Semiconductors promote the development of sensors and lead the intelligent transformation

The development of artificial intelligence, including the intelligent transformation of the industry, is inseparable from the progress of sensor technology. Sensors are basic products in the electronic information equipment manufacturing industry and are also special components among the new electronic components that are being developed.

To achieve the expected AI with high intelligence, it is necessary to rely on the massive data obtained by various sensors as training sets. There are many types of sensors, up to nearly 10,000, and the future shipment of sensors may reach hundreds of millions or even billions, which will inevitably create another trillion-level market.

Recently, the "Sensor-driven Intelligent Transformation" theme forum of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference released the "China MEMS and Advanced Sensor Industry Development Blue Book", which made a clear assessment and long-term outlook on the current status and prospects of the industry. At the same time, the Artificial Intelligence Expert Committee of the China Sensor and Internet of Things Industry Alliance was established, representing the industry's in-depth layout of the current development trend of artificial intelligence.

Zhu Jiaqi, deputy secretary-general of the China Sensor Internet of Things Industry Alliance and vice president of the National Intelligent Sensor Innovation Center, said that many of the characteristics of sensors such as small size, low cost, low power consumption, and high manufacturability are promoted by the properties of semiconductors.

Zhu Jiaqi predicts that by 2021, the market brought by MEMS technology will reach 20 billion US dollars. From the perspective of the entire sensor, it may mean a huge market of hundreds of billions of dollars. He further pointed out that although China consumes nearly 50% of the world's sensors, the domestic production rate is very low.

In addition, at the forum, many experts and entrepreneurs in the field also conducted in-depth discussions on topics such as sensors and artificial intelligence. Guests including Wave Computing Chief Technology Officer Dr. Chris Nicol, mCube China President Xie Ping, Shanghai United Imaging Medical Technology Co., Ltd. Co-Chairman Zhang Qiang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Professor Liang Xiaoyao, and Efabless Corporation CEO Michael S. Wishart gave keynote speeches.

Among them, Professor Liang Xiaoyao said that what the market needs is not good chips, but easy-to-use chips. He pointed out that many companies have designed many good AI chips, and their computing power, power consumption and other hard indicators are very good, but they cannot be used because other software companies do not know how to bring out the computing power of these chips.

In addition, Professor Liang Xiaoyao also mentioned that when an AI chip company is weak, the only one who can provide timely assistance is the academic community, because the academic community is in more trouble than these weak companies.

In the final roundtable discussion, many guests talked about the biggest opportunities and challenges in the integration of sensors and AI. Yaguan Technology CMO Lin Wei said that the sensor market will be infinitely huge in the future, and each house will use 60 to 100 devices. This is almost a pure incremental market and the biggest opportunity.

Regarding the biggest challenge, Lin Wei believes that it is mainly because China is still developing behind closed doors. The sensor market cannot be conquered by spending 500 billion yuan. Chinese companies still need to abide by some objective laws. There are many "small and beautiful" companies in Europe. China cannot be arrogant, let alone closed, and must embrace the global technological power.