Electronics

Sensor is the entrance of data acquisition, and also the foundation and core of big data analysis. In recent years, with the deepening application of AIOT in various fields, the global data volume has shown explosive growth, which has greatly promoted the demand for smart sensors.

Recently, according to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, Guo Guiliang, CEO of the leading environmental sensor manufacturer in China, discussed the current development of China Science and Technology Galaxy Core and its prospects for the future development of the industry in the context of the rapid development of domestic sensors in the AIOT era.

The annual shipment of temperature sensors has exceeded ten million, which can realize the PIN to PIN replacement of similar products of Texas Instruments.

According to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Zhongke Galaxy Chip, founded in 2018, is a medium and high-end environmental sensor chip provider, focusing on the research and development and sales of chips such as temperature, humidity, moisture, pressure, single bus, signal conditioning, etc. The products are widely used in automotive electronics, industrial control, white appliances, consumer electronics, smart agriculture, the Internet of Things and other fields. At present, the sales have reached nearly 100 million yuan.

Our company was incubated in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the start-up team actually began to take shape in 2010. As early as 2014, our team developed the first distributed temperature sensor in China. On this basis, we began to research and develop high-precision temperature products in 2015, and achieved the success of the first high-precision temperature sensor product in 2017. Huacheng's import and export data were observed and reported.

Guo Guiliang told reporters that in order to commercialize the product, we established Zhongke Galaxy Core Company in 2018. So far, we have formed more than 50 products in three series: temperature sensor, temperature and humidity sensor and single bus, and the annual shipment has reached tens of millions.

In terms of temperature sensors, Zhongke Galaxy Core has a relatively complete product line at present. The series products covering single-wire, two-wire and three-wire interfaces have achieved mass production and delivery, and have been at the leading level in the industry in terms of temperature measurement range, accuracy, speed, power consumption and other technical indicators.

Specifically, the company's single-line temperature sensor has a temperature measurement accuracy range of ± 0.6 ℃ - 0.1 ℃, a resolution of up to 14bit, a temperature measurement speed of up to 2ms, and a power consumption of less than 1uA, which has the highest standard electrostatic protection capability in the industry. Due to the characteristics of large-area multi-point distributed temperature measurement, it can be widely used in intelligent grain storage, industrial temperature measurement, flue-cured tobacco industry, drug storage, power grid, medical equipment and other industries with high temperature requirements; The packaging size of the 2/3-wire interface temperature sensor chip series products can be as small as 1.8 * 1.3 mm, the conversion speed can be as fast as 2 ms, the temperature measurement range is between - 55 ℃~+150 ℃, the temperature accuracy is from ± 0.1 ℃ to ± 1 ℃, and the average power consumption is only 1 uA, which can meet the requirements of different communication modes and communication speeds. At present, it has also been widely used in various scenarios with temperature measurement needs, such as industrial and consumer categories. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Taking GX112, a high-precision and fast temperature measurement digital temperature sensor chip, as an example, this product can provide 12-bit high-precision digital temperature output through I2C/SMBus interface, and the fastest temperature conversion speed is 26ms. In addition, the product also supports fully calibrated digital output, with typical accuracy of ± 0.5 ℃, wide temperature measurement range of - 55 ℃~150 ℃, conversion current of 7uA, and static current of less than 1uA. In terms of product performance, PIN TO PIN can completely replace TMP112 products of Texas Instruments.

Guo Guiliang said: The temperature sensor is a product line that our company has focused on since its establishment in 2018. At present, it has developed rapidly. For the needs of different fields, we have developed more than 30 temperature sensors with digital analog interfaces. In the field of intelligent grain storage, our main product is GX1820, and now we have become the first in China; In the field of industry, we have mass-produced low cost and high speed GX1832 series products, and have realized batch shipment in the subdivided fields such as industrial probes; In addition, we also have GX75C series applied in the server field, GS51 series with remote and local temperature measurement, and other products, which have also been shipped on a large scale. In terms of sales volume, in 2021, the sales volume of 7 A-level suppliers (such as Huamai, Kexin, Shuoren, etc.), State Grid and Xiaomi Eco-chain, etc. in CSF has exceeded ten million.

