While many companies are still struggling with performance, Bosch announced at a press conference in May that its sales in China reached RMB 91.5 billion in 2016 , a year-on-year increase of 19%. The Chinese market has become the fastest growing market in Bosch's global business, accounting for 28% of global sales.

Bosch China Press Conference on May 18

The strong performance of the Chinese market is precisely due to the in-depth application of Internet technologies, including the wave of intelligent automobiles, the prosperity of mobile Internet, smart cities and the promotion of Industry 4.0.

The Bosch Group has four major business sectors: automotive and transportation, consumer goods, energy and building technology, and industrial technology.

Bosch sales by division in 2016

Although it has many businesses, Bosch's purpose is very clear, which is to seize the part with the highest technical barriers . In early May, Bosch sold its starter and generator subsidiaries to a Chinese "coal boss" because the competition in this market is fierce and Bosch has no core technology threshold.

However, in the future IoT market, Bosch's technical foundation and advantages have undoubtedly been laid, and this foundation is precisely Bosch's MEMS (micro-electromechanical) sensor technology.

MEMS sensors have been used in many industrial fields as early as the 1990s. After 2000, sensors with gradually optimized size and functions evolved into different forms and functions, and gradually penetrated into many consumer electronic products. For example, accelerometers, gyroscopes, geomagnetic sensors, air pressure sensors, environmental sensors, etc. are essential in mobile phones and we are also very familiar with them.

The timing of Bosch's MEMS sensor development basically coincides with these two trends. Bosch first mass-produced MEMS sensors in 1995, and established Bosch Sensortec in 2005 , focusing on consumer electronics such as smartphones. In terms of MEMS sensors, Bosch has more than 1,000 MEMS-related patents, and all of them are Bosch's own technologies from MEMS design to manufacturing.

In future IoT projects, whether smart cities, driverless cars, or smart homes, communication technology only solves the problems of IP address allocation and networking, but how to make these products and hardware build usage scenarios around users is exactly where sensors come in handy.

According to official data, Bosch has shipped a total of 8 billion MEMS sensors. Its application areas include not only the current popular smartphone market, but also wearable devices, smart driving, smart homes, Industry 4.0 and other fields.

This means that Bosch has already laid out its own data entry in advance for the entire IoT ecosystem of the future, and on top of this, Bosch's software and services are gradually gathering together.

Bosch has already launched a membership system for smart homes to unlock the data value of the home appliances it sells. In addition, Bosch has also begun preparing its own IoT cloud computing network at its computing center in Germany.

Chen Yudong, President of Bosch China, said in a media interview that Bosch set a goal many years ago to realize the interconnection of all hardware in the future. At the Hannover Industrial Fair not long ago, Bosch has connected a machine tool that is more than 100 years old to the Internet of Things (IoT). Currently, the interconnection level of Bosch's hardware has reached 50%, and the goal for 2020 is 75%.

Chen Yudong, President of Bosch China

Now, Bosch’s future strategy is very clear, namely “sensors, software and services”.

"Bosch needs to transform itself from a traditional high-tech hardware company into a software and service company, which means it needs to be hard where it should be hard, and soft where it should be soft," said Chen Yudong.

Although three-quarters of the world's smartphones use sensors from Bosch, this sensor giant is not complacent and needs both soft and hard capabilities to maintain growth.

During the 2017 Munich Shanghai Electronics Show in March, Leopold Beer, President of Bosch Sensortec GmbH Asia Pacific, shared his views on the MEMS sensor industry.

Bosch Sensortec GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, with the aim of providing a complete portfolio of MEMS sensors and solutions that enable connected consumer electronics. Bosch Sensortec develops and provides customized MEMS sensors and solutions for smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and IoT products.

Bailibo pointed out: Consumer MEMS will face three major challenges in 2017

1. Growth in the smartphone market has stagnated and competition remains fierce.

To date, the largest market for MEMS is still the smartphone market. But now the growth of this market has entered a stagnant stage. However, due to the large market volume of smartphones, it still attracts new and old MEMS manufacturers to enter this red ocean, and the number of competitors is increasing day by day.

