With the rapid development of automotive electronic control system, automotive sensor technology is developing. The general trend of the future development of automotive sensors is intelligent, miniaturized, integrated, multi-functional and new materials and new technology made of new sensors. MEMS technology sensor becomes the main component of automobile sensor.
Because smart phone, mobile network, social media and so on created the first wave of MEMS, and then entered the intelligent industrial era, namely "industry 4. 0" era, coupled with autonomous driving and ubiquitous automation, will bring the next wave of MEMS.
1.Ubiquitous car sensors
Automobile sensors can be divided into two categories: environmental monitoring and body perception. In a car with sensors, the present environmental monitoring sensor less price is high, the body sensor for the characteristics of quality and amount of perception.
At the same time, with the improvement of SAE level, the number of environmental monitoring sensors required increases rapidly, accounting for the vast majority of the total cost of automotive sensors.
Body sensor is used to obtain body information, such as tire pressure, oil pressure, speed, etc., which is the basic sensor necessary to maintain normal, stable and safe driving. According to different types of measurement parameters, body sensor includes pressure sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, flow sensor, etc.
This kind of sensor is produced by MEMS technology, which has the advantages of low cost, high reliability and small size, and has gradually replaced the sensor based on traditional electromechanical technology.
2.Develop the shortest MEMS sensor with the greatest potential
MEMS sensor industry is an emerging industry. It has been commercialized in China for less than 10 years and has been industrialized in the world for more than 20 years.MEMS sensors represent the future development direction of sensors. They are characterized by small size, low power consumption and high consistency. They can be manufactured in large quantities and at low cost.
At present, there are three major market segments for MEMS sensors, namely: MEMS microphone market, MSME pressure sensor market and MEMS inertial sensor market.
The market for MEMS sensors is also expanding, thanks to the growth in automotive and consumer applications. Interestingly, pressure sensors are one of the oldest MEMS technologies, but they are still growing.In the field of automobile, pressure sensors are most widely used. MEMS pressure sensors have many advantages, such as no fear of harmful exhaust gas and harsh driving environment, higher accuracy and so on.
For the consumer market, mobile devices and smartphones still account for 90 percent of revenue, and cost reduction is more important than size reduction because they are already small.While no killer apps are expected to emerge in the foreseeable future, new ones are emerging: smart homes, e-cigarettes, drones and wearable devices.
3. Automotive sensors have become a major market for MEMS sensors
The application direction and market demand of MEMS sensors for vehicles include anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic body stability program (ESP), electronic suspension (ECS), electric handbrake (EPB), slope starting assistance (HAS), tire pressure monitoring (EPMS), engine anti-shake, vehicle inclination measurement and heartbeat detection, etc.
With the popularity of high-end cars and smart cars, as well as the promotion of unmanned technology, ultrasonic sensors, image sensors, lidar sensors, microwave sensors, infrared sensors and other sensors have also been adopted. Automotive sensors have become a major application market for MEMS sensors.
After the adoption of a large number of sensors in consumer electronics in the past 20 years, they will gradually grow in the industrial market. Since the industrial market requires more stable operation with a longer cycle, it will promise "supply in ten years" in the field of industrial products. In addition, precision is one of the key functions of the sensor.
Among the three applications, automotive MEMS sensor market is the most optimistic, although the shipment growth of the best industrial applications, but it is expected that automotive applications will have explosive growth, such as ADAS, car keys, car level adjustment, etc., are examples of expanding sensor demand.