Since the 21 century, humanity has fully entered the information age, setting off a new wave of informatization with distinct era characteristics and practical significance. The deep integration of information technology with traditional industries has become an industrial revolution led by technological innovation and aimed at application, laying a solid foundation for the structural adjustment and transformation/upgrading of traditional industries, and providing broad market space and development opportunities. Through innovation, a period of major industrial transformation has formed and emerged, based on numerous advanced technologies such as digital technology, the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, 3D and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, new materials, and "Internet Plus", featuring cross-industry and cross-field multi-industry collaboration, mutual penetration across regions, fields, industries, and daily life, deeper integration of industry and capital, and market application-driven changes.

Information technology is the general term for technologies that collect, manage, and process information; it is ordered data processing technology built on hardware foundations. It mainly includes sensing technology, computer technology, and communication technology. An information system is an integrated whole of input, storage, processing, output, and control hardware and software, forming a human-machine integrated system aimed at processing information flows. The development of information technology has played an important role in the progress of people and society and in economic development, bringing huge impacts and changes to people's concepts and lifestyles, and producing profound influences. At the same time, it has played a positive role in changing production methods and improving productivity levels. Measuring a country's level of informatization by the degree of information technology application has become an important indicator reflecting its comprehensive national strength.

Sensors are the foundation and core of innovative development

Sensors, computers, and communications are known as the three pillars of information systems. The quality of sensor technology has become an important indicator of a country's scientific and technological level and whether it holds a commanding height in international strategic competition; it is a core foundational technology highly valued and competitively developed by developed countries. Sensors are widely used in various fields of the national economy, national defense, and scientific research, including metallurgy, petroleum, chemical industry, electric power, transportation, water conservancy, new energy, electronics, environmental protection, home appliances, aerospace, aviation, and military weaponry and equipment. They concern and influence technological innovation as well as national defense, economic, and social security, playing an important role in current industrial structure adjustment and transformation/upgrading, and holding significant strategic importance for occupying the commanding heights of strategic emerging industries.

Americans believe that as humanity entered the 21 century and fully stepped into the information age, in a certain sense, it entered the sensor age. Sensors, communications, and computers are called the three pillars of modern information systems. The development and application of sensor technology have become an important indicator of a country's level of informatization, as well as an important indicator of its level of scientific and technological development. The sensor industry is publicly recognized domestically and internationally as a high-tech industry with promising prospects, attracting worldwide attention due to its high technical content, good economic benefits, strong penetrative power, and broad market prospects.

In modern control systems, sensors are located at the interface connecting the measured object and the test system, constituting the main "window" for system information input. They provide the raw information necessary for the system to perform control, processing, decision-making, and execution, directly influencing and determining system functions. Sensors can contact the measured object directly or indirectly. Many control system functions cannot be realized because information about the controlled object is difficult to collect and acquire, becoming an obstacle to the development and improvement of system technology, and also becoming an **obstacle to the sourcing and collection of big data and to the technology and development of the Internet of Things.

If computers are likened to the human brain and communications to the nervous system, then sensors are the "sensory organs" and "skin," undertaking the function of perceiving and acquiring all information data from the natural environment. Western developed countries, precisely because they value technologies such as sensors, have gradually formed differences in the application of basic technologies for global high-tech development and military weaponry and equipment.

In the early 70s of the last century, the West neglected the development of sensor technology, presenting an awkward state of a "developed brain" but "dull senses," which severely constrained and affected computer and communication technologies. Starting from the mid-70s of the last century, countries successively accelerated sensor development. From the early 80s of the last century, the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and others formulated relevant plans and listed them as priorities in long-term development planning, dedicating manpower, material resources, and key investments to research and development. They achieved rapid development at an annual rate of 20%~30%, providing long-term key support, which significantly improved sensor technology. In 2003, it was listed as one of the ten new technologies influencing and changing the world in the 21 century. A US federal government research report pointed out that starting in 2010, a budget of 69 billion USD was allocated for basic sensor technology and application research, termed the "Sensor Revolution" (Sensor Revolution). Americans believe: "The 80s of the last century were the computer age, the 90s were the internet age; the 21 century sees full entry into the sensor age. Through sensors, the material world is connected and endowed with an electronic nervous system."

Currently, there are approximately 2.6 ten thousand types of sensors globally, with new varieties and types constantly emerging through technological innovation. China currently has approximately 1.4 ten thousand types, accounting for about 1/2 of the global total. Most of these are conventional types and varieties, while there are still significant shortages and gaps in special high-tech fields such as medical care, scientific research, microbiology, and chemical analysis.

There are more than 6500 manufacturers globally engaged in sensor R&D and production, with over 1000 each in the United States, Europe, and Japan, more than 800 in Russia, and more than 2700 in other countries and regions. In terms of market sales, the United States ranks first, accounting for 35% of total sales, Japan accounts for approximately 20%, and Germany accounts for approximately 15%; these three countries occupy 70% of the world market. It is estimated that the growth rate in the next 5 years will exceed 15%, remaining a high-growth industry.

Sensors possess industry characteristics such as being technology-intensive, having strong penetrative power, offering multiple varieties, involving small batches, allowing flexible use, and covering wide application areas. Their foundational and collaborative features are prominent, making them particularly suitable for "mass entrepreneurship and innovation." With the development of "Made in China 2025," the "Internet Plus" action plan, big data, cloud computing, and smart cities, the strategic status of the sensor industry as the basic unit for information acquisition is becoming increasingly prominent.

