Who is the largest MEMS sensor company in the world, and how many are the most sold MEMS sensors in the world?
Perhaps the old friends who pay attention to the sensor expert network have more or less understanding. Bosch is currently the world's largest MEMS sensor sales company, according to Yole's annual "MEMS Industry Status" report, since 2013, Bosch has been the world's top 1 MEMS sensor manufacturer for 11 consecutive years.
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▲来源:Yole
To date, Bosch has sold more than 18 billion MEMS sensors, perhaps the largest seller of MEMS sensors. In the field of MEMS sensors, Bosch has the undisputed kingship.
What is the layout of Bosch's sensors? What product lines does Bosch have? From demand to R&D and manufacturing, how does Bosch run through the whole process of product development of a MEMS sensor? What are Bosch's leading sensing technologies? Recently, at Sensor Shenzhen 2024, the reporter interviewed Zhou Liang, senior product manager of Bosch Sensortec. Today, we take a closer look at the world's largest MEMS sensor giant.
Archives of experts
Liang Zhou, Senior Product Manager, Bosch Sensortec
Automotive & Consumer Electronics Sensor Empire
According to Zhou Liang, Senior Product Manager at Bosch Sensortec, Bosch currently has four main segments in its global business: Intelligent Transportation, Industrial Technology, Energy and Building Technology, and Consumer Goods.
Bosch's sensors business is mainly part of the first business segment, Intelligent Mobility, and Bosch Sensortec is an independent subsidiary with a focus on consumer electronics sensors. In addition to consumer electronics, automotive is another major application area for Bosch sensors.
Zhou Liang introduced that Bosch's internal R&D of sensors is a highly reusable and highly integrated whole, although the R&D departments of each sensor are nominally different, there are no barriers in the R&D process and manufacturing.
As early as 1995, Bosch began mass production of MEMS sensors – pressure sensors for engine management. Since then, Bosch has developed numerous MEMS sensors that can measure acceleration, rotation, pressure, and sound, and have been used for automotive airbags, fuel system pressure detection, and more.
In 2005, Bosch began to produce sensors for consumer electronics, and separated the MEMS sensor business to establish Bosch Sensortec, which provides comprehensive MEMS sensors and solutions for emerging fields such as consumer electronics, wearables and the Internet of Things, and quickly achieved a leading position in the consumer MEMS sensor market.
Today, more than half of the world's smartphones have at least one Bosch MEMS sensor installed, an average of one in every five new cars is equipped with a Bosch MEMS sensor, and millions more are installed in drones, gaming consoles, fitness wristbands and vacuum robots.
▲Bosch MEMS sensor production line
Subvert the industry, the world's smallest PM2.5 sensor, 450 times smaller in size!
Standing at the pinnacle of the sensor industry, Bosch and other sensor giants have to do more than just market development, but also the research and development of innovative sensor technology products, through disruptive sensor products, to create new application scenarios, so as to bring more sensor demand.
In recent years, people have paid more and more attention to air quality issues, and in the past, air pollution was mainly detected through air quality monitors with built-in PM2.5 sensors (particulate matter sensors), which were often the same size as mobile phones, inconvenient to carry, and could not meet the needs of detecting air quality anytime and anywhere.
▲Ordinary air quality detector, source: network
Nowadays, mobile phones can measure acceleration, angle, and air pressure, so why can't PM2.5 sensors be integrated into mobile phones to detect air quality?
The main bottleneck is that the technology of PM2.5 sensor has not been able to break through, the traditional PM2.5 detection particle module has a built-in fan, through the fan to roll the air into the laser beam, the air sample into the detection area of the sensor, the use of particles to reflect or block the laser light characteristics, with the help of photodiodes to detect and measure, so the traditional sensor is large in size, consumes a lot of power, and is limited by more mechanical parts such as fans, the traditional PM2.5 detection module is prone to quality problems.
How to make miniaturized devices, such as smartphones, smart watches, etc., and other small IoT devices have the ability to monitor air pollution? The answer is: to develop a new type of ultra-small PM2.5 sensor.
Based on this, Bosch previously launched the world's smallest PM2.5 sensor (particulate matter sensor) BMV080, with a size of only 4.2x3.5x3mm³, and its volume is 450 times smaller than similar products, according to Zhou Liang.
▲Bosch BMV080 particulate matter sensor (right)
Technically, the BMV080 is designed with VCSEL and manufactured using MEMS technology, coupled with complex algorithm support, the sensor can directly measure PM2.5 concentration in the air, without the need to use components such as fans to concentrate airflow to detect.
