April 1, 1999, in Munich, Germany, and is one of the leading semiconductor companies in the world. Infineon provides a variety of semiconductor solutions, including microcontrollers, LED drivers, sensors, and integrated circuits and power management chips for automotive applications.

Infineon’s sensor technologies, such as gas sensors, optical sensors, MEMS microphones, and other various sensors, are widely used in emerging markets such as the Internet of Things, drones, smartphones, and home automation.

Intermec is a leader in the automatic identification industry from the United States and is also a company that provides comprehensive solutions in the field of automatic identification.

Intermec’s product range includes barcode printers, barcode scanners, handheld data collection terminals, fixed industrial terminals, vehicle-mounted data terminals, wireless networking products, data collection servers, barcode labels and ribbons, mobile computers, mobile printers, communication servers, wireless RFID tags, wireless RFID tag printers, readers, and various application software and tools.

Philips, established in 1891 in the Netherlands, mainly produces products in lighting, home appliances, and medical systems.

Philips Lighting launched the CityTouch smart connected road lighting system in 2014, which has been successfully implemented in major cities worldwide, including Los Angeles, USA, and Jakarta, Indonesia. This system is one of the important measures to promote the construction of smart cities globally.

In 2017, Philips Lighting launched the CityTouch flex smart connected road lighting system in the Chinese market. This system uses streetlights as the entry point for the Internet of Things, allowing integration with various smart city applications, including urban emergency systems, traffic signal management systems, security monitoring systems, and crowd and vehicle flow detection systems, fully supporting the operation of smart cities.

Philips CityTouch flex smart connected road lighting system is gradually being deployed in China, with the first batch of CityTouch flex already implemented in Changzhou, Kunshan, and Beijing.

Henan Hanwei Electronics Co., Ltd. is located in the High-tech Industrial Development Zone of Zhengzhou, Henan Province. The company has been engaged in gas sensor research and production for twenty years and is one of the earliest manufacturers in China to engage in gas sensor research and production. It now has a relatively complete production process technology for gas sensors and detection and alarm products, forming a series of nearly 50 varieties of sintered semiconductor, catalytic combustion, hot wire gas sensors, and gas detection instruments.

The company relies on the Internet of Things foundation to vigorously develop the ITS product series. It has formed an intelligent transportation industry and products focused on card readers, red light violation capture systems, and various speed measurement systems. Among them, the police alcohol testing products have provided strong tool support for traffic police departments in checking drunk driving behavior in recent years.

Since its establishment, SuZhou Goodway has focused on semiconductor rectifier devices, power diodes, rectifier bridges, and IC packaging testing.

SuZhou Goodway Electronics Co., Ltd.’s subsidiary Minghao Sensing has raised 95 million yuan in Series A financing. Minghao Sensing mainly engages in the research and development, design, and production of MEMS sensors and provides related technical services. The main product directions include: accelerometers, gyroscopes (under development), pressure sensors, magnetic sensors, and MEMS microphones, aiming to provide required products and integrated solutions for consumer electronics, automotive electronics, and industrial automation.

Huagong Technology Industry Co., Ltd. is a key national high-tech enterprise that relies on more than ten years of accumulated sensor technology, optical communication technology, information traceability technology, and laser processing technology to help achieve the intelligent interconnection of objects, devices, and people.

Huagong Technology focuses on