As the core component of the automobile, the sensor is widely used in the fields of powertrain, chassis, body system and so on.
It monitors and transmits the vehicle status information from time to time, which plays a vital role in improving vehicle performance and ensuring safety.
Especially for intelligent electric vehicles, the dependence on sensors is getting higher and higher, and the demand is rising rapidly, which not only leads to the competition of related enterprises to increase the layout, but also gives birth to new technological changes.
In terms of function, automobile sensors can be divided into two categories: body sensors and intelligent environment sensors.
traditional vehicles mainly involve body sensors.
according to the collected body state information, it is divided into temperature sensor, pressure sensor, speed sensor, current sensor, position sensor, optical sensor and so on.
Environmental sensors mainly include cameras, radar and so on.
Prior to this, traditional fuel vehicles are mainly related to body sensors such as temperature, pressure, angle and so on.
the arrival of the era of intelligent electric vehicles has brought subversive changes to the sensors in terms of quantity and technology: first of all, the number of bicycle sensors and the value of bicycles continue to increase.
From the intelligent point of view, the accelerated infiltration of air suspension, wire-controlled braking and electric power steering system will drive the growth of height sensors / accelerometers, position sensors, torque transducers, etc.
from the perspective of electrification, thermal management will drive the growth of current, pressure, temperature sensors and so on.
In addition, battery safety also needs to be monitored by additional sensors.
Secondly, the new smart components give rise to the upgrade of the car body sensor function.
Environmental sensors such as vehicle camera, lidar, millimeter wave radar and ultrasonic radar are new parts of intelligent vehicles, and the demand is increasing with the upgrading of intelligent driving.
We saw that the number of ultrasonic radars in the new car alone increased from the previous three to five, 12 or more.
Based on the increase of quantity and function, the automobile sensor market has shown explosive growth in recent years.
According to China International Capital Corporation’s calculation, China’s automotive sensor market is expected to reach 144.
9 billion yuan in 2026, with a compound growth rate of 26.
1% from 2021 to 2026.
Driven by technology, domestic and foreign enterprises accelerate the layout, new market growth opportunities, leading enterprises at home and abroad have accelerated layout, at the same time, many emerging enterprises have entered and made rapid development in a short period of time.
What is the specific situation, and how will the enterprise view the current situation of the automotive sensor market, the current situation of technology in subdivided fields and the future trend? During the recent SENSOR CHINA 2024 exhibition, Geshi visited some enterprises and communicated with relevant responsible persons to learn more about it.
● Tyco Electronics: opportunities outweigh challenges, and continue to expand the field of sensor applications.
As a giant in the sensor industry, Tyco Electronics has earlier made technical reserves in the aspects of automobile electrification and intelligence, and product research and development is developing in the direction of miniaturization, low power consumption, high precision, multi-dimension and integration.
During the exhibition, the company focused on showing the high-precision rotation sensor developed for the electric drive of new energy vehicles, which can accurately measure the phase angle of the motor.
At the same time, brake pressure sensors for electronic hydraulic braking systems (EHB) as well as seat position sensors and brake light sensors for safety applications are also on display.
In addition, according to Dai Bin, director of sales and marketing of Tyco Electronic Sensor Division in China, the company is also exploring other areas at the same time, such as wire chassis, and there are already products in pre-research, testing, and even mass production.
smart cockpit applications, including safety-related seat sensor applications, have also begun to layout corresponding products.
“many technologies of sensors can be extended, although the application may be different, but the basic technology is the same.
TE sensors have 9 categories and 32 subclasses of core sensing technology, which can be quickly extended to more applications.
” Dai Bin said.
Talking about his views on the current car market, Dai Bin said: “China’s new energy vehicles are the most active in the world, and the market is very large.
” We often say that challenges are opportunities.
With the accelerated iteration of end products, the customer’s product development cycle will continue to shorten, and product iterations will be faster, which means that customers will give us more and more opportunities for new projects.
” With regard to the growing price war in the market, Dai Bin pointed out that cost optimization can bring direct benefits to users, but technology can bring long-term benefits to customers.
How to make breakthroughs in technological innovation to make sensors give cars stronger performance and higher safety factor is the meaning of “volume”.
● Nanxin Micro: business acceleration, domestic and foreign market strength, as a leading domestic high-performance and high reliability analog and mixed signal chip company, Nanxin Micro has grown rapidly in recent years.
According to the corporate financial report, the shipments of Nanxin micro-car chips exceeded 100 million in 2022, reached 164 million in 2023, and more than 133 million in the first half of 2024 alone.
In terms of sensor business, Nanxin Micro mainly focuses on magnetic sensors, pressure sensors and temperature and humidity sensors, covering automotive powertrain systems, automotive thermal management systems, domain control systems, body electronics and intelligent cockpits.
During the exhibition, the company brought a number of innovative products, such as magnetic sensors, showing a high-bandwidth integrated current path current sensor NSM211x, as well as a new series of magnetic switches (NSM101x series, NSM105x series, NSM107x series), including programmable gauge switches, ultra-low power TMR switches, etc.
In addition, it has also launched new pressure sensors to help automobile companies meet the sixth national regulations, namely, the NSPAS5N series absolute pressure sensors that perform well in corrosion-resistant environments, and the NSPGL1 series of gauge-level integrated differential pressure sensors that are highly competitive in fuel steam applications.
Zhao Jia, director of Naxin’s micro product line, pointed out in an interview with Galaxy that the company’s rapid growth is mainly due to the following two aspects: first, the emergence of market opportunity points and the trend of chip localization.
second, the company’s long-term innovation and research and development in technology and products, released the right product at the right time, grabbed the first opportunity.
