From November 11 to 13, the first China Sensor and Application Technology Conference was grandly held in Guangming District, Shenzhen. At the conference, Guo Yuansheng, chief engineer of the Electronic Components Industry Development Research Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and vice president of the China Sensor and Internet of Things Industry Alliance, delivered a speech titled “The Construction of Intelligent Sensor Technology Ecological System and Innovation of Application Concepts.”

This article is a comprehensive summary of Guo Yuansheng’s related speech, in which he pointed out that “Without sensitive components, sensor companies lack core technology, and without applications, there are no economic benefits.” He also stated, “Those who use sensors do not understand the manufacturing process of sensors, and those who manufacture sensors do not understand the specific applications. This is the biggest problem in the Chinese sensor industry.”

The Sensor Expert Network focuses on the field of sensor technology and is committed to providing professional vertical services for global cutting-edge market dynamics, technology trends, and product selection. It is a leading domestic platform for sensor product inquiries and media information services, providing precise matching and docking for a wide range of electronic manufacturing practitioners and sensor manufacturers based on sensor products and technologies.

Expert Profile

Guo Yuansheng, Deputy Director of the 93rd Central Science and Technology Committee; Chief Engineer of the Electronic Components Industry Development Research Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; Vice President of the China Sensor and Internet of Things Industry Alliance; Vice Chairman of the Sensitive Technology Branch of the China Electronics Society; Deputy Director of the National 3D Competition Committee; Deputy Director of the Strategic Committee of the Sensor Intelligent Technology Innovation Center of Beijing Institute of Technology; Distinguished Professor at Shandong University; Part-time Professor at Wuhan University, East China University of Science and Technology, and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. He is a project review expert for the National Development and Reform Commission, MIIT, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, and has participated in the writing and approval of national electronic information planning documents such as the “White Paper on the Development of the Chinese Sensor Industry” and the “13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of China’s Electronic Components Industry.”

The Third Wave of Information Technology Must Solve the Data Collection Problem

China’s industrial development has its own unique development trajectory, having gone through three historically significant stages.

The first stage was before the reform and opening up, characterized by a policy-driven shortage economy with low industrial scale and capability. The second stage was marked by the rapid development of manufacturing and economies of scale, leading to overcapacity driven by capital. The third stage, starting from the 19th National Congress, is the industrial transformation we currently face, including how manufacturing can upgrade, how traditional industries can deeply integrate with new-generation information technology, and how to ensure people feel a sense of gain, driven by innovation economy centered around digital and data.

The development of information technology also has its fixed trajectory. The birth of personal computers in the 1980s digitized calculations, marking the first wave of information technology. The second wave was the arrival of the internet in the early 21st century, which greatly bridged the distance between people through terminals. The third wave began in 2009, ushering in the era of the Internet of Things. These three waves of information technology form a complete IoT system and establish the three pillars of information technology: information collection, information transmission, and information processing.

Moreover, the third wave of information technology primarily aims to address the data collection problem. Without solving this problem, the concept of the Internet of Things cannot be discussed.

Simultaneously, these three waves of information technology also form the three major laws of the digital economy, constructing a complete digital economic system. The first wave follows Moore’s Law, the second wave follows Metcalfe’s Law, and the third wave follows Davis’s Law, which emphasizes the importance of being first to market.

Sensors are the mother of big data.

The development of sensors is changing rapidly, with a wide variety. It is suggested that there are over 30,000 types of sensors globally, with around 26,000 commonly used, while our country has about 7,000 types. Our country is a major application country but not yet a major manufacturing power in sensors, with about 67% of ordinary sensors needing to be imported, and over 90% of high-end sensors needing to be imported, which is a significant issue.

However, after years of effort, intelligent sensors have become a key research and development project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the special project has also been approved. How to achieve industrialization and domestic substitution has become a pressing issue for the industry.

To build a basic common platform, we need to create eight common platforms among the eight major sensitive types (acoustic, force-sensitive, light-sensitive, gas-sensitive, magnetic-sensitive, temperature and humidity-sensitive, RFID, and biological). From the perspective of industrialization concentration, limited resources, and industrial chain structure, all eight major sensitivities can achieve industrialization based on MEMS technology.

