ChineseWhether it is the "Industry 4.0" advocated by Germany, the "Industrial Internet" advocated by the United States, or the "intelligent manufacturing" of China's manufacturing industry, it has always been the information technology transformation of the third industrial revolution, and there is always an indispensable core key-"sensor".
Sensor: Another main battlefield for future information security cannot be ignored
In recent years, the global sensor industry has made a series of major breakthroughs and has been widely used in various fields such as social production and life, national defense construction, etc., leading a new round of scientific and technological industrial revolution, and its future industrial growth rate is expected to reach 30%.
Due to the lack of top-level design, scattered resources, weak basic research, lagging new materials research, lack of high-end talents, and low industrialization rate, most of my country's sensor industry belongs to "clone" products, and mid-to-high-end sensor products are almost 100% imported.
Sensors are another main battlefield for future information security and international manufacturing competition. If my country ignores this field, national defense, social and economic security will once again face severe challenges. It can be said that whoever masters the sensor, whoever masters the data, whoever holds the lifeblood of a country.
The next main battlefield of international competition
Sensors are the "core" of Made in China 2025. The construction of the cyber-physical space (CPS) in the United States cannot be separated from the support of sensors. The core of Germany's Industry 4.0 is to connect products, resources, machinery, and people through the "Internet of Things" to achieve end-to-end integrated intelligent manufacturing technology and intelligent production mode. This combination and interaction must also be achieved through sensors to collect information and automatically control.
The core of Made in China 2025 is the integration of industrialization and informationization, and the main direction is "intelligent manufacturing", which is the application of information technology in industry under the new situation. It is also through sensors that the data of the entire life cycle of products is collected, managed and interacted, greatly improving the quality, efficiency and product accuracy of industrial production. For example, automobile production lines are equipped with sensors as positioning and detection means, which monitor the operation status of the entire line in real time, greatly improve the level of automation, significantly improve assembly accuracy and production efficiency, and effectively control product quality.
Sensors are the core components of Germany's Industry 4.0. The future of manufacturing lies in data, and data comes from sensors. In 2013, the Fraunhofer Society, Siemens Group, and the German Academy of Engineering promoted the German Industry 4.0 strategy, introducing the concepts of industrial software and production control systems. The bottom-level basic application layer has a large number of sensors with perception and recognition embedded in it. These sensing components carry all the necessary information required for smart factories and intelligent production operations, collect various types of information such as temperature and humidity from the production environment, material ratios and processes of the production line, and distribution of intelligent logistics, providing necessary feedback for product design and iterative research and development, and integrating the entire production value chain. After entering Industry 4.0, companies such as Siemens will master important basic data of the manufacturing industry, reasonably judge the actual production situation and production needs of various products, master the future product strategies of other companies, and lead the development of the future manufacturing industry.
The domestic demand for sensors is huge. There are about 3.5 billion sensors in the world. In 2013, the global market value of sensors for consumer electronics was US$15.27 billion. In recent years, the scale of my country's sensor market has maintained a rapid growth rate of 15%. The sensor categories are basically complete. There are about 1,700 domestic sensor companies. In 2013, the scale of my country's sensor market exceeded 130 billion yuan. The 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Internet of Things proposed that during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the focus should be on breaking through the bottleneck of the development of the sensing manufacturing industry, improving sensing technology and transmission technology, and promoting the high-end development of sensors.
The 12th Five-Year Plan for China's Electronic Components also proposed to invest 500 billion yuan, providing a broad space for the development of sensors. In the next five years, the sensor industry will continue to maintain a high-speed growth trend. By 2015, the demand will reach nearly 20 billion units, and sales are expected to exceed 150 billion yuan, which will fully drive the development of related industries.
Sensors have gradually penetrated into various fields of national defense, social economy. With the deepening of a new round of scientific and technological and industrial revolutions, the application scope of sensors has become wider and wider, from traditional industrial and automotive electronic products, communication electronic products, consumer electronic products and other fields to military engineering, aerospace technology, medical, environmental protection, meteorology and other electronic equipment fields. Its application has penetrated into all walks of life in the national economy. Sensors used in new fields have occupied about 15% of the market share. At the same time, sensors have the characteristics of many varieties and small batches. According to incomplete statistics, there are 12 major categories, 42 minor categories, more than 6,000 varieties, and more than 20,000 specifications. There are many product specifications and scattered applications. For example, an ordinary family car needs to be installed with dozens to nearly a hundred sensors.