Temperature and humidity sensors have been applied in batches in smart home and other fields, and the single bus series chips are in short supply, forming a good reputation in the industry. With the continuous improvement of living standards, people are more and more aware of the impact of external humidity environment on individual physical and mental health, and will further expand the focus on temperature to the field of temperature and humidity.

As humidity and temperature indicators are closely related to people's lives, they are often considered together. Therefore, temperature and humidity integrated sensors came into being and have been introduced into monitoring applications in all walks of life. Such as air conditioners, refrigerators, humidifiers, air purifiers and other household appliances, testing and detection equipment, various warehouses, automobiles, cold chain vehicles, incubated poultry and other related humidity detection and control fields. In the future, with the progress and development of technology, temperature and humidity sensors are expected to improve in the direction of high precision, multi-function and high stability, and will also have a broader prospect in the fields of industry, electronic communications and the Internet of Things. Guo Guiliang said.

Since the beginning of research and development in 2018, through the development process of finalization, mass production, serialization, etc., at present, Zhongke Galaxy Core has formed GXHT30, GXHT31, GXHT3L, GXHTC3, GXHT3W, GXHT30A, GXHT01 and other products supporting I2C and single-bus interface standards, temperature accuracy from ± 0.1 ℃ to ± 0.5 ℃, humidity accuracy error from ± 5% RH to ± 1.8% RH on the temperature and humidity sensor product line, It can meet various temperature and humidity measurement needs of users in different fields.

Taking GXHT30 as an example, this product is a sensor with high-precision integrated temperature and humidity. The fastest communication speed through I2C interface can reach 1MHz. The temperature measurement range that can be supported is - 45 ℃~+130 ℃, and the typical temperature accuracy is ± 0.3 ℃; The humidity measurement range that can be provided is 0-100% RH, and the typical humidity accuracy is ± 3% RH; In addition, at 16-bit resolution, the fastest temperature conversion speed of the product is 2.5ms, and the power consumption is extremely low. The power consumption under static current is only 150nA, and the package size is only 2.5mm * 2.5mm * 0.9mm/2mm * 2mm * 0.75mm. In addition, it also has the functions of hardware alarm, address selection, conversion speed selection, etc.

The temperature and humidity sensor is the product line that we have focused on in the past two years. Because temperature and humidity need to compensate each other, we can integrate it on a single chip to achieve the advantages of small size, high precision, fast speed, low power consumption, and strong consistency.

Guo Guiliang pointed out that this series of products has been relatively complete since its development, of which GXHT30 is mainly used in industries and household appliances with high reliability requirements, GXHTC3 is mainly used in consumer electronics and other fields with high performance-price ratio requirements, and GXHT3W is a product specially designed for the field of intelligent grain storage. It uses single-wire technology, which can hang dozens or even hundreds of temperature and humidity sensors on a bus, It is very suitable for the large-scale, multi-point measurement application of granary. At present, our products have passed various tests and will be widely used in the field of China Grain Storage in the future.

It is worth mentioning that in the past two years, the inventory of similar products of single bus memory chips of international brands is running short, and there are few domestic replaceable products. In this context, with the endorsement of hard-core technology, Zhongke Galaxy Core has independently developed electronic label chips, single-bus storage, encryption and authentication chips, switch chips, interface chips and other products, gradually moving towards import substitution.

Guo Guiliang said: The company's single bus chip adopts a highly reliable technology, and basically realizes localization from design, chip, packaging to testing, which can replace the similar products of overseas large manufacturer Meixin. With good performance and reputation, our products have been exported to Italy, Germany, the United States and other countries, and the supply of products is in short supply. Many customers have given us an order plan one year in advance. At present, this series has achieved batch shipment in the fields of intelligent optical fiber ODN equipment, printer cartridges, hand knives, encryption and authentication.

Based on technology, relying on the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it has gradually developed into a top temperature/temperature and humidity sensor supplier in China. The sensor is a device that can sense the specified measured signal and convert it into usable output signal according to certain rules. It is a bridge between the physical world and the digital world.

