Introduction: The promotion and application of the Internet of Things not only brings market opportunities for the promotion and application of product technology for the sensor industry. At the same time, technological innovation and the development of the entire industry are also facing new challenges. On the contrary, the performance of the sensor will directly affect the performance of the Internet of Things and the large-scale promotion, application and development.

Sensors will be opened up

The development of the Internet of Things will trigger the upgrading of sensor technology, the replacement of sensor products, and the change in the organization of sensor production.

The quality of sensor products depends on the level of sensor technology and the ability to produce equipment on an industrial scale. Requirements such as miniaturization, low power consumption, and flexible programming are examples of technological innovation capabilities, while low-cost, low-cost products often reflect process technology equipment and management levels.

With the upgrading of sensor technology and the transformation and replacement of its products, the sensor industry will surely trigger a re-positioning of the market and an upsurge of corporate technological innovation. Some new professional sensor design companies, chip manufacturing companies, product manufacturing companies and testing companies with new institutional structure model innovations and business-focused advantages have emerged. They have triggered new changes in the industry landscape, forcing corporate restructuring, product structure standardization, and brand strategy. Business management and market re-shuffle of the survival of the fittest gradually changed the sensor industry to change the enterprise too dispersed, small-scale, market chaos and vicious competition, and promote the transformation of the overall economic efficiency of the industry to benign. Therefore, the development of the Internet of Things will trigger the upgrading of sensor technology, the replacement of sensor products, and the change in the organization of sensor production, leading to a leap in the “quality” and “quantity” of sensors.

The intelligent, miniaturized, and networked sensors required for the Internet of Things need to be tightly integrated with IC and MEMS processes, making full use of IC's low-power chip designs and various forms of packaging (BGA, flip-chip, SiP, CSP, MCM, etc.), software and hardware co-design, and large-scale integration of technologies and other organic integration and application. Sensor manufacturers and IC manufacturers need to work together to explore new organizational structures and models, from chip design to manufacturing processes, from product development to industrial applications. At present, the process of integration, networking, and MEMS technology innovation in China is relatively slow. The new national standard for sensor technology is more disorganized and needs further specification and improvement.

The IoT sensor not only needs to meet basic conditions such as miniaturization, low cost, low price, low power consumption, and flexible programming, but also on performance indicators such as stability, reliability, high precision, sensitivity, and anti-jamming capability. Meet higher technical standards and requirements. Based on the IoT sensor, we should focus on the research and development of the following difficult technical problems, including miniaturization technology, low-cost technology, low-power technology, and network technology.

With the solution of the outstanding technical problems mentioned above and the further widespread application of the Internet of Things, a new round of sensor booms will be set off at home and abroad, and the market demand for sensors will increase geometrically. From 2005 to 2009, the average annual growth rate of sensor sales reached 23%. Industry experts predict that in the next 5 to 10 years, the average annual growth rate of sensor sales is expected to reach more than 30%, and applications in some areas will show explosive growth. For example, various types of networked sensors such as natural disaster monitoring, environmental monitoring, traffic monitoring, public facilities monitoring, and public service, and sensors used in wireless network terminals such as smart home, telemedicine, and health management, will have annual growth rates. More than 50%.

Government coordinates industrialization

Doing a good job in the industrialization of sensors will become a top priority in the coming period.

In the current situation of decentralized industries and weak enterprises, government coordination and promotion should be brought into play. The specific recommendations are as follows:

1. The State establishes and organizes the implementation of industrialization of sensitive components and sensors, provides industrial support and guides funds, supports targeted industrial key products, and promotes the development of sensitive components and sensors through the implementation of industrialization projects.

2. Formulate guiding policies for the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements and transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and give corresponding taxation and subsidy policies; publicize and popularize relevant supporting intellectual property protection policies and laws and regulations to reduce infringement and illegal phenomena in the sensor industry to protect knowledge The fundamental interests of property owners gradually shape the benign competition and development of high-tech products.

