Bosch Sensortec to solve the three barriers of MEMS sensors - Database & Sql Blog Articles

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The three levels of MEMS sensors to be overcome, Bosch Sensortec to resolve

"Consumer MEMS will face three major challenges in 2017." At a recent press conference, Leopold Beer, president of Bosch Sensortec Asia Pacific, pointed out.

The first challenge is the sluggish smartphone MEMS market, and the competition is still very intense. Today, the biggest market for MEMS is still the smartphone market. But now the growth of the market has entered a stagnant phase. However, due to the large market share of smartphones, new and old MEMS manufacturers are still attracted to enter the Red Sea, and their competitors are increasing.

The second challenge is the slow launch of new applications, with smaller market shipments and high levels of fragmentation. Emerging applications such as wearable products, market demand has not yet come up, the entire application situation is still very scattered. And customers are very targeted to wearable applications. For MEMS vendors, investing in innovation and application development in the field of wearable applications requires very large R&D resources.

The third challenge is that customers' acceptance of MEMS or consumer semiconductor innovation applications needs to be improved, but if they are to invest in innovative applications, they will face very large uncertainties, including uncertainty in the entire market and immature technology. Technical risks, etc.

Faced with these three challenges, Bosch Sensortec's response was first to transform the business model and begin to provide solutions to customers. Current Bosch

Sensortec is no longer the most basic component supplier, but integrates DSP, microcontroller, etc., combined with Bosch Sensortec's own software algorithms and application algorithms, and finally presents a solution.

Secondly, Bosch Sensortec began to focus on the implementation of the application, providing customers with a dedicated solution. For example, environmental sensors are no longer just a single sensor with simple temperature and humidity, but an integrated environmental unit that is versatile. Bosch Sensortec's BME680 is the first four-in-one sensor that combines air pressure, ambient temperature, relative humidity and VOC gas content in the air, and integrates these sensors into a small package of 3 mm x 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 client applications.

Finally, Bosch Sensortec began to shape new markets with technological innovation. For example, the magic of smart phones is the ability to display and touch controls, but the same user interface of screen touch also constrains the development of the market. To this end, Bosch Sensortec has introduced the MEMS scanner BML050 for interactive laser projection applications, which not only enables focus-free laser projection display of products such as smartphones, but also converts all surfaces into virtual gesture user interfaces. With the introduction of the BML050, Bosch Sensortec has also expanded its current product range to the field of optical microsystems.

Bosch Sensortec currently has a complete line of MEMS products. The first category is inertial sensors, ranging from accelerometers, gyroscopes, electronic sensors, to inertial measurement units, electronic compass products, to a nine-axis complete solution that integrates accelerometers, gyroscopes, and electronic sensors into the same chip. . The second category is environmental sensors, including air pressure sensors, humidity sensors, and all-in-one integrated environmental sensors. The third category is smart sensors, mainly ASSN (sensor nodes) and smart hub products. The fourth category is optical sensors. The fifth category is acoustic sensors.

Jeanne Forget, vice president of marketing for Bosch Sensortec's wholly-owned subsidiary, pointed out that Bosch will follow three strategies in the future development of sensor technology to maintain its leading position in the industry. First, the size and power consumption are reduced evenly, and the sensor footprint is continuously reduced. Second, the integration integration is enhanced, and the micro-control processor, multi-axis sensor and software are integrated into the combined package, and an optimized algorithm is provided for the customer to apply quickly. Third, the development of new sensor clusters based on different categories of sensors.

In 2015, Bosch's head office achieved sales of 70.6 billion euros. Of these, 59% came from mobile device solutions and 41% from industrial technology, energy construction and consumer products. Geographically, 53% of the sales share comes from Europe, 27% of the sales share comes from Asia, and 20% of the sales share comes from the Americas.