Its development can be divided into several levels: the first is the excavation and discovery of sensitive accumulation, requiring theoretical innovation and research; the second is materials; the third is how to device it; the fourth is to transform it into complete modularization. Then, for different applications, standardization and normalization should be pursued as much as possible, making it relatively easy to enhance industrialization capabilities.

International Trends in Sensor Development

There are roughly four trends in the development of international sensors:

First, MEMS technology (miniaturization, integration, low power consumption, strong industrialization capability), which has commonality and can support industrialization;

Second, intelligent and networked technologies (wireless), which break the bottleneck between production and usage;

Third, energy harvesting technologies (micro-energy harvesting technologies);

Fourth, multi-dimensional collaborative scenario data description (same object different information; different objects same information; different objects different information):

This means that when assessing a scenario, one cannot rely solely on a single-dimensional sensor; a multi-dimensional comprehensive description is necessary.

Innovation of Concepts is More Important than Product and Technology Innovation

Innovation of concepts is not only based on products and the markets created but also needs to be realized according to a people-centered philosophy.Interests give rise to monopolies and can also drive artificial barriers in the industry, hindering technological innovation. Thus, it is necessary to break industry barriers and accelerate the formation of a data-sharing mechanism.

How to Innovate Concepts?For example, for smart home terminal prototypes, we first need to create the prototype, then optimize engineering design, screen functions, and modularize it, turning it into different products. This is what innovation of concepts aims to address. We say that transformation and upgrading must shift to a truly people-centered service philosophy, so this innovation is collaborative, integrated, permeating, and applied innovation. Different industries such as home furnishing, high-speed rail, automotive, and agriculture must start from the perspective of “people” in concept innovation.

While innovating concepts, it is also essential to break through resources, technology, and regulatory systems to achieve product innovation. Sensor technology determines the quality of system functions and services, whether it flies in the sky or runs on the ground. The performance and intelligence level depend not only on how many microprocessors and algorithms are installed but also on how many and what types of sensors are installed.

Industrialization of Sensors Requires Good Construction of a “Dual Ecology”

The industrialization of sensors lies in how to build the industrial chain, how to create an industrial ecology, how to form industrial clusters, and how to construct an industrial ecological system. It is necessary to do a good job in constructing a dual ecological system—Ecology One: integrity of the industrial chain and clustering (characteristic industrial chain); Ecology Two: modern service industry, platformization (business environment).

The construction of the industrial system requires a complete design plan, achieving the integration of “government, industry, academia, research, application, and services”. Many local governments do not have a profound understanding of this industrial system; they only focus on attracting investment without clarity on what to do afterward. Production is aimed at the industrial chain system, enterprises build industrial chains, industries create industrial clusters, and regions build industrial ecologies. At the same time, the industrial chain needs to solve problems collaboratively, with two fundamental elements that must be addressed—physical space and industrial funds.

This requires government promotion and guidance, collaboration from associations and alliance organizations, active participation from groups of enterprises, and the establishment of product manufacturing technology innovation centers, to do a good job in market promotion and application development, and to build public service institutions such as testing and standards.

From historical experience, industry development, and the path of internationalization, the industrialization of sensors is challenging, but not to the point of being unfeasible. It is an industrial chain and an industrial system, which are two ecological systems.

Problems Exist at All Three Layers of IoT Perception, Transmission, and Application Technologies

The structure of the Internet of Things is divided into three layers from bottom to top: perception layer, transmission layer, and application layer.Guo Yuansheng believes that at the bottom level, the IoT industry faces problems related to technology development and standardization. The top-level design of the sensor industry, including standards and specifications, has not yet formally been established, and there is not even consensus on many issues.

Understanding complex application scenarios and forming standardized, normative scenario descriptions are essential tasks for achieving upstream and downstream collaboration in the Internet of Things. Only through multi-dimensional parameter settings can specific scenarios be standardized, leading to corresponding data models and suitable technical routes. The key to industrializing the perception layer of the Internet of Things is how to select dimensions and parameters, combined with algorithms to form modular products. “Finding the dimensions and computational methods to describe application scenarios is the primary issue for the promotion and application of the Internet of Things.” Guo Yuansheng stated.

