Where is the "neck" of the sensor stuck?

The Fifth Plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, which successfully concluded yesterday, studied proposals on the formulation of the 14th five-year Plan and the long-term goals for 2035. Among them, strengthening independent innovation and tackling key technologies of the card neck is the top priority, and the sensor is one of the goals of "card neck" technology. At the same time, the United States also recently announced the "key and emerging technology national strategy", high-end sensors ranked one of the 20 technologies in its technology strategy list. As the core component of information technology, small sensors have attracted wide attention.

At the scene of major science and technology exhibitions, the most popular among the audience is all kinds of robots represented by robot dogs that can jump freely. And maybe you don't know, behind the superb skills of these robots are inseparable from small sensors.

The Da Vinci surgical robot, an amazing soldier in the medical device industry, has more than 400 sensors; the famous Boston robot dog, which can turn and jump freely, needs more than 1300 sensors. Bosch's factory collaborative robot assistant APAS also has hundreds of sensors built in. It can be said that the digital pace of the whole world will rely on the support of sensor technology.

Some experts predict that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country's smart sensor industry will make major breakthroughs in technological innovation and industrial scale, design and manufacturing technology innovation capabilities will be greatly improved, and the industrial scale will exceed 100 billion yuan, becoming a support for the industrial Internet and A new basic industry for intelligent manufacturing.

The prospect is promising, but from a realistic point of view, as one of the core technologies of the digital economy, there are still obstacles to the industrialization of sensors that need to be broken. We should attach great importance to it from a strategic perspective, and use sensors as a starting point to overcome the key technology of "stuck neck". Has become more urgent.

1. strategic positioning needs to be reconsidered

       What is a sensor?

Sensors are the source of data collection, and they are everywhere. The situational awareness required at the forefront of intelligence basically starts with sensors. Whether it is smart manufacturing, smart cities, smart medical care, etc., or smart devices and big data analysis, no matter how large the smart system is, it must start from the tip of the sensor.

Talking about the importance of sensors, Guo Yuansheng, deputy director of the Central Science and Technology Committee of the Jiu San Society and vice chairman of the China Sensor and Internet of Things Industry Alliance, said in an interview with a reporter from the People's Political Consultative Conference that if a person is regarded as a complete information system, then The information that the facial features and skin interact with the outside world is "data information", and the sensory organ is the data acquisition device, which is the core of data acquisition. In reality, the corresponding physical device is the sensor product, so the sensor is also called "electronic five senses"; 5G and other communication technologies are called the human nervous system; the computer is called the human brain, responsible for and undertake data processing functions.

The information technology is composed of three technologies: perception, transmission and processing, namely, computer technology, communication technology and sensor technology. The hardware of information system is composed of three technologies plus information storage, feedback and execution, and the information transmitted in the whole system is "data". The "report card" of China's economy in the third quarter has just been released. Among them, the growth rate of the information industry is outstanding. It can be predicted that the information industry will become one of the important driving forces of China's economic growth in the future. At the same time, of the 22 technologies announced by the United States that are critical to the country's long-term security and economic prosperity, 6 are directly related to sensor technology. Thus, the importance of the sensor is self-evident.

　　 However, the development of local sensors in China is still not optimistic.

Lai Hongbo, an associate professor at the School of Management of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and a special researcher at the Yangtze River Sankei Think Tank of Nanjing University, said that compared with the more than 20000 product varieties produced in the world, China can only produce about 1/3 of them, and the overall technical content is also low. At the same time, the domestic sensor market demand is tens of billions of yuan, and the annual import value is not less than 170 billion yuan. More than 95% of the market share of sensors such as automobiles or scientific instruments is in the hands of foreign-funded enterprises.

"in order to truly achieve great stride development during the 14th five-year Plan period, sensors should be upgraded to the height of national strategy for re-understanding, so that value can return and receive its due attention." Guo Yuansheng believes that "like supporting integrated circuits and display technology, the strategic position of sensors should be highlighted in the national strategic planning, and corresponding supporting policies, such as special support, tax relief, market access, etc., should be given continuous support to make up for the lack of industrial technology and policies, and strive to achieve high-quality development of the sensor industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period."

2. accurately break the problem from the industrial system and chain.