3. Organize industry-related units and experts to formulate industry product technical standard specifications and specifications for the same type of products; to reduce unnecessary, chaotic and miscellaneous phenomena in product technologies. Improve the situation of many varieties and small batches and lay a foundation for industrialization.

4. Establish a number of industrialization demonstration bases and regions to form industry leaders and industry brands; encourage the formation of industrial groups with regional and product as the main ties, and use market-based means for enterprise integration.

5. Encourage the introduction of talents and the cultivation of high-end talents. Encourage engineering colleges and universities to establish sensor specialties; guide foreign talents to invest in the development of the industry; encourage domestic talents to actively start business development, and create a good talent environment and atmosphere.

6. In view of the current industry dispersion and small-scale characteristics, the government has taken the lead in organizing the Sensor Industry Promotion Confederation; forming an industry alliance with complementary resources and advantages, leading and regulating industry behavior, and providing various services.

In order to promote the healthy development of the smart sensor industry in China, the development of the Internet of Things technology will be able to stand at the same starting point as the developed countries as soon as possible and have a differentiated competition in the international market. To do a good job in the sensor industrialization construction will become a top priority in the future.

expert's point

Wang Lijian, executive deputy secretary-general of China RFID Industry Alliance, “The two key issues of the Internet of Things are empty technologies and logos. In solving the air interface technology, China must formulate its own air interface standards, and it must be based on independent intellectual property rights.”

Now the international standard UHF is in the range of 860-960 MHz, and our country is in 840-845 MHz and 920-925 MHz. Each country is different, not to mention the gap with foreign countries.

We label the "thing" in the Internet of Things, which may be based on UHF, or it may be based on microwaves, ie, the frequencies are different. This tag should be able to store the URL of the item. By scanning, the item should be available online.

This is to establish a channel for the item, the most important technology is "air interface technology." As long as the "air interface technology" is solved, the problem of how to access the Internet will be solved. Another problem is how to find it, that is, the identification problem. This is just like the URL and email address of each of us. The key is how the logo is compiled.

The two key issues of the Internet of Things: One is to solve the air interface technology—that is, how to enter the network, and the second is to identify the network—how to find out how to find the network. All other issues, network technology has long been resolved.

The difference between the Internet of Things and commonly used computer networks is that one is wireless and the other is wired. The computer web site is now under the control of Americans. The bar codes on supermarket items are also managed by foreigners. In the Internet of Things, if we want others to manage, then we are very passive.

In solving air interface technical problems, China must formulate its own air interface standards, and it is based on independent intellectual property rights, so building the Internet of Things is much easier.

UHF and microwave RFID technology can also be used in foreign products, but there will be some problems. For example, one is that there will be problems with information security; the other is not making money. We can speak with data. Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, etc., have annual turnover of more than 100 billion US dollars, and the top 10 domestic electronics companies are all over 100 billion yuan. We are about 1 in turnover. In terms of profit margins, people's profit margins range from 20% to 30%, while our profit margins do not exceed 5%, and they are 1/6.

The reason for the gap with foreign countries is that we all meet international standards, so we have to pay people to pay the patent fees, while the other party is collecting money and collecting royalties. Some people in the industry are also proud to meet international standards, and sometimes it is a misguided approach.

China has become the second largest economy, but our country's GDP is too poor. Although our turnover exceeds Japan, we can make much less money than others. We only earn a few tens of dollars when we sell a TV. People can earn thousands of dollars by selling a TV. If we do not make money, it means that the amount of funds that the country can use is very limited.

UHF and microwave RFID key technologies still have market prospects, because the country is currently pushing for it. The relevant national authorities are now aware of the importance of basic standards in promoting the national security industry. With the country's attention and pushing, the prospects of the Internet of Things will be very good. At this stage, the promotion and application of the Internet of Things, the country plays a relatively large role in it, such as the transport of the Internet of things, public security Internet of things, car networking and so on.

When conducting government procurement, when the relevant state departments bid or tender, if they do not meet the standards of China, procurement should not be allowed. This is the key.