At the network layer, the construction of the Internet of Things requires support from technologies such as the internet, mobile communication networks, and wireless sensor networks. Currently, the construction of 5G networks largely solves the transmission speed issues of the IoT network layer, enabling low latency for IoT applications, but costs remain a bottleneck hindering market expansion. Guo Yuansheng stated: “If the traffic costs for 5G far exceed what users can bear, then the application of 5G will be difficult to promote or will face significant obstacles.”

Smart transportation, smart home, smart retail, smart agriculture… the application scenarios of the Internet of Things are very rich, but due to the constraints of management segments and interests in various industry processes and links, this data becomes monopolized resources, and issues of isolated applications and fragmented product technologies will become increasingly severe. Guo Yuansheng cited the example of highway toll booths, arguing that the tolling scenario can entirely remove toll facilities, achieving unattended and barrier-free passage.

Guo Yuansheng believes that ETC cards and toll barriers are manifestations of the complexity of the tolling scenario, which increases toll costs and creates obstacles to smooth passage, being neither environmentally friendly nor economical. “Since ETC has been adopted, what is the use of toll barriers?” He stated that if integration of land, air, and sky could be achieved, vehicles would automatically be charged upon entering the highway, and monthly or single-time toll bills would be automatically generated, thus completely resolving congestion at highway entrances, making toll scenarios more scientifically, reasonably, and humanely described.

Non-perceptive Governance Enhances Smart City Experience

“98% of people in cities are not the targets of urban ‘governance’; what they need more is service.” Guo Yuansheng believes that utilizing sensors and big data computing to build intelligent governance, where people do not feel governed, will enhance residents’ experience of smart cities.

The current phenomenon of “the higher the level of intelligence, the less convenient life becomes” indicates that there are problems with the means and concepts of intelligence to varying degrees. Various so-called “intelligent systems” obstruct elderly people’s mobility; patients spend considerable time figuring out how to use appointment and payment devices; individuals must manage multiple bank cards for financial and social security matters; and elderly individuals are often bewildered by various technological products… The technological means that should bring convenience to people’s lives instead add many obstacles. Guo Yuansheng believes that these are products and technologies designed for management rather than for genuine intelligence and humanity.

Regarding how to break the data silo problem, Guo Yuansheng suggested forming urban data operators to aggregate big data collected from 5G and Beidou, creating an integrated network framework for logistics, human flow, and information flow, and then distributing data to different departments according to industry classification. This would clarify responsible parties and beneficiaries in design, operation, management, service, and safety, achieving complete unity of responsibilities, rights, and benefits.

Further Building Industrial Clusters

For the current Chinese sensor industry, Guo Yuansheng summarized the issues faced by the industry with the six words: high, small, scattered, many, lacking, and difficult.

The variety of sensor products, their applicable fields, rich cross-industry integration, and complex usage requirements present challenges. In light of this, Guo Yuansheng advised enterprises to understand the industrial chain and the supply-demand conditions of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.

“Those who use sensors do not understand the manufacturing process of sensors, and those who manufacture sensors do not understand specific applications. This is the biggest problem in the Chinese sensor industry.” Guo Yuansheng believes that the biggest obstacle to sensor industrialization is the disconnection between product design, production, manufacturing, and usage. Sensor manufacturers must delve into the application side to fully understand the parameters and performance that the product needs to achieve.

The sensor industry requires high technical content, high performance indicators, high market entry barriers, and high investments, but it also faces issues such as a limited variety of products that suppliers can offer, small enterprise scales, low product output, and a relatively scattered industrial distribution and research capabilities.

In such circumstances, Guo Yuansheng proposed: enterprises should establish industrial chains, industries should create clusters, and regions should build ecologies, constructing a modern industrial ecological system integrating government, industry, academia, research, application, and services to strengthen industrial agglomeration and help solve issues like the inability of single customer order volumes to support suppliers’ profitable mass production needs. The creation of industrial clusters requires helping enterprises form industrial chains and achieve upstream and downstream industry connections.

Currently, the sensor industry lacks independent innovation technologies, and leading talents are scarce resources in the industry. In light of the tight talent resources in the sensor industry, Guo Yuansheng believes that to enhance the independent innovation technology level of the entire industry, it is essential to eliminate vicious competition among similar enterprises. If companies focus on poaching each other’s talents, and after poaching, merely replicate the original work at their previous units, it will lead to stagnation in industrial technological upgrades, which must be avoided.