In terms of volume, noise, life, stability, etc., BMV080 is comprehensively ahead of the traditional PM2.5 sensor module on the market today, and in a variety of performance parameters, BMV080 is consistent with or even superior to the traditional PM2.5 sensor detected by laser.
In addition, Zhou Liang also revealed that BMV080 is currently in the final stage of mass production preparation, and is expected to be mass-produced and shipped to customers before July 31 this year. Perhaps, as soon as the end of this year, we may see a miniaturized device equipped with the Bosch BMV080 particulate matter sensor on the market, do you expect smart devices such as smartphones, smart watches, and smart bracelets to be equipped with air pollution detection capabilities?
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Bosch Sensortec has also launched the BMA530 and BMA580, the world's smallest MEMS accelerometers for wearable use, which, according to Wang Hongyu, President of Bosch Sensortec Asia Pacific, are 1.2 x 0.8 x 0.55 mm³, which is only a quarter of the size of the average house ant.
From these sensors, it is enough to see the strong technical strength of Bosch, the global MEMS sensor giant.
▲Bosch BMA530, BMA580 accelerometers
From demand to mass production, how does Bosch, the world's largest MEMS sensor company, run through the whole process of a sensor?
Sensors are a high-tech industry, in addition to high technical requirements, but also reflected in the long product development and design cycle. According to relevant information, the average industry data of a MEMS sensor product from design to mass production takes 6 to 8 years, which involves the matching of design, process and tools.
So, as the world's largest MEMS sensor company, how does Bosch run through the whole process of a sensor?
According to Zhou Liang, from product definition to R&D and manufacturing, the main processes of Bosch Sensortec are:
Analyze the market demand, make an accurate product definition according to the demand, and import this demand into the design specifications of the product. After the specific specifications are formed, it enters the R&D preparation stage. The R&D preparation stage is when the market defines the product, and once the exact specifications are in place, the R&D engineer has to think about how to achieve the relevant specifications.
In the development of MEMS sensors, Bosch Sensortec has three main phases: the prototype stage, the sample stage, and the customer sample stage. It mainly involves the R&D and design of prototype products, the determination of sample products, and the stage of customer samples after all designs are frozen.
After passing these R&D stages, a MEMS sensor product enters the production preparation stage, which includes the stages of production and debugging, pre-verification, and post-production.
At the same time, Zhou Liang emphasized that Bosch will continue to do quality assurance work and many reliability tests at all stages to ensure that the products not only meet the requirements of customer performance quality, but also meet the requirements of long-term reliability.
"Basically, from the perspective of this big step, Bosch basically follows such a logic when making a product. Of course, some of the details may be in some of Bosch's practices."
How long does it take for Bosch to develop a MEMS sensor?
In the previous article, we introduced the BMV080, the world's smallest particulate matter sensor pioneered and developed by Bosch, which basically follows the development process of MEMS sensor products and finally makes it.
Zhou Liang said that as early as a few years ago, when air quality such as smog was concerned by the public, Bosch has begun to set up a project to develop a new type of PM2.5 sensor based on MEMS to help the industry carry out related detection, Bosch believes that with this new sensor will be able to create more use scenarios for air detection, so that technology can create a better life for people.
After several years of technical research and prototype development, it will be completed at the end of 2022 and officially launched to the market in 2023, on July 31 this year. will eventually be delivered to production.
From Zhou Liang's introduction, we probably understand that it took Bosch 7 or 8 years to develop such a MEMS sensor product, which shows the long development cycle of MEMS sensors.
AI, large models, robots, AR/VR...... Bosch applies cutting-edge technologies to transform the sensor industry, what are the fields of consumer electronics?
As the world's largest MEMS sensor manufacturer, consumer electronics is the largest part of Bosch's sensor business.
Zhou Liang introduced that the global consumer electronics market has indeed been relatively sluggish in the past two years, but since this year, there have been signs of recovery. At present, in the fields of consumer electronics, especially smartphones and smart wearables, Bosch believes that growth will gradually resume with economic development.
In addition, Bosch Sensortec is also focusing on the application of MEMS sensors in AR/VR, humanoid robots and other related fields. Zhou Liang believes:
"These emerging markets are currently in the early stages of business gestation, but once they are past the gestation period, there may be a sudden flashpoint. So some of our foreshadowing in this aspect is still very necessary, we have also made a lot of products, including a variety of sensors in this aspect, including angle detection, we have also made some micro-projection products, used in smart glasses, these are such a foreshadowing in the early stage of our work in this aspect. ”
In these areas, Zhou Liang also revealed some of the cutting-edge products currently being developed by Bosch Sensortec based on MEMS technology.