2. New applications are slow to launch

The market shipment volume is small and highly segmented. The market demand for emerging applications such as wearable products has not yet emerged, and the entire application situation is still very scattered. However, customers are very targeted in wearable applications. For MEMS suppliers, if they want to invest in innovation and application development in the field of wearable applications, they need to consume a lot of R&D resources.

3. Market uncertainty is high and application innovation is risky.

Thirdly, from the perspective of innovative applications, everyone is currently thinking about what innovative applications can be made based on MEMS or consumer semiconductors? However, investing in innovative applications brings with it huge uncertainties, such as uncertainty in the entire market, immature technology, technical risks, and so on.

Bailibo: "As a MEMS supplier, Bosch Sensortec's ultimate goal is to provide users with our solutions, not just components. To this end, Bosch Sensortec will seek adjustments in three important strategic directions."

1. Changes in business models

The business focus shifted from providing components to providing solutions

Bosch Sensortec's response is to change its business model and start providing solutions to customers. Bosch Sensortec is no longer a basic component supplier, but integrates DSP, microcontrollers, etc., and combines Bosch Sensortec's own software algorithms and application algorithms to finally present a solution.

2. Explore new areas

Meet the requirements of the current market environment with new products and technologies

Secondly, Bosch Sensortec began to focus on the realization of applications and provide customers with dedicated solutions. For example, environmental sensors are no longer simple single sensors such as temperature and humidity, but integrated environmental units with multiple functions.

Bosch Sensortec's BME680 is the first four-in-one sensor that integrates air pressure, ambient temperature, relative humidity and VOC gas content in the air, and integrates these sensors into a package as small as 3 mm by 3 mm. In addition, as a solution provider, Bosch no longer only provides components, but also provides customers with suitable application scenarios to help customers find ideas for user-side applications.

3. Shaping new markets

Develop new technologies for markets that do not yet exist

Finally, Bosch Sensortec began to shape new markets with technological innovation. For example, the magic of smartphones is the ability to display and touch control, but the user interaction interface of this screen touch also constrains the development of this market.

To this end, Bosch Sensortec launched the MEMS scanner BML050 for interactive laser projection applications, which not only realizes the focus-free laser projection display of products such as smartphones, but also converts all surfaces into virtual gesture user interfaces. With the launch of BML050, Bosch Sensortec has also expanded its current product line to the field of optical microsystems.

BML050 Laser Projection Micro Scanner

Currently, Bosch Sensortec has a complete MEMS product line.

• Inertial sensors: including accelerometers, gyroscopes, electronic sensors to two-in-one integration, six-axis sensors, IMU (inertial measurement unit) products, electronic compass products, etc.;

• Environmental sensors: including air pressure sensors, humidity sensors, temperature sensors, pressure sensors and all-in-one integrated sensors;

• Smart sensors: including smart ASSN and Hub products. Hub products combine inertial sensors with micro-control technology and optimized algorithms to help customers quickly design applications.

• Optical sensors: including BML series products, etc. Especially the latest interactive laser projection micro scanner - BML050

• Acoustic Sensors: With a complete line of microphone products...

Jeanne Forget, vice president of marketing at Bosch Sensortec, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bosch, pointed out that Bosch will follow three strategies in the future development of sensor technology to maintain its leading position in the industry.

1. Keep reducing the size and power consumption to continue shrinking the sensor footprint.

2. Improve the integration level, integrate the microcontroller processor, multi-axis sensor and software into a combined package, and provide optimized algorithms to enable customers to quickly apply.

3. Develop new sensor clusters based on different categories of sensors.

The way the big guys play can be used to expand our thinking, but we cannot copy it because we are not big guys and have different resources. Fortunately, we overheard the down-to-earth direction of learning from Bosch.

On May 19, I visited the China Smart Home Expo (CSHE2017) and had the honor to listen to the speech of Wang Yi, General Manager of Mems Consulting Co., Ltd. (Topic: Opportunities and Challenges of Smart Sensors).