Zhou Wenyi, Chairman of Xi'an Huaxun Microelectronics Co., Ltd. “From the perspective of key indicators, the current and area of ​​domestic chips are still relatively large, and the anti-interference needs to be improved. The state should increase investment and attract more by formulating policies. Risk capital or more downstream manufacturers to intervene."

In terms of navigation chips and modules, whether it is RF chips or baseband chips, there are already several domestic companies that have successfully developed GPS-compatible and Beidou II dual-mode navigation and positioning chips. The representative manufacturers of civilian GPS Beidou second-generation dual-mode dual-channel RF chips mainly include Xi'an Huaxun, Chongqing 24, and Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Microelectronics; base-band chip manufacturers mainly include Beijing and Xingxingtong, Xi’an Huaxun, and Beijing Dongfang Lixingxing. Hangzhou Zhongke Micro and so on. Regarding dual-mode dual-channel RF chips, there are currently no reports of R&D achievements by foreign manufacturers. It can be said that China is in a leading position. From the perspective of key indicators, the current and area of ​​domestic chips are still relatively large, and the anti-interference needs to be improved.

Baseband chips are measured by key performance indicators. The key technology of the domestic dual-mode navigation baseband chip has been basically a breakthrough, but the performance indicators have yet to be further improved.

In addition, the size of the receiver module designed by the GPS Beidou second-generation dual-mode chip is large, and the power consumption is also large, which needs further improvement. In addition, the gap lies in the fact that China is still in a relatively single navigation chip stage, with less horizontal integration.

For the baseband chip, in order to make GPS Beidou's dual-mode chips reach the level of a single GPS, the innovative architecture and algorithm inside the chip, the process design using CMOS technology less than 90nm, and the low-power design considering innovation are necessary. The innovative architecture and algorithm can further improve the sensitivity of the chip reception, but also improve the accuracy; but due to the performance increase may increase the current of the chip, plus the current current of the chip itself is relatively large, so the use of smaller size technology and low power The design method of consumption is a few ways to solve the problem. In addition, in order to further reduce the size of the current dual-mode navigation module, it is an effective means to integrate the radio frequency and baseband into an SoC single chip.

To solve these problems, and to achieve the same level with foreign chips, it is more difficult. Several foreign chip manufacturers invested more than 150 million U.S. dollars in the R&D of GPS chips; Globalocate was founded in 2002 and acquired by Broadcom in 2009 with a total investment of 150 million U.S. dollars; u-blox company in Europe has a total investment of approximately 100 million U.S. dollars. . However, the total investment of several major chip manufacturers in China is less than US$50 million. Although China’s labor is relatively cheap, China’s work efficiency is low and its foundation is weak. We can stand on the shoulders of others to carry out development, but investment in process production, etc., is a universal price, and it is a hard input.

In order to solve these problems, the state should increase its investment. Because the chip industry is a high-tech, high-risk and long-term area, the average venture capital is afraid to intervene. In addition, the country can also attract more venture capital or more downstream manufacturers by formulating policies. For example, the state can formulate a policy similar to the United States that all mobile phones must carry GPS, to require that all Chinese vehicles or mobile phones must be equipped with Beidou navigation or positioning functions, so that the country can create a huge industry.

The market prospects of GPS Beidou navigation and positioning are very broad. From 2007 to 2015, the annual increase in navigation and positioning products in China shows that the number of users increased by nearly 7 million in 2008, which has doubled in 2009 and increased in 2015. The amount is expected to exceed 100 million households. The fastest increase is the navigation and positioning of mobile phones, accounting for more than 80% of the total. By 2020, the total number of navigation users in China will reach 800 million. At the same time, the total output value of the industry will grow steadily. The total output value in 2008 was 38.9 billion yuan, reaching 56.9 billion yuan in 2009, nearly 80 billion yuan in 2010, more than 100 billion yuan in 2011, and more than 250 billion yuan in 2015.