Currently, my country's Panasonic sensor industry is at a crucial stage of development, transitioning from traditional to new types of sensors. This reflects the general trend of new sensors towards miniaturization, multifunctionality, digitalization, intelligence, systematization, and networking. In the process of industrializing sensor production, my country should balance the introduction of foreign technology with independent innovation. Introducing advanced foreign technology can improve our own technology while simultaneously meeting domestic market demands, thus forming a large-scale sensor production industry. The future development prospects of China's sensor industry and market can be summarized as follows:
1. Accelerating the formation of a vertically integrated industrial development model from sensor research and development to large-scale production, pursuing a leapfrog development path combining independent innovation and international cooperation, enabling my country to enter the ranks of the world's major sensor producers as soon as possible.
2. The sensor product structure will develop towards comprehensiveness, coordination, and sustainability. Based on market demand, it is essential to both strengthen the development of new sensors and improve the quality and output of traditional sensors. Product diversification should prioritize investment-oriented products, especially those filling market gaps, thereby ensuring an appropriate proportion of sensor categories and varieties, forming a new product structure that is "alternating between old and new, combining short-term and long-term needs, comprehensive in variety, and meets all demands."
3. Enterprise production (annual production capacity) should move towards economies of scale or a suitable scale. The practice of large-scale production technology demonstrates that economies of scale bring benefits. Considering the future use of advanced production technologies and market expansion, the production scale of widely used general-purpose sensors will be measured in hundreds of millions of units per year, while the production scale of some mid-range sensors will be measured in 10 million units per year; and the production scale of some high-end and specialized sensors will be measured in tens to millions of units per year. Achieving economies of scale will minimize production costs, thereby enabling the commercialization of inexpensive sensors.
4. Production patterns are developing towards specialization. Specialized production encompasses: producing fewer but more refined sensor categories; specializing in a particular type of sensor series for a specific application area to achieve a higher market share; and specialized collaborative production among sensor companies, effectively avoiding the "large and comprehensive" approach within enterprises and improving economic efficiency.
5. Sensor mass production technology is developing towards automation. The diverse categories and varieties of sensors, along with the varying sensitive materials used, determine the diversity and complexity of sensor manufacturing technology. Looking at the current state of sensor production lines (including various imported sensor lines), production technology levels vary. While most processes have achieved single-machine automation, many difficulties remain in achieving full-process automation. Packaging and testing/calibration (which account for approximately 30%–50% of product costs) are key technologies for automated mass production of sensors, requiring breakthroughs through the widespread adoption of CAD (Computer-Aided Design), CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing), advanced automated equipment, and industrial robots.
6. Enterprises should focus on shifting their technological transformation from reliance on imported technology to assimilating, absorbing, and innovating upon imported technologies. Independent innovation should be considered the foundation of the enterprise.
7. Enterprise operations should accelerate their shift from primarily focusing on the domestic market to an international approach combining both domestic and international markets.
8. Enterprise structure will evolve towards a pattern of "large, medium, and small enterprises coexisting" and "group-based and specialized production coexisting." Large group companies (including multinational corporations operating overseas) will increasingly demonstrate their monopolistic role, while specialized small and medium-sized enterprises, capable of adapting to the market demand for small-volume products, will still have room for survival and development.