Sensors open the door to convenient information collection. While promoting industrial intelligence and digitalization, sensors may also become the key to open Pandora's box. It is very convenient to collect data and information through sensors, and due to the large quantity and wide range, it is difficult for my country to effectively control it. Information security faces new challenges and is in jeopardy. For example, a foreign engineering machinery equipment company exported to my country. The equipment has a large number of built-in sensors to record various information such as slope, ambient temperature and humidity, excavation weight, number of times, etc. during the operation of the equipment. By uploading it to the server for simple calculations, my country's geographic surveying and mapping data can be mastered, which seriously endangers national defense and economic security. Many foreign research institutions are studying the use of optical sensors of various types to extract emotions from your body and nervous system, and can understand the user's mood through facial recognition. In the future, wearable devices (such as Google Eyes) can record the user's location information and surrounding sound waves and image information through the placement of sensors. Foreign institutions can quickly grasp my country's social and economic data through this device.
Sensors are internationally monopolized, and my country is heavily dependent on imports. Global sensor resources are showing a trend of oligopoly-like aggregation. Foreign large companies dominate the sensor market. In recent years, international sensor giants represented by Honeywell, Siemens, ABB, etc. have joined forces to seize the high and low ends of sensors through mergers and acquisitions and international cooperation, and have accelerated the expansion from the high-end market to the mid- and low-end market. The monopoly trend is becoming increasingly apparent. Although there are many sensor companies in my country, most of them are small and micro enterprises with few core technologies and weak innovation capabilities. For example, China generally analyzes and maps foreign samples (prototypes), which is at best a little integrated innovation, basically "cloning", and new principle development and new device research and development are rare. The domestic sensor product series is incomplete, and a large number of high-end and high-precision products are imported. There is a large gap with foreign indicators such as measurement accuracy, temperature characteristics, response time, stability, and reliability. At present, imports of sensors account for 80%, and imports of sensor chips account for 90%. For example, high-precision, high-stability low-micro differential pressure sensors (range ≦1KPa), high differential pressure, high static pressure sensors (range ≧3MPa, static pressure ≧60MPa), China does not have the supply capacity yet, and basically relies on foreign imports.
Promote the one-stop plan for sensors
my country should promote the linkage between intelligent manufacturing projects and industrial base strengthening projects. Since 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has launched a special action for intelligent manufacturing, and has made breakthroughs in intelligent manufacturing projects as the main direction of "Made in China 2025", involving standards, projects, pilot demonstrations and other directions. The implementation of intelligent manufacturing projects, the popularization of digital factories, and the establishment of pilot demonstration workshops cannot be separated from the application of sensors. However, my country's own sensor technology level and industrial application capabilities are obviously insufficient, resulting in the promotion of intelligent manufacturing. A large number of foreign sensors have to be purchased.
my country should set up a sensor project in the industrial base strengthening project, focusing on solving the core problems in the implementation of my country's intelligent manufacturing; in the implementation of the intelligent manufacturing project, enterprises must apply more than 50% of the sensor products supported by the industrial base strengthening project and be included in the consortium; at the same time, support enterprises that have already carried out sensor industrial base strengthening breakthroughs, take the lead in formulating corresponding intelligent manufacturing industry standards, and use standards to drive the development of various fields. Through the linkage of these two major projects, the barriers from product breakthroughs to application can be broken through, and the maximum effect of special fiscal funds can be exerted.
In addition, the implementation of the industrial base strengthening project should be accelerated to implement chain breakthroughs. In 2013, my country launched the implementation of the industrial base strengthening project. In the past four years, the central government has invested only about 4.1 billion yuan, accounting for about 10% of the total investment, involving the ten key areas of "Made in China 2025", such as the new generation of information technology industry, high-end CNC machine tools and robots, and aerospace equipment, as well as several areas of concern to people's livelihood such as cultural supplies. The funds that can be invested in the sensor industry are even more insignificant, which is not very helpful in breaking through the bottleneck of sensor security.
Sensor technology is intensive and the industry is difficult. High-intensity and continuous investment is required in R&D, engineering and large-scale production. It is recommended that the country strengthen top-level design, increase investment in special funds for industrial base strengthening, implement rolling investment, implement chain breakthroughs around sensitive materials, optical glass, MEMS technology, inspection and testing, talent training, etc., drive the development of sensors with host machines, and strive to break through the constraints of sensors within 5 to 10 years to ensure my country's national defense and social and economic security.
At the same time, my country should explore the establishment of a national sensor innovation center to make up for the lack of a common technology system. Jointly funded by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, the industrial fund model is adopted to introduce social capital, bring together resources from manufacturing companies, universities, research institutes, national laboratories and non-profit organizations, and establish a national sensor innovation center for researchers, companies, and intermediaries to jointly develop and industrialize technology, forming an effective connection chain to solve common technical problems in the industry. In accordance with the development trend of miniaturization, systematization and passivity, we will focus on material and technology research and development, process design, vocational skills training, industrialization and large-scale production, gradually cultivate large-scale enterprise groups with international competitiveness, improve the level of localization, and get rid of the unfavorable situation that our country's information security may once again be subject to the control of others.