In recent years, with the rise of autonomous driving, Industry 4.0 , and smart healthcare, sensor applications in the three emerging markets of automotive, industrial, and medical have grown rapidly. Especially in industrial equipment automation applications, sensors serve as the eyes and ears of automatic control systems. Examples include temperature and humidity sensors that monitor and adjust air conditioning operation, infrared sensors that detect hotspots, and CMOS sensors that detect images. Furthermore, due to the differences in the attributes and needs of each manufacturing industry, customization will inevitably become a trend in sensor applications.
Compared to the consistently stable demand for sensors in consumer electronics, the emerging sensor markets of automotive, industrial, and medical have become key targets for collaboration between component manufacturers, application and equipment suppliers in recent years due to their broad cross-disciplinary knowledge requirements. Unlike consumer electronics, which focuses on inertial components, these three emerging markets encompass a wide range of sensing fields and require a high degree of cross-disciplinary cooperation, resulting in more differentiated and irreplaceable solutions.
Unlike the automotive market, which has a single application, industrial market applications are more fragmented and scattered. In addition, each manufacturing industry has different characteristics, resulting in different solutions.
Despite their different industrial attributes, most factories include four processes: machine processing, assembly, testing, and logistics. Each process has different needs for sensing technology.
For example, in the machining process, the most popular topic right now is equipment diagnostics. Among them, accelerometers can help detect abnormal vibrations, while temperature sensors can be used to detect abnormal temperature differences or overheating of the machine.
In the assembly process, the most obvious application of sensors is in robotic arms. In the past, robotic arms were only used to move things. In the future, in order to assemble, they will need accelerometers for grasping, gyroscopes for rotation, and even torque sensors if the robot is to tighten screws.
In the inspection process, optical sensors are now widely used in the semiconductor, panel, and circuit board industries to help identify defects in packaged products that are invisible to the human eye. A more recent example is wearable glasses entering the factory. This device combines three sensors—a microphone, an accelerometer, and 3D vision—to detect thermal variations in the equipment and determine if there are signs of malfunction in the parts.
Furthermore, some manufacturers are discussing making future inspection processes increasingly intelligent. Previously, inspectors had to go to the server room to read meters and then perform related checks. Now, if wearable glasses can integrate virtual and real data, labor costs can be significantly reduced, with image sensing technology playing a crucial role. In logistics, for example, in AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) transport vehicles, infrared sensors or magnetometers can be used to automatically detect direction.