As a source of “big data” and the “window” of control systems, the quality of sensors determines the level of intelligence of all equipment and devices and has become a new focus of international competition and an important indicator of a country’s foundational strength.

In today’s era of comprehensive enhancement of the digital economy and industrial transformation, how to achieve the industrialization and large-scale application of sensors is key to realizing the Internet of Things and the intelligent age. In the intelligent processes of various industries, describing application scenarios and innovating concepts have become prerequisites and safeguards for leading and promoting sensor technology and application innovation. Therefore, emphasizing concept innovation is crucial in technological innovation across various industries.

Sensors Are Ubiquitous in the Digital Age

As is well known, in modern control systems, sensors serve as the interface connecting the measured object and the testing system, becoming the main “window” for information input to the system, providing original information for control, processing, decision-making, and execution. It can be said that sensors directly impact and determine system performance.

With the development of technologies in electronics, materials, physics, and chemistry, especially the maturity and application of MEMS technology, multifunctional, miniaturized, digitalized, systematized, networked, and intelligent sensors that meet market demands continue to emerge, becoming new hotspots in sensor industry development. This also provides strong support and technical innovation basis for the transition of integrated circuits from generic to specialized development.

Currently, among the more than 1,700 sensor enterprises and institutions in our country, products reach 10 major categories, 42 subcategories, and over 7,000 varieties.Among them, mainstream products in eight major categories, including acoustic, force-sensitive, light-sensitive, gas-sensitive, magnetic-sensitive, temperature and humidity-sensitive, RFID, and biological, already have the technological basis for industrialization and possess vast market demand space, capable of forming large-scale industrial production. Moreover, driven by IoT applications, the trend of collaborative technology among different systems and the demands for intelligent standards, multi-dimensional data descriptions in various scenarios, and complex environment detection with edge computing microsystems will become the future direction for technology and industry development.

In terms of applications, whether for aerospace vehicles, trains, high-speed rail, automobiles, or mobile terminals, including robots, they serve as platforms for multi-technology integration and multi-dimensional data aggregation, where the quality and advancement of their performance depend on how many sensors are installed and what types of sensors are used. Without sensors, there is no big data, and there is no control model.

For example, new high-speed trains install over 2,400 sensors in each carriage, and with road and environmental monitoring, even more sensors will be used with operating vehicles; cars will become mobile offices, comfortable leisure spaces, and intelligent nodes, also extensively using intelligent sensors; smart appliances and wearable devices also install numerous sensors to monitor human physiological parameters and achieve chronic disease monitoring and management functions. Therefore, it can be accurately stated that automation equipment and intelligent devices, as well as digital descriptions of complex environments and scenario monitoring, will undoubtedly provide market demand and application guarantees for the industrialization of sensors.

Currently, various IoT demonstration projects, such as smart grids, smart transportation, environmental monitoring, public safety, smart homes, and smart hospitals, totaling over 400 demonstration projects, are the main markets applying various sensor technologies and products, undoubtedly providing ample imagination space for sensor technology innovation and industrial development.

Four Major Trends in Sensor Technology Innovation

Thus, it can be seen that sensor technology innovation and industrialization are not only the focus of international strategic competition but also the foundational guarantee for national economy and people’s livelihoods and social safety and stability. This is essential for the development of sensors themselves and the innovation and development of integrated circuits.

The trends of sensor technology innovation and development can be summarized in the following four aspects:

First, innovation in sensitive mechanisms and materials,because the emergence of a sensitive mechanism will lead to new devices, which can quickly break through and create new applications, formed by sensitive materials and sensitive mechanisms.

Second, MEMS technology,which interpenetrates, depends on, and is closely related to semiconductor technology.

Third, innovation of devices,which revolves around MEMS technology, forming different devices and packaging structures. On the same MEMS chip, according to different applications, different structured and typed sensitive components and sensors can be packaged, and can be designed and integrated with integrated circuits for collaborative innovation.

Fourth, networking and intelligence,where one or more sensitive components, plus digital circuits and network interfaces, combined with algorithm software, form intelligent modules.