It is understood that the company’s total R & D investment in 2023 reached 520 million yuan, accounting for nearly 40% of the turnover.
At the same time, Zhao Jia also said bluntly that enterprises are also facing the challenge of fierce competition in the automobile industry.
It mainly includes the following two aspects: first, at the product level, today’s automotive architecture is becoming more and more complex, which givesThe product definition and innovation of chip companies pose a lot of challenges.
In the face of the rapidly changing market demand, we not only need to have a strong product research and development capability, but also must keep up with the trend of system application.
Take the sensor category as an example, now the customer requirements for the sensor category, first, the accuracy is getting higher and higher, second, the performance of the product is getting better and better, and third, even more functional safety of redundant design.
If it is only a single requirement, it can effectively deal with it for enterprises, but when chip companies need to meet many of the above requirements at the same time, not only to do a good job of products, but also to control costs, it will indeed feel greater pressure.
Secondly, customers’ system applications are iterating rapidly, and enterprises need to constantly strengthen their understanding of customer system applications and provide customers with solutions and products that can really solve their pain points.
Only by continuously providing customers with better-than-expected products and service experience, can we gain an advantage in the fierce market competition.
In order to enhance its competitiveness, in addition to strengthening product research and development, Naxinwei is also constantly building core competencies and improving the overall competitiveness of the company, such as continuously building a quality management system, strengthening cost control capabilities, building talent echelons, building platform technology IP, and so on.
” Zhao Jia said.
In addition, the continuous expansion of product applications is also being brought into the scope of nano-core micro-consideration, such as the hot humanoid robot in recent years, low-altitude economy, AI sensing and other fields.
Overseas market is also an important business development point of the company at present, it is understood that Naxin has established subsidiaries in Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
In the first half of 2024, about 15% of the company’s revenue already comes from overseas markets.
“We see that without exception, the world’s leading chip companies must have the ability to operate the global market, rather than relying on operating a single regional market to become a global leader.
Based on this judgment, Naxinwei firmly made the strategic choice of globalization a few years ago.
” Zhao Jia added.
● Suzhou Yiboda: strengthen superior products and practice internal skills.
Suzhou Yiboda was founded in 2021, focusing on the design, manufacture, closed testing and multi-sensor fusion system integration of MEMS.
Although it has not been established for a long time, the company has made rapid progress in product research and development, and its products such as accelerometer, gyroscope, inertia measurement unit (IMU), high-precision integrated navigation and positioning system, VRU inclination sensor / NSG north finder can be used in autopilot and auxiliary driving systems, electronic stability control systems, anti-lock braking systems and airbag ejection systems, which have been recognized by the market.
There are high technical barriers to high-precision MEMS inertial sensors, which face many technical challenges from product design to manufacturing technology, as well as process stability.
After a long period of running-in and iterative improvement, the company has successfully overcome these technical problems and developed high-precision accelerometers and gyroscope chips.
” Yiboda sales director Tang Huhai said.
With regard to the current hot spot of technology-multi-sensor fusion, Tang Huhai pointed out that sensors are developing in the direction of technology fusion and innovation, application expansion, intelligence, standardization, and strengthening data security and privacy protection.
These trends promote the wide application and popularization of sensor fusion technology.
For technology start-ups, the most important thing is to practice their internal skills, strengthen technology research and development, and improve their competitiveness and anti-risk ability.
“No matter how the market changes, every company should have its own core competitiveness, and we should practice our internal skills and do a good job in the core accelerometer and gyroscope chips.
Because the product has the corresponding technical threshold, there are not many domestic manufacturers in the market at present, so we should seize the opportunity.
” ● Dongchao Science and Technology: the sword is on the wrong side, and aerial imaging technology has landed.
Anhui Dongchao Science and Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2016, focusing on aerial imaging technology.
At present, the interactive aerial levitation imaging technology of the department has landed in the automotive field, which can be arranged above and below the center console, the back of the front seat, the back of the rear central handrail and the side of the door handle, which can be both imaging and delivered.
Such as the car wizard suspended in front of the central control, users can interact with it, including voice interaction, click interaction, gesture interaction and so on.
Scenes that need to be displayed or interacted in principle may be replaced by interactive aerial levitation imaging.
” Liu Hong, head of Dongchao Science and Technology Supervision Center, said.
As to whether the instruction will be delayed, Liu Hong pointed out that the unilateral infrared sensor used in imaging is different from the gesture interaction of the depth camera, the latter requires a certain amount of calculation, while the former has a very small amount of calculation and high positioning accuracy.
Almost zero delay.
As for the cost, Liu Hong pointed out that aerial imaging currently involves fewer enterprises, and the price is not very volume for the time being, mainly volume technology: first, the positioning accuracy should be high and the scanning frequency should be high.
Second, the imaging quality of the lens should be high.
It is understood that Dongchao Science and Technology is jointly developing all-series vehicle products with more than a dozen main engine factories, and a number of new energy vehicles equipped with floating digital elves have been put into production, with an estimated annual output of 30-500000 units.
From the above point of view, the technological change of the automobile industry has brought new opportunities to the sensor industry, changed the market pattern, and promoted technological breakthroughs at the same time.
Both domestic and foreign giants and new entrants are gradually broadening the market and channels on the basis of continuous intensive cultivation and subdivision of fields and increasing technological innovation.
In the overall torrent environment, the sensor market will usher in a new bloom.
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