China's sensor industry has entered a transition period

Although China's sensor industry started earlier, it did not formally include sensor technology in national and key projects until the beginning of the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" period in 1986. Now, after decades of development, the Chinese sensor industry is at a critical stage of development from traditional to new sensors.

After many years of development, sensor technology has undergone three generations of development.

The first generation is a structural sensor that senses and transforms signals using structural parameter variations. Although structural sensors are early development products, in recent years due to the successive application of new materials, new principles, and new processes, there has been a great improvement in accuracy, reliability, stability, and sensitivity. At present, structural sensors still occupy a considerable proportion in industrial automation, process detection and other aspects.

The second generation is a solid-state sensor developed in the 70s. This sensor consists of solid components such as semiconductors, dielectrics, and magnetic materials, and is manufactured using certain characteristics of the material. Such as: the use of thermoelectric effect, Hall effect, photosensitive effect, were made of thermocouple sensors, Hall sensors, light sensors. This type of sensor is based on changes in physical properties, no moving parts, simple structure, small size; good motion response and output power; easy to integrate, intelligent; low power consumption, safe and reliable. Although there are many advantages, the linearity is poor, the temperature drift is large, the overload capacity is poor, and the performance parameters are discrete.

The third-generation sensor is an intelligent sensor that has just been developed. It is a combination of microcomputer technology and detection technology, which makes the sensor have a certain degree of artificial intelligence. Intelligent sensor technology is currently in a period of vigorous development, with representative works typical of Honeywell's ST-3000 series of smart transmitters and German Steinmann's two-dimensional acceleration sensors, and some containing microprocessors Monolithically integrated pressure sensors, smart sensors with multi-dimensional detection capabilities, and solid-state image sensors. With continuous development, there is no doubt that smart sensors will be further extended to the fields of chemistry, electromagnetics, optics and nuclear physics. It can be foreseen that emerging intelligent sensors will play an increasingly important role in all fields that affect the lives of all human beings.

At the current level, new sensors are developing on the basis of technological advancement, such as high precision, high reliability, and miniaturization.

To high precision development. With the improvement of industrial automation, the requirements for sensors have also been continuously improved, and new sensors with high sensitivity, high accuracy, fast response, and good interchangeability have been researched to ensure the reliability of production automation.

The reliability of a high reliability, wide temperature range sensor directly affects the reliability of the communication device. Researching a high reliability, wide temperature range sensor will be a permanent direction. Many emerging materials (such as ceramics, nanomaterials) will be promising.

The development of various control devices for miniaturization is becoming more and more powerful, requiring that the smaller the size of each component, the better. This requires the development of new materials and processing technologies. The miniaturization of sensors can make their functions more powerful, control more centralized, and can reduce energy consumption. The development of many new materials and the adoption of new processes can make this trend more obvious.

The development of sensors for micro-power consumption and passivity generally achieve non-battery-to-electricity conversion and cannot be separated from the power supply during operation. In the field or in places away from the grid, it is often battery-powered or solar-powered. The development of micropower sensors and passive sensors is the inevitable direction. This will not only save energy but also increase system life. Current low-power chips have developed rapidly, and the power consumption of new chips developed by many manufacturers is about one-tenth to one-tenth that of ordinary sensors.

To intelligent, digital development With the development of modernization, the sensor's function has exceeded the tradition, its output is no longer a single analog signal, but after processing the digital signal, and some even have control functions, this is Said digital sensor.

The development of networking to the network is an important direction for the development of sensors. The role and advantages of the network are gradually emerging. Network sensors are bound to promote the development of electronic technology.

The new sensor is a very promising sensor that overcomes many problems such as poor accuracy, low reliability, low intelligence, low integration, and high power consumption of conventional sensors. It can meet modern industrial, military, and medical applications. Needs. However, due to a series of conditions such as manufacturing mechanism, price factors, and manufacturing processes, the development of new sensors is still at a relatively low level, and the application is not very extensive. Therefore, much work still needs to be done. However, it is certain that the demand for new types of sensors will increase and demand will increase. New types of sensors will benefit more and more people.