In terms of AR/VR, Bosch Sensortec has developed intelligent micro-projection modules, which are applied to smart glasses and other products, which are expected to change the shortcomings of the current smart glasses that hinder the popularization of the AR/VR industry, such as large size, heavy weight, unsatisfactory display effect, and high power consumption.
Zhou Liang said:
"Our system will have a very big breakthrough in these aspects. If there are some big breakthroughs in these aspects, then the application of smart glasses may explode in the future, creating more new application needs. ”
In addition, Bosch Sensortec also has a number of motion sensors that can be used for AR/VR head angle tracking, including the new generation of high-performance magnetometer BMM350, which can also assist in some of these applications.
Zhou Liang introduced that Bosch Sensortec has done a lot of product paving and technology accumulation in the field of AR/VR. In the future, Bosch will be able to provide a number of mature solutions, so that customers can launch products in this area as soon as possible.
In terms of robotics, with the trend of aging, Bosch Sensortec robots will also be a large market.
At present, Bosch Sensortec has many mature solutions using accelerometers and gyroscopes in the joint and motion detection of robots.
For example, Bosch showcased a cutting-edge intelligent connected sensor platform that uses BHI380 sensors, multiple IMU inertial measurement units, strapped to various parts of the body, arms, legs, etc., to achieve wireless and connected attitude capture, which also paves the way for the perception application of future robots.
▲Control the robot using the Bosch Sensortec intelligent perception platform, source: Bosch
It is worth mentioning that the BHI380 is an innovative IMU unit, which is a sensor product with an integrated programmable AI system, which combines a gyroscope and an accelerometer.
Based on a powerful AI-based algorithm library, BHI380 can realize head 3D audio applications, tracking various fitness training movements, measuring swimming posture, inertial navigation and other functions. From here, we can see Bosch's leading edge in sensor algorithms and its efforts to apply AI at the forefront of sensor technology.
Regarding Bosch's application of AI technology in sensors, Zhou Liang made an in-depth sharing:
"Our understanding of AI is that our sensors in the past were actually providing some raw data to the customer, for example, in the case of accelerators and gyroscopes, it may output an acceleration signal or an angular velocity signal to the customer. However, from the perspective of real application, the customer may need to turn these physical quantities into some data that it actually uses, which requires an algorithm process (to calculate), which in the past needs to be developed by the customer himself and do this application by himself.
Now, our smart sensor is to put some computing units with considerable computing power into the sensor. It can be an external MCU or an SoC, which can run some algorithms developed by Bosch itself. These algorithms can be run locally, or edge computing, and bring this computing back to our sensors, reducing the power consumption of the entire system. And then at the same time, it can also reduce the burden on the customer on algorithm development.
If we can provide some high-quality algorithms, customers may be able to apply these products directly. He no longer needs to develop repetitive algorithms for a certain scenario based on your sensors, so that the efficiency of product development can be improved, so this is some of the explorations we have done in the field of smart sensors. ”
From rapid response to cost reduction, Bosch learns from its sensor peers in China?
In the field of sensors, Bosch believes that in the global market, Bosch has been facing competitive pressure, and many sensor products are not only supplied by Bosch.
However, Bosch believes that competition is a process of mutual promotion and mutual development, and in this process, Bosch continues to invest in technology to develop industry-leading sensor products, so as to consolidate its leading competitiveness in the field of sensors.
Focusing on the domestic market, Zhou Liang believes that domestic excellent counterparts have many advantages that international enterprises need to learn in terms of rapid response and cost control:
"In this regard, we are also constantly learning from the practices of excellent domestic peers. How to speed up our response, speed up our R&D time, speed up our time from the product to this market. Then we will continue to reduce our costs and bring better products to customers."
The sensor market in China and the world is very huge, and domestic counterparts and international enterprises need to learn from each other, promote each other, and jointly promote the development of the industry.
epilogue
From the world's smallest PM2.5 sensor and smallest accelerometer to the application of AI algorithms in smart sensors, Bosch has demonstrated its industry-leading technological prowess.
In emerging fields such as AR/VR and robotics, Bosch has begun to deploy and improve its new perception solutions, which are expected to disrupt today's smart glasses and other applications.
Bosch is the world's largest MEMS sensor company and a benchmark for learning.