Peak Forum: Minshen Shares: Inertial Sensors Have Great Potential in the Context of the Development of Smart Sensing and the Internet of Things

High-end inertial sensing is involved in numerous national core and emerging market areas, including national defense, military industry, and industrial manufacturing, making its independent development and domestic production self-evident. As a pioneer in China's MEMS industry, Minsin has silently explored a benchmark path towards full-industry-chain domestic production and fully independent source code through years of technological accumulation, quality management, and production practices.

At the Smart Sensing and Internet of Things Innovation Application Development Summit Forum held in Xi'an, Shaanxi on the 23rd, Zhang Chenliang, Deputy General Manager of Minsin Co., Ltd. delivered a keynote speech titled "New Market Applications of Inertial Sensors," which profoundly elaborated on the wide-ranging and significant applications of inertial sensors in new markets against the backdrop of the rapid development of the smart sensing and Internet of Things industries.

This conference, themed "Industrial Chain Synergy, Hard Technology Leadership, Building a New Ecosystem for the Internet of Things Industry," focused on improving key links in the Internet of Things industry chain and aligning with the development needs of enterprises, serving as an important platform for communication and cooperation to promote the development of the Internet of Things industry. Representatives from the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, China Mobile Communications Group, Xi'an Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology, and over 300 enterprises attended the conference.

In his speech, Zhang Chenliang mentioned that the application fields of inertial sensors, ranging from industrial control, automotive electronics, high-end manufacturing, commercial aviation to national defense and military industry, exhibit characteristics of breadth, dispersion, and high-end technology. The increasing diversity of application scenarios, coupled with the diversification of product production technologies, will bring huge development opportunities for enterprises.

From the perspective of the market share of various MEMS products in China, MEMS inertial sensors account for over 30%. In terms of the market size of inertial sensor modules, a 2018 market survey by a French professional institution estimated it at 3.1 billion US dollars. With the rapid emergence of various emerging applications, the market demand for modules is continuously growing at a high speed, with a projected compound annual growth rate exceeding 22%.

Various MEMS inertial sensors and microprocessors integrated onto a single hardware platform form inertial sensor modules which, through sensor fusion algorithms, achieve the measurement of inertial data such as the object's posture, acceleration, and angular rate. Minsin Co., Ltd.'s inertial sensing series covers three products with different levels of integration. The hardware and software architectures are shown in the table below:

From a global perspective on industrial development, several leading companies have been able to achieve system-level nine-axis inertial sensor packaging and are gradually breaking through towards a "9+" direction, such as integrating nine-axis inertial sensors with gas, temperature, and humidity sensors. In comparison, most domestic products currently are only six-axis products, and there is still a gap in packaging size compared to international products.

MEMS technology is constantly evolving rapidly. Minsin's inertial sensor modules are making continuous breakthroughs in the field of integrated navigation. Through optimized hardware integration technology, the module, based on the proprietary MotionCore™ three-dimensional orthogonal packaging solution (granted a national invention patent), overcomes the shortcomings of large size, poor shock resistance, and high inter-axis crosstalk in current similar products, and features independent computing capabilities and strong scalability.

The west approach section of the Shanghai Nanpu Bridge connects to the main bridge deck at one end, descends spirally, and then connects to multiple main roads at the other end in a compound manner, with a vertical drop of 35 meters between the two ends. (Image source: Internet)

Zhang Chenliang stated that Minsin conducted extensive road tests in Shanghai, Wuxi, and Suzhou. To increase the difficulty, the technical team specifically chose the west approach section of the Shanghai Nanpu Bridge for testing. Ultimately, the height difference of the approach obtained through inertial sensing and specialized algorithms had an error of no more than 10%, or less than the height of a truck.

Zhang Chenliang also discussed the application prospects of inertial modules in areas such as "posture measurement," "agricultural unmanned driving & transportation," and "mine unmanned transportation & driving." In the future, with the continuous development of materials and manufacturing processes, MEMS sensors will inevitably develop towards miniaturization, high integration, and enhanced functionality, while costs will continue to decrease.

At the summit forum, leaders from the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, China Mobile Communications Group, and other organizations delivered speeches. Academician Shen Changxiang of the Chinese Academy of Engineering gave a speech titled "Building a Secure Foundation for the Internet of Things with Active Immune Trustworthy Computing." Experts, scholars, and enterprise representatives gave presentations on topics such as the application of Internet of Things technology in the Internet of Vehicles industry, the inertial sensor application market, the methods of digital twinning to assist in industrial equipment health management, and the application of smart sensors in smart cities, focusing on improving key links in the Internet of Things industry chain and promoting the development of China's Internet of Things industry.