Sensors + wireless communications, a perfect match in the IoT field

People use their eyes, ears, mouth, nose and other sensory organs to obtain information from the outside world. However, in the study of natural phenomena and production activities, it is far from enough to rely solely on the functions of people's own senses. IoT sensors came into being in this situation. It can be said that sensors are an extension of human five senses, also known as "electric five senses".

The advent of the new technological revolution has made the world transition from mobile Internet to a new era of the Internet of Everything. At that time, not only people but also people and things, things and things can be connected. The massive data generated will completely change people's lives and even reshape the entire business society. Among them, sensor technology with sensors as the core is the entrance to data collection, the nerve endings of the Internet of Things, the only way and means for all systems to obtain data information, and the foundation and core of big data analysis.

From the perspective of the four-layer architecture of the Internet of Things, the perception layer is located at the bottom of the communication layer, platform layer, and application layer, which is the foundation of the entire Internet of Things pyramid. If it is impossible to obtain data accurately and reliably from physical entities, the Internet of Things is tantamount to a castle in the air.

At present, IoT sensors have penetrated into various fields such as industrial production, agricultural planting, commercial services, etc. From smart cities to smart manufacturing, from smart medical care to smart homes, sensors are already everywhere.

In traditional agriculture , people have limited ways to obtain farmland information, mainly through manual measurement, which is not only not timely and accurate, but also consumes a lot of manpower. For example, people have long noticed the impact of carbon dioxide concentration, temperature and humidity on the growth of greenhouse crops such as edible fungi, but basically follow the old method, asking staff to go to each greenhouse every day to use a detector to detect the carbon dioxide concentration, and then turn on the fan, open the side windows and skylights. But now, by using wireless sensor networks, accurate crop environment and crop information can be effectively and quickly obtained. If the system can be further linked with skylights, fans, etc., it will greatly save manpower and improve efficiency. In addition, sensor technology is playing an increasingly important role in monitoring crop irrigation conditions, soil air changes, livestock and poultry house environmental conditions, and large-scale surface detection.

In the industrial field , industrial sensor technology has become a commanding point for various industrial enterprises to compete in the development of high-tech. According to relevant institutions, the scale of the industrial sensor market will reach 30.8 billion by 2020. In the process of automated production, sensors are indispensable basic components. Manufacturers use various sensors to monitor and control various parameters in the production process, so that the equipment works in normal or optimal conditions and ensures the best quality of products. Moreover, if sensor technology and Internet of Things platform technology can be further combined, it is possible to detect problems in advance before the equipment fails. This is the so-called "predictive maintenance". As a result, manufacturers can change from passive services to active services, and thus develop a new service-centric business model.

Sensors also play a huge role in business areas such as Smart Home . Ideally, a smart and connected home should be able to think what people think, feel what people feel, and make some wise decisions without people manually controlling it. For example, thermal infrared sensors can detect the presence of human bodies. When we are watching TV, after leaving the TV for three minutes, the sensor can no longer detect the human body, and the TV will automatically go into sleep mode. If there is no one in two minutes, it can automatically shut down. Similarly, sensors can also play a role in smart air conditioners. It can determine the location of people in the house and turn the air direction of the air conditioner to the corresponding object. Home security is also inseparable from sensors. After installing an ultrasonic sensor at home, once someone comes in, the entire ultrasonic waveform changes, and the receiver will issue an alarm in time.

"The Internet of Things, sensors first" has become a common consensus in the Internet of Things industry today. As the Internet of Things further expands into various vertical industries, the sensor industry will be ignited. The trillion-level Internet of Things market size means huge prospects for the sensor market, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for companies like Murata Manufacturing.

Since its birth in the 1860s, the history of sensors has been more than 150 years. In the era of mobile Internet, the popularity of mobile phones has greatly promoted the development of sensors, but it also determines that many types of sensors are designed specifically for mobile phones. The "things" in the era of the Internet of Things have very different requirements for sensing and connection from mobile phones, so more and higher requirements are also put forward for sensor technology. In summary, sensors are evolving towards high precision, miniaturization, low power consumption, and intelligence.

If the data collected by the sensor is wrong, it is equivalent to an error at the source, and all subsequent data transmission, analysis, and application will be meaningless, so the accuracy and quality of the sensor is an important baseline to ensure the vision of the Internet of Things. Imagine if the accuracy and quality of the sensors of a smart connected car do not meet the standards, this means that the system cannot make correct decisions within a few milliseconds when an unexpected situation occurs, which seriously threatens the safety of the driver.

Murata's reliable components and solutions can provide drivers with a more secure driving experience in the era of vehicle networking. More than 70% of cars in China use Murata's ultrasonic sensors, which are mainly used for distance measurement. They can accurately detect the distance between the target and the device, and provide real-time feedback to prevent accidents.

As mobile devices, centered around smartphones, develop towards multifunctionality and high performance, more and smaller components are required in circuit boards. Therefore, sensors are gradually adopting integrated technology to achieve high performance and miniaturization. Integrated temperature sensors, integrated pressure sensors, etc. have long been widely used, and more integrated sensors will be developed in the future.

