To seize the Internet of Things industry to explore the future development trend of sensor technology

Although the IoT (Internet of Things) application can be said to be a reintegration of various old technologies, it is actually due to a new generation of integrated circuit packaging technology, low-power wireless transmission, advanced sensing element technology and other new technologies. Domain development and reintegration allow IoT applications to achieve great optimization results in terms of volume, performance, stability, and power consumption. Even under the conditions of function addition and power optimization, the cost of a single terminal can be extremely high. Compression not only brings unlimited prospects for the development of related applications of IoT, but also attracts related chip makers to actively invest in the huge business opportunities derived from IoT.

IoT product application requirements promote the continuous upgrading of the electronic IC industry The electronic industry upgrade led by the IoT market demand, like the new generation of nano-sensor systems, flexible circuit boards and production technology, will also bring the IC design industry to the development of cross-domain technology integration For example, sensing and communication technology solutions integrating physiological sensing applications, wearable biosensing software chip packaging solutions that can be used for personal health physiological information tracking, these are advanced applications and cross-domains derived from IoT applications. Development results.

Among them, the most critical for the IoT application impact is the communication application function of the terminal device, because the IoT product focuses on the extreme optimization of the terminal and the extreme optimization of the power consumption. Therefore, the communication technology solutions with higher energy consumption become different. Big semiconductor companies are actively optimizing key functions. For example, the 5G/4G mobile data transmission module, the Bluetooth Low Energy technology and the Wi-Fi wireless transmission technology have become the key areas for semiconductor manufacturers.

Catching up on IoT market pie giants to buy gold to strengthen their own technical strength

Taking communication chip maker Qualcomm as an example, in 2014, it spent US$2.5 billion to acquire CSR and acquire the core technology of its Global Positioning System (GPS) and Bluetooth communication chip, thereby expanding its wearable devices and vehicles. Use the global positioning, Bluetooth wireless communication core technology solutions and related chip solutions required by the electronic system. In addition to Qualcomm’s massive acquisitions, NXP also announced the acquisition of Quintic’s Bluetooth low-power chips, wearable device application award-related assets, and NXP’s acquisition of NXP. In March 2015, NXP acquired Freescale for US$11.8 billion. Strengthen its on-board electronics application solutions and microcontroller products to provide sufficient competitive strength for subsequent deployment of IoT applications. As for Cypress, it focuses on resource integration for SoC (System on Chip) core technology required for IoT application development. It acquires Spansion from NOR Flash and ITT acquires Hittite to complement its wireless communication technology gap in the microwave and millimeter wave bands for 5G applications. .

At the same time, Intel also strengthened the strength of the broadband network industry. In February 2015, it acquired Lantiq, a chip company of Netcom, and effectively expanded its product lines to the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Long Term Evolution (LTE) and fiber network applications markets, and strengthened its basic network communications. Market layout of application services, and in order to expand market penetration of IoT applications, it also launched its Edison IoT application platform developed in response to the IoT market. By integrating a low-power high-performance dual-core CPU with a single-core microcontroller, Support high-complexity IoT data collection operations. The IoT hardware development platform also integrates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LE, and memory/storage devices. It provides 40 multiplex GPIO (General Purpose I/O) interfaces through simplified configuration and integration. , Provides IoT application development hardware resilience foundation, and can also be developed with support for C, C, Python, Node.js/Javascript and other development languages. Supports multiple integrated development environments for Arduino, Eclipse, Wyliodrin, and Intel XDK, and strengthens IoT application development. efficacy.

Wide range of IoT applications Large companies are looking for popular applications Deepening solutions Application value

Obviously, the market for IoT applications is too wide and the key technologies in each field are very different. In addition to the market arrangements, related semiconductor companies actively look for follow-up hot applications in addition to their active use of acquisitions and acquisitions to build their own technology markets. Integration of technology functions and applications. In particular, the most popular wearable device and Connected Vehicle in IoT applications are even the health care market that is advanced into the healthcare system, or the machine-to-machine (M2M). The application environment actively expands the economic scale and product adaptability to various integration requirements.