Wang Yi, General Manager of MEMS Consulting Co., Ltd.

First, the current status of the domestic MEMS industry was introduced .

In 2015, the global sensor market demand was about 25 billion US dollars, and the Chinese market demand was about 8.2 billion US dollars. The market share of sensors produced and used in China is only about 12%, and as high as 88% is imported. In addition, domestic sensors are mostly used in low-end fields and are cheap. In addition, the simulation software, design tools and equipment for designing sensors are basically imported.

China's MEMS industry is very low in terms of both market size and global share, and it is urgent to change the current situation of China's smart sensors. In response, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology has issued a three-year action guide . The purpose of the guide is to seize the hot application areas of the sensor industry, such as smart terminals, the Internet of Things, automotive electronics, etc., to enhance the supply capacity of mid-to-high-end products and promote the development of China's smart sensors. It is hoped that by 2019, China's smart sensors will have a breakthrough and a group of innovative enterprises will emerge.

Wang Yi emphasized: "Through the promotion of the government or the spontaneous innovation of the industry, we hope that by 2019, the domestic output value can reach 3.7 billion US dollars, accounting for about 27%, which is doubled compared with 12% in 2015. The shipment volume is expected to reach 12.1 billion, accounting for 38.7% of the country."

Currently, the price of MEMS products is declining significantly, with an annual decline rate of 6%. In 2013, the average price of each MEMS product fell to US$1, but now it is only US$0.12. In other words, a product that could be sold for US$1 five or six years ago can now only be sold for 1/10 of the original price.

The rapid price drop has put MEMS in a difficult situation. Coupled with the price cuts by competitors, the net profit is difficult to support the long-term development of the enterprise. This industry is very difficult, but Wang Yi believes that it is still very promising and some breakthroughs can be found .

Take Bosch as an example. The reason for its good performance is that the revenue from automobiles accounts for 50%-60% of its total MEMS revenue. At the same time, Bosch is an IDM company with a very large MEMS output. As the speed of automotive electronics replacement is not fast, Bosch has begun to deploy some consumer electronics fields in recent years, trying to improve its MEMS process and technical capabilities through the rapid update and iteration of consumer electronics, and then supplement automotive products to increase profit margins with high added value.

Bosch BML050 reference design

What experiences can we learn from China ?

1. Improve the process, through CMOS process, to ensure the low cost of products in a short time, so as to enhance competitiveness;

2. To enhance the value of the sensor itself, the purpose of integrating software algorithms into smart sensors is to enhance the value ratio of the sensor;

3. Integrate more sensors and share one package to reduce space and save costs.

In Wang Yi's opinion, if China's sensor industry wants to narrow the gap with the international level, it still needs innovation, which is the source of product value enhancement. There are several ways to innovate.

1. Minimally invasive refers to improvements and breakthroughs in design or technology;

2. Disruptive innovation refers to a breakthrough in principle, such as making sensors with new principles such as resonance;

3. From the perspective of material innovation , the current use of piezoelectric materials has created a new type of smart sensor.

Overall, with the advent of the era of the Internet of Everything, smart terminals are constantly upgrading their requirements for the quantity and quality of sensors. In addition to microphones and cameras used in consumer electronics such as smartphones, sensors will have very good prospects in the fields of AR/VR, automobiles, and smart homes.

Smart cars in particular will require a large number of visual sensors, various short-range and long-range radars, and ultrasonic sensors in the future. This is a market with obvious potential. Smart homes have three main needs for sensors: air and temperature and humidity detection, energy saving, and security, which will also bring new growth to sensors.

Sensors in the Smart Home

I believe that the rise of these emerging fields will inject new vitality into the sensor industry. The Chinese MEMS market will also achieve new breakthroughs through the upgrading of process technology, the use of new materials, and the large-scale commercial use of integrated intelligent sensors, and its share in the global market will steadily increase, becoming a dazzling "Oriental Pearl"!

Source: Sohu Technology, Titanium Media, IoT Headlines,

China Instrument Network, Huaqiang Microelectronics, Bosch official website

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