Bosch has launched a compact 9-axis motion sensor BMX160. This new sensor is installed in a compact 2.5 x 3.0 x 0.95 mm3 package. It is the smallest 9-axis motion sensor in the industry and is suitable for a wide range of applications such as smartphones, smart watches, fitness trackers, smart jewelry such as rings and necklaces, and augmented/virtual reality devices.

Murata Manufacturing has also launched an AMR sensor that can help customers greatly free up effective space. This sensor is a magnetic sensor made by using the change in magnetic resistance value generated by the strength of the magnetic field from a specific direction. It is mainly used in mobile phones and laptops, detecting the opening and closing of refrigerators and doors, and detecting the rotating lights of smart meters. At present, in order to detect the magnetic field in a three-dimensional space, it is necessary to combine multiple (3 to 6) magnetic sensors. Murata Manufacturing has successfully completed the development of a 360-degree all-round sympathetic magnetic field detection sensor through the combination of technology with NEC Corporation (NEC). Under the same circumstances, only one can play the same role as a combined magnetic sensor.

Weibo, WeChat, videos, and games on mobile phones are all big consumers of power. We have long been accustomed to charging every day and carrying a power bank with us when traveling. But can you imagine what a bad situation it would be if smoke alarms, smart cameras and other connected devices also needed to replace batteries every day? Unlike mobile phones, many IoT devices are located in areas that people don’t often touch, so they have extreme requirements for power consumption, which determines that the power consumption of sensors must also be very low, otherwise the operating cost will be too high.

As we all know, air pressure sensors are generally susceptible to the influence of ambient temperature, which causes the air pressure data to drift. In view of this, Murata has launched a high-precision, low-power, and high-temperature-stability air pressure sensor; combined with electrostatic capacitance MEMS technology, the new air pressure sensor's performance against temperature drift has been greatly improved, making it almost completely unaffected to obtain correct data; on the other hand, the new sensor has been improved to reduce its noise level (0.5Parms), fully realizing its high-precision data detection; at the same time, it has achieved "low power consumption", and by adopting electrostatic capacitance, it can contribute to energy saving of loading equipment.

Bosch's latest BMA400 is an ultra-low power acceleration sensor specifically designed for wearable devices and the Internet of Things. It consumes only one-tenth of the power of existing accelerometers and can provide stable and high-performance services. Its greatly reduced power requirements significantly improve battery life, especially for those devices powered by button batteries. With its ultra-low power consumption of only 4μA for its step counter and its intelligent power management functions (such as built-in activity recognition), it can extend the battery life of wearable devices (such as fitness bands, smart clothing, watches and activity trackers) to an unprecedented level.

With the surge in connected devices, data has exploded, and the centralized cloud has been "overwhelmed". More importantly, for application scenarios such as smart manufacturing or smart transportation, the delay in cloud analysis will cause the value of data to plummet. As a result, edge intelligence has begun to rise.

Sensors are very good edge nodes. Using embedded technology to integrate sensors and microprocessors, they become intelligent data terminal devices with environmental perception, data processing, intelligent control and data communication functions. This is the so-called smart sensor. This sensor has self-learning, self-diagnosis and self-compensation capabilities, composite perception capabilities and flexible communication capabilities. In this way, when the sensor perceives the physical world, the data fed back to the IoT system will be more accurate and comprehensive, achieving the purpose of precise perception.

What should be done with the data collected by the sensor? Of course, the data should be further transmitted to the platform for analysis and application. Among them, the communication network is the pipeline for data transmission. In addition to sensors, Murata also has many products in the field of wireless communications. For example, Murata's 2.4GHz communication module has long played an important role in various industries, from Wi-Fi modules in mobile phones, to Bluetooth modules used in cars, to ZigBee modules involved in smart homes. Murata combines sensors and wireless communications to provide customers with scenario-based overall solutions.

But traditional wide-area wireless network connection solutions (2G GSM/3G WCDMA/4G LTE) are overkill for many existing IoT use cases. A manhole cover or a water meter does not need to send a lot of data every day. What they need is an IoT connection suitable for them. This is the main reason why low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) have flourished in recent years.

The two most important technologies in the LPWAN field are NB-IoT based on licensed spectrum and LoRa based on unlicensed spectrum. These technologies have the typical characteristics of low power consumption, wide coverage, large connections, low bandwidth and low cost, and are particularly suitable for typical IoT application scenarios including meter reading and parking.

Murata attaches great importance to the rapid growth of the LPWAN market and has seized the initiative in this field.

For example, in the central and western regions of my country, animal husbandry is well developed, but due to the vast land and sparse population, it is difficult to effectively manage livestock assets such as cattle and sheep. The traditional method relies on manpower to manage cattle and sheep, and its disadvantages are very obvious: very experienced talents are needed to carry out livestock management, and the loss of livestock assets such as cattle and sheep is also a very difficult problem at present. The emergence of LoRa technology can greatly improve the current situation. When users use a locator equipped with Murata LoRa module, they can carry out long-distance livestock management without worrying about the loss of livestock assets. It not only improves reliability, but also greatly reduces labor costs. At the same time, with its low power consumption characteristics, it can be used for a long time, reducing costs and maintenance costs.

Figure: Murata LoRa module

Murata has always been committed to keeping up with the technological trends and identifying market pain points. In the future, Murata will continue to innovate in the fields of advanced sensors and wireless communications and fully support the development of China's Internet of Things technology.