Henan Daily reporter Qi Yaqiong Intern Li Bing

From December 1st to 2nd, the 2024 Sensor Conference, with the theme of "Perceiving the World,智创 the Future", opened in Zhengzhou. Experts, scholars, and representatives from leading enterprises and research institutes in the sensor field gathered to discuss development opportunities and explore new paths for the industry.

In the era of the Internet of Things, sensors are everywhere. For example, the anti-shake function of mobile phone photography, the noise reduction function in headphones, and the step counting function of wearable devices. The size of sensors is getting smaller and smaller, but their energy is getting greater and greater, becoming a bridge connecting the physical world with the digital world. With the arrival of the AI era, as an extension of human senses, all smart products will use MEMS sensors, which have become an important engine of the smart economy.

Smart sensor show "muscle"

One of the activities of the 2024 Sensor Conference - the Sensor Conference Innovation Link Exhibition, dozens of excellent domestic innovative sensor companies, with their advantages of cutting-edge technology, innovative products and solutions, each show their "muscle" and "tricks".

Graphene, known as the "new material ***", has actually transformed from "lying flat" to "standing upright"; flexible pressure sensors, known as the "electronic skin" exclusive to robots, are becoming the left and right arms of embodied robots; installing smart sensors on manhole covers on the streets gives them an "electronic ID card"; sensors the size of rice grains, when placed in shoe insoles, can become our exercise "companion"...

Jin Jianxin, general manager of Tianyu (Wuxi) Equipment Technology Co., Ltd., who had specially赶到 Zhengzhou to attend the event, couldn't help but exclaim as he watched the exhibition: "Chinese enterprises are really awesome." It turns out that Jin Jianxin had been struggling to find a new material with high sensitivity. He sought help from friends both at home and abroad and had even downloaded several AI software apps on his phone to seek answers, but unexpectedly found the solution in Zhengzhou.

Jin Jianxin met by chance Xiao Ming, the general manager of Shenzhen Yixin Technology R&D Co., Ltd., a company engaged in the research and development of "vertical graphene" materials. One is at the application end of the enterprise, and the other is at the end of technology R&D. The wonderful encounter allowed Jin Jianxin to find the "material ***" in the *** technology application that can detect deformation and displacement.

"Our company is the world's first pioneer to industrialize vertical graphene. Our main business is in medical detection, chemical sensing, and flexible stretchable sensing. After communication, we further 'unlocked' the new functions of our products." Xiao Ming sighed, two different sensor worlds opened a window to each other, and each opened a new world.

Zhengzhou looks at the Sensor Valley, the Sensor Valley looks at Zhengzhou.

Building a platform for communication and cooperation, and jointly planning the chapter of cooperative development. At the scene of the 2024 Sensor Conference's production and sales docking meeting held on December 2, five groups of projects, including the project signed by Shenzhen Intelligent Sensing Industry Association and Zhengzhou Banghao Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., were signed. And the day before, at the opening ceremony signing ceremony, 42 projects, including the Changguang Yuanchen TMBS/IGBT production and manufacturing base, were "awarded" to Zhengzhou High-tech Zone, with a total signed amount of 28.4 billion yuan.

Liu Yuanchao, Vice President and Secretary of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, introduced that the growth rate of China's sensor market size has been higher than the global growth rate for a long time. Against the backdrop of the rapid development of artificial intelligence, the MEMS sensor industry will usher in a new wave of development opportunities.

As a province with emerging industries, Henan places great importance on the development of the intelligent sensor industry, which it has identified as one of the 28 key industrial chains to be cultivated. The relevant person in charge of the Zhengzhou Municipal Government introduced that in the field of intelligent sensor industry, Zhengzhou has cultivated a batch of leading domestic enterprises represented by Hanwei Technology, gathered 3,000 related and application enterprises, and the scale of the core and related industries exceeds 30 billion yuan, creating a multi-category sensor industry chain including gas, meteorology, agriculture, power grid, environmental monitoring, rail transit, etc., with the sensor output exceeding 35 million. The brand effect of "Zhengzhou looks at the sensing valley, the sensing valley looks at Zhengzhou" continues to be highlighted.

Where is the road for small sensors

Clarify ideas, accumulate new momentum for industrial development.

The ubiquitous sensor is a key focus for empowering various industries and creating new quality productivity. However, sensor technology is complex, the types are vast, and highly decentralized, with countless "invisible" enterprises scattered within the industry, and the market demand for a single type of product is not large. As Ma Yuanshan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Director of the Li Pan Mountain Laboratory, said, the prominent feature of sensors is that they have a high technological content, but the product value is not high.

Academician Guo Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences introduced that each sensor contains systems of sensing, control, error correction, etc., which can be said to be "small but complete".

How to "band together" and grow bigger and stronger has become the number one problem. At the 2024 Sensor Conference satellite event - the 2nd International Sensor Entrepreneurs Summit, about 600 professionals from the upstream and downstream industries of sensors discussed the way out for industry development. As the "2024 Top Ten Sensor Park Development Report" says, it is suggested to focus on "doing fine in the special field of intelligent sensor, doing big in the application field of intelligent sensor, doing strong in the industrial chain supporting links such as materials and equipment, and doing excellent in the brand of sensor park".

Find the right way out, and build an innovative collaborative ecosystem.

Ma Yuanshan believes that intelligent inspection equipment is a huge track, and sensor companies should focus on the big track to exert efforts. He suggests that Zhengzhou should strengthen top-level design, focus on the needs of the industrial chain, and carry out industry-academia-research-use integration innovation from the aspects of focusing on talent training and introduction, so as to have a big role to play in the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry and the country's major urgent needs.

The white paper "Top Ten Trends in the Sensor Industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan Period", released during the conference, points out that the future product will be more intensive, and multi-sensing and multi-module coordination will become one of the top ten development trends.

Only by huddling together and only by forming alliances can we develop together and become the industry consensus of the small sensor seeking to compete in the industry. Since this year, Henan has been promoting the intelligent sensor and semiconductor industry chain with high-level, integrating advantages, and creating a new industrial high ground.

Such as, Henan fully played the role of the "vanguard" of high-level platforms such as the MEMS R&D Service Platform for Smart Sensors, Mozi Laboratory, Public R&D Platform for Integrated Circuits, and the Integrated Circuit Pilot Platform.

For example, Zhengzhou City focuses on cultivating a trillion-level electronic information industry cluster, focusing on the cultivation and creation of the electronic information "No. 1 industry", with a total investment of about 1.5 billion yuan in the intelligent sensor MEMS research and development service platform, which is expected to be delivered for use by the end of 2025.

A full industry chain for sensor system integration, testing, manufacturing, and packaging is being formed in Henan. The future is here, and the path is under your feet.