From an application perspective, wearable devices are a composite, multifunctional intelligent sensor realized through algorithms. In the industrial field, “wearable devices” can achieve intelligence and node-based applications, with even closer integration with the semiconductor industry.

Collaborative Development of Sensors and Integrated Circuits

No matter which industry or field, and regardless of the type of intelligent equipment, facilities, or system devices, their levels of automation and intelligence depend on the collaboration and integration of microprocessors and sensors, forming highly concentrated functions, precise control, and standardized algorithms to achieve modularization, personalization, precision, standardization, and industrialized production and application.

From the current state of the industry and practical situations, the bottlenecks in the industrialization of basic materials and marketization are challenging to break through, as there has not been a common foundational process technology support, nor has there been a capital-chasing atmosphere, leading to a slow industrialization process. There is a need to reach further consensus on market access, policy support, standard formulation, industry integration, technological innovation, and strategic positioning to accelerate industry development and improve industrialization capabilities and international competitiveness.

Therefore, further clarification of the strategic positioning of sensors is needed to enhance their strategic status and industry influence.

First, it is necessary to elevate the development of sensors to a strategic height for re-recognition.At the same time, top-level design for industrialization development is required, with corresponding industrial support policies and allocation of human and material resources to build a sensor industry ecological system, forming a national-level sensor industry cluster, concentrating and increasing financial investment;

Second, regional policy advantages should be leveraged,utilizing local economic development’s demand power and resource advantages for high-tech industries to concentrate on developing characteristic industrial clusters, nurturing and creating regional industrial ecological systems;

Finally, increase financial subsidies for product technology innovation.

Additionally, talent policies should also be considered comprehensively,especially for high-tech SMEs, particularly those developing data collection and perception technologies in the sensor industry, which should have special talent cultivation policies for support.

“Without sensitive components, sensor companies lack core technology, and without applications, there are no economic benefits.” This statement reveals the relationship between the industrial chain and the characteristics of industrial development. Therefore, building an ecological system for our country’s sensor industry and forming large-scale industrial advantages for sensors is imperative and urgent, as is the collaborative development with integrated circuits, which is the only path and hope for industrialization in the “Sensor Valley.”

The industrialization of sensors requires collaborative development with integrated circuits, necessitating the construction of an industrial ecological system from data acquisition to data transmission and then to data processing. Achieving a complete industrial chain from raw materials and equipment processes to the final node requires constructing a modern service platform integrating “government, industry, academia, research, application, and services.”

For example, establishing industrial parks for force-sensitive, gas-sensitive, magnetic-sensitive, light-sensitive, and biological sensors in regions, building public platforms from design, materials, processes, and even MEMS technology.Developing the sensor industry in a clustered manner to form effective synergy and achieve scale effects, welcoming the opportunities and challenges faced by international competition in sensors.

At the same time, through national and local policy support and linkage, synchronizing industrial funds with physical space, forming an ecological system and industrial parks with international competitiveness, gathering advantageous enterprises in the domestic and international sensor field, and achieving genuine industrial clusters according to the upstream and downstream relationships of the industrial chain will undoubtedly become a high ground for digital industrialization with competitive strength domestically and internationally, and will also become a shining business card for national and regional digital industrialization.

We must clearly see that in the process of digital economy development, digital industrialization is an inevitable path that cannot be delayed, and it is the core and focus of competition. We must confront and rise to challenges, forming high-tech industrial capabilities with our own characteristics to respond to the impacts and shocks of technological blockades and high-tech industrial competition. This will provide a solid guarantee for industrial digitalization and high-quality development, exploring new paths for innovative development in digital industrialization.

In summary, sensing technology is the foundation of information technology, the “electronic five senses” for information acquisition in intelligent systems, chips are the core of the semiconductor industry, and communication technologies like 5G serve as the “nerves” for system transmission. The three are interdependent, forming the pillars of informatization and intelligence, empowering and driving the rapid adjustment and transformation of China’s industrial structure toward a new future.

We look forward to the arrival of the intelligent era, and even more so to the industrialization of sensors creating new brilliance for the intelligent era and high-quality development.

Source: China Sensor and Application Technology Conference, Henan Province Intelligent Sensor Industry Association, China Electronics News, Sensor Expert Network (This article is a comprehensive summary)

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