In recent years, driven by the continuous demand of intelligent and digital markets in automobile, industrial automation, medical, environmental protection, consumption and other fields, sensors have gradually developed from traditional to intelligent, and the market scale has also been expanding. According to the data of CCID Consulting, in 2020, the global sensor market size will reach US $160.63 billion, of which the smart sensor market size will reach US $35.81 billion, accounting for 22.3% of the total size; According to its forecast, by 2023, the global sensor and global smart sensor market will reach 203.22 billion US dollars and 48.72 billion US dollars respectively.

In the temperature sensor market, the continuous growth of demand in smart wear and healthcare industries has driven the expansion of the temperature sensor market. According to the data of Markets and Markets, the global temperature sensor market size is expected to grow from $5.9 billion in 2021 to $8 billion in 2028, with a CAGR of 4.5% in the next seven years.

From the perspective of working principle, since the sensor mainly converts the detected sound, light, temperature, humidity and other measured information into electrical signals or other required forms for information output according to certain rules, it is essentially within the scope of analog chips. Therefore, at present, the main players in the industry are still mainly head simulation manufacturers such as TI, ADI (MAXIM), ST and Microchip, and the competition pattern is relatively stable. Among them, TI, ST, ADI (MAXIM) have great advantages in the field of temperature sensors, while Sheng Sirui, Tyco TE, TI and other humidity sensors are at the leading level in the industry.

Although China is the largest consumer market of sensors, at present, the domestic medium and high-end sensor market is mainly monopolized by manufacturers such as TI, ADI, Sheng Sirui, Tyco TE, etc. The domestic self-sufficiency rate is still low, and there is no absolute leader. Therefore, this gives our domestic manufacturers a huge space for localization.

With regard to the current development status of the sensor industry, Guo Guiliang analyzed that compared with other manufacturers, our company is more focused on technology, making a breakthrough from the temperature sensor that we are best at, reaching the international level, and then further expanding to the temperature and humidity, and finally to the pressure and other sensor chip fields. At present, our temperature sensor in the field of intelligent grain storage has broken the monopoly of international manufacturers such as MAXIM, and our market share in this segment has exceeded 50%. In addition, in the field of temperature and humidity sensors, we have also been shipping on a large scale. In terms of performance, we can completely replace the products of the same type of Swiss Censor. At present, our market share in this field has also ranked in the forefront of the industry.

As a company incubating and growing in the Chinese Academy of Sciences system, since its establishment, China Science Galaxy Core has continuously obtained the support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Microelectronics, China Science and Technology Innovation Star, Chinese Academy of Sciences Venture Capital and other capital under the Chinese Academy of Sciences system in the seed round, angel round, Pre-A round and A round, and has recently completed the B-round financing of industrial capital such as Xiaomi Group and Changfa. According to Guo Guiliang, in the future, the company will mainly introduce more strategic investors with high degree of synergy with the company's development, such as automobiles, home appliances and the Internet of Things, based on the company's current market application.

Guo Guiliang said: Our team is mainly from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is a technology-based company. At present, the R&D investment of the company in the past two years accounts for nearly 60% of the company's revenue. The R&D focus is mainly on higher precision, higher reliability, higher temperature and humidity sensor chips and other analog chips. In addition, we are also focusing on the layout and investment of temperature, temperature and humidity sensors in the fields of intelligent cockpit, battery, air conditioner, camera, etc. of automotive electronics. We believe that this will become a very important market for us in the future. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

After entering the IoT era, the explosion of demand for information collection has led to the rapid development of the entire sensor market. For China's sensor industry, although a complete system from R&D, production to application has been initially formed, there is still a gap with the international advanced level, and high-end sensors are heavily dependent on imports.

With temperature sensor as the entry point, and constantly expanding its capability boundary, China Galaxy Core has formed three core business product lines with temperature sensor, temperature and humidity sensor and single bus product as the core. In the future, the company is expected to gradually develop into a top domestic supplier of medium and high-end sensor products while replacing the products of large foreign manufacturers.