Since the launch of the first MEMS sensor in 1996, Bosch's MEMS sensor business has gone through three phases: 1 billion sensor products were shipped from 1996 to 2007, more than 10 billion sensor products were shipped from 2007 to 2018, and 18 billion sensors were shipped from 2018 to 2023. In less than 6 years, we have almost completed the shipments of the past 20 years, which reflects the rapid changes in the entire MEMS market, and is also the success of Bosch in the MEMS sensor business layout, MEMS sensors started from automotive applications, and then applied in consumer applications, especially smart phones, smart wearables and other Internet of Things fields, greatly expanding the market space. In a recent interview with the media during the 2024 Shenzhen International Sensor and Application Technology Exhibition, Wang Hongyu, President of Bosch Sensortec Asia Pacific, said.
Bosch Sensortec亚太区总裁王宏宇
As early as 2014, a reporter from the non-network had an in-depth dialogue and interview with the first president of Bosch Sensortec in the Asia-Pacific region, when the company foresaw that the application of the Internet of Things would drive the market for MEMS sensors to increase dramatically, so as to carry out a series of layouts.
Bosch Sensortec全球应用工程总监Ruschmeier Frank
Ruschmeier Frank, Director of Global Application Engineering at Bosch Sensortec, said, "Some of the industries related to the Internet of Things are growing very rapidly, and there are still IoT devices with at least four sensors per device, and I believe that the market will expand further with the further development of technological trends such as AI including machine learning." ”
Smart sensors have entered the AI era
As Bosch's sensor business unit for the consumer market, Bosch Sensortec's prediction of the future of sensor technology is also becoming a reality: the arrival of smart sensors that combine control and data processing functions. In 2014, the trend of sensor fusion in consumer fields such as mobile phones has emerged, and the definition of sensor + control at that time there are two possibilities, one is based on the fact that most mobile phones use multi-core processors, and the number of processor cores is increasing, some manufacturers will share the function of sensor control MCU to the main control chip to complete, and the other direction is realized through the sensor products of the integrated control part, which can not only reduce the system cost, but also release the workload of the main control chip, which is also Bosch Some sensor manufacturers represented by Sensortec want to promote important R&D directions. Back in 2014, Bosch Sensortec customized the BNO055 sensor for wearable applications, which can also be regarded as the first generation of smart sensors. In 2021, Bosch Sensortec released the BME688, an AI-powered 4-in-1 gas sensor, which enables an innovative and customized gas detection method that simultaneously detects gas, temperature, pressure and humidity, making it the first gas sensor with artificial intelligence capabilities. "The first step is to see a workflow for specific use cases, such as sensors to identify the status of ignition or diapers, or to see if food is spoiled, to collect data and to use the BME developed by Bosch Sensortec in the third step," says Ruschmeier The AI-Studio software tool labels the data from the sensor, and finally the data can be processed by the machine learning model in the sensor. "This sensor is a great example of Bosch Sensortec's ability to innovate, not just following market trends, but driving them." ”
In the next step, data will achieve the ambition of sensor manufacturers
In our exchanges and communication with a number of sensor manufacturers, we learned that the Internet of Everything has ushered in unprecedented opportunities for the sensor industry, but as a sensor product itself, it is still a supporting role in the entire electronic system and products in the past, because it is only an entrance to data and signals, and there is a long string of signal links behind, and the core part of the whole system is always the data computing and processing unit such as processors and controllers。 Now, with the blessing of artificial intelligence, sensors will be given a more important role in edge computing, because we know that in the future era of comprehensive intelligence, those who get data will win the world, and the foundation of artificial intelligence is based on big data. As mentioned by Ruschmeier above, the artificial intelligence of the 4-in-1 sensor product BME688 is reflected in the fact that the end user can process the data collected from the sensor through a certain data model, and this data construction is based on a dataset and sample bank. Another new intelligent product launched by Bosch Sensortec during the exhibition, namely Smart Connected Sensors for whole-body motion tracking, will further boost the value of sensor manufacturers in system design. According to the company, the SCS platform can connect wearables, hearables, AR/VR headsets, etc., and intelligently connect up to eight nodes through Bosch Sensortec's sensors, combining qualitative and quantitative motion feedback to provide users with whole-body performance guidance for innovative applications including fitness, rehabilitation, gaming, and more. With integrated artificial intelligence and Bluetooth Low Energy technology, it can also provide users with complete and detailed feedback on the quality of their movements without restricting their movements, acting as a private AI feedback coach. Wang Hongyu said, "We are a hardware and software collaborative development, so we provide a set of overall structure, including hardware and software tools for background development, so that end users can quickly import our solutions into the product design that requires sensor interconnection to solve scenarios, and accelerate the time to product development and time-to-market." This product has played the role of end-side data collection, processing and control output, and even has the function of connection, opening up the technical link of the Internet of Things. It also shows that Bosch Sensortec has transformed from a pure sensor manufacturer to a software and hardware system and platform solution. Compared with the development trend of sensor miniaturization, low power consumption, high integration and multi-sensor fusion, it is obvious that intelligence is an important direction of strategic significance for the industrial pattern and market position of sensor manufacturers.