In addition to the core functions of communications and hardware platforms, another key focus of IoT is support for environmental sensing application functions. In particular, the trend of related companies in Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMs) is more observable for companies to grab the IoT market. The move, currently Europe and the United States and Taiwan MEMs wafer foundry to compete to strengthen the motion sensors, pressure gauges, microphones and other key integrated process technology.

MEMs OEM Technology Actively Optimizes IoT Advanced Application Opportunities

Look forward to the IoT market before the outbreak, Tronics Microsystems, X-Fab, Teledyne DALSA, IMT, Towerjazz, TSMC and other active attack MEMS foundry. In particular, the Internet of Things, automotive electronics, smart mobile devices, mobile medical and optical communication electronic devices have become more and more demanding for space and power consumption of circuit board components, and have also attracted more chip manufacturers to invest in MEMS advanced processes. , Integration of newer, smaller, more power-saving key components, driven a wave of MEMs foundry market growth.

In the focus of sensor integration for IoT applications, MEMs OEMs are actively targeting key sensor integration designs required for IoT and automotive electronics applications, such as MEMs accelerometers, multi-axis gyroscopes, magnetometers, manometers, and microphones. Integrated solutions, also developed for the IoT environment sensing applications such as temperature/humidity, ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (Infrared, IR) environmental sensors, advanced process development, in addition to sensors in the sensor accuracy, component power consumption In addition to optimization, the industry is also actively developing lower-cost, smaller-sized sensing integrated components to provide IoT terminal functions to develop more cost-competitive and functionally-competitive application solutions. In the area of ​​sensor solutions for IoT applications such as mobile phones, mobile medical devices, and onboard electronic systems, related companies have also started to develop pressure gauge solutions, such as Tire-Pressure-Monitoring System (TPMS) tire pressure sensing systems and mobile medical applications. It integrates with intelligent sensing devices such as sphygmomanometers.

Accurate accuracy of key sensing technology continues to increase the practical value of smart IoT applications

Smart home is another popular application area of ​​IoT. In terms of IoT applications, the pressure needed for smart homes and the needs of environmental sensing applications will be an important key to home automation applications, such as smart bracelet products integrating home appliance control. Smart watches, smart refrigerators, washing machines and home energy management systems, these key intelligent products will need to introduce pressure gauges and various environmental sensors (temperature, humidity, brightness, and pollution status sensors) to achieve their smart life assistive application functions. All major MEMs generation industrialists are also actively developing related key MEMs chip products to assist chip developers in attacking IoT application opportunities.

For the sensor performance required by IoT, from the past practical functions with limited measurement accuracy, the need for highly intelligent integration and high-precision sensing in emerging IoT applications has become insufficient. Therefore, the key sensor is required. The MEMs manufacturers of components have also optimized the functions of key sensor components. For example, a multi-axis gyroscope sensing system chip manufactured through SiP multichip integration technology or an advanced multi-sensor system product is an obvious example. The higher precision of the sensing effect improves the accuracy of the environmental information interception of IoT applications and enhances the overall system value.

In addition to the accuracy of the motion sensor, the accuracy of the pressure gauge is also a key issue in related applications. For example, Infineon launched a wearable smart product design, personal physiological data acquisition, gesture recognition, navigation and positioning, and weather environment detection applications. An order MEMs pressure sensing element that is already pressure sensitive with a ±5 cm resolution.

Pressure sensors have become the key sensing elements of wearable intelligence. In addition, pressure sensors used in IoT can be used as sensing data sources for diversified intelligent applications. However, most pressure sensing MEMs components use piezoelectric technology (Piezo-Electric). Principle Pressure-sensing mechanism, Infineon's new pressure sensor provides a more accurate pressure sensing value output based on the use of capacitive sensing mechanisms. A mobile device equipped with a pressure sensing device can assist in indoor positioning applications in indoor navigation applications, and can also support Dead Reckoning function without GPS (Global Positioning System) signal conditions to satisfy smart device room/inside/outside navigation applications. In addition, the pressure gauge can also accurately calculate the height or vertical velocity calculation data, which can be used as a motion behavior detection and analysis in the wearable smart health motion device application, and can even be used as a gesture recognition gesture recognition device of the wearable device. , develop more smart wearable application value.