Industrialization faces market opportunities and challenges

Three major factors—market, technology, and policy—will drive the rapid development of the sensor industry. With developments in electronics, materials, physics, chemistry, and other aspects, especially the maturity and application of MEMS process technology, multifunctional, miniaturized, digital, systematic, networked, and intelligent sensors that meet market demands are continuously emerging, forming new hotspots in sensor development.

Currently, the main trend in future technology and industrial development is the evolution of sensor technology from single physical-property types toward functional and technical composite integration, as well as miniaturization, multifunctionality, digitization, intelligence, systematization, and networking. In China, more than 1700 enterprises and institutions are engaged in the R&D, production, and application of sensors. The industrial categories are basically complete, with the total annual output of sensitive elements and sensors exceeding 20 hundred million units. Sensor products reach 10 major categories, 42 subcategories, and more than 6000 varieties. Among these, the mainstream products in the six major categories of acoustic, force, optical, gas, magnetic, and RFID already possess the technical foundation for industrialization and market application demand space, enabling scaled industrial production. Moreover, driven by IoT application demands in various industry sectors and compelled by different system technology collaborations and intelligent standard requirements, networked and intelligent sensors will become another major trend in future technology and industrial development.

In terms of application, whether aerospace aircraft, trains, high-speed rail, automobiles, or mobile terminals, including robots, all are "platforms" where multiple technologies converge and aggregate, and "platforms" for installing sensors. Their quality depends on how many sensors are installed; without sensors, there is no big data.

The rapid development of high-speed rail will bring a huge market for sensors. According to national planning, by 2030, railway operations will reach 20 ten thousand kilometers (2015: 12.1 ten thousand kilometers), of which high-speed rail operations will reach 4.5 ten thousand kilometers (2015: 1.9 ten thousand kilometers). High-speed rail is equipped with a vast number of sensors to monitor vehicles, track lines, natural environments, etc. With the R&D and implementation of CRRC's "Rail Transit Safety Assurance Technology Project," this will become a new growth point for high-end smart sensors.

Taking automobiles as another example, ordinary sedans use more than 100 sensors per vehicle, while **sedans use more than 200 sensors per vehicle. According to the national plan that "by 2020, the number of new energy vehicles in service will reach 500 ten thousand units," new energy vehicles will bring a huge market for rapid sensor growth.

For example, robots have internal and external sensors. Internal sensors monitor the relationships between internal moving joints, requiring sensors to acquire large amounts of data for transmission; external sensors achieve perception through their "sensory organs" and external windows. For robots of different types and functions, their performance and capability quality undoubtedly depend on how many sensors are installed, as well as the categories and quality of the sensors installed.

Sensors not only determine the technical level and performance quality of these "platforms," but can also monitor the operating status and safety conditions of the "platform" itself by acquiring changes in various parameters and indicators such as sound, temperature, humidity, pressure, flow, magnetic field, gas, and morphological patterns. This ensures the "platform" operates safely, reliably, healthily, and stably. Combined with system architecture and software service models, this forms a complete "intelligent" and "smart" system, meeting the intelligent management needs of the industrial sector. At present, IoT demonstration projects include smart grids, intelligent transportation, environmental monitoring, public security, smart homes, smart hospitals, smart high-speed rail, battlefield awareness, airport perimeter security, food processing, petrochemical sensing, smart agriculture, modern logistics, smart buildings, biopharmaceuticals, government services, smart firefighting, industrial monitoring, elderly care, community healthcare, flower cultivation, water system monitoring, food traceability, enemy reconnaissance, and intelligence collection. More than 400 demonstration projects have been officially included in the IoT directory, representing the main markets for applying various sensor technologies and products, undoubtedly providing ample room for imagination in sensor technology innovation and development.

Furthermore, sensors can not only explore the macro and micro worlds but even perceive various information about our lives, acquiring big data on human physiological parameters such as blood sugar, blood lipids, blood oxygen, pulse, electrocardiogram (ECG), intracranial pressure, electroencephalogram (EEG), and body temperature. China has "rapidly and swiftly entered an aging society," and family services will become a major issue in the future. Technology-assisted elderly care has become another major direction for future innovation. Relevant agency research indicates that the market scale for wearable devices, home smart terminals, and service robots will form a market size of 8 trillion yuan to 10 trillion yuan in the future.

Future service robots will have powerful functions, catering to various needs such as life guidance, entertainment and games, chronic disease care, health management, and emergency rescue. Therefore, finding personalized health sample values and analysis models is the difficulty and key to application technology innovation, the bottleneck to achieving "intelligence" and "wisdom," and the goal, task, and direction of innovation. Combining system architecture and service models forms a complete "intelligent" and "smart" system, meeting the health management needs of different individuals. The construction of such models and frameworks is a key point and difficulty in IoT technology and the realization of intelligent smart manufacturing, as well as a core problem that smart sensors urgently need to solve. From a hierarchical perspective, smart sensors are undoubtedly a common foundational technology under system integration and network architecture, and represent another "bottleneck" in current system applications and technological innovation.

To break down barriers between industry and applications, and to address the issues of industry-market docking and the industrialization of common technologies, during the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, China formulated a long-term national development strategy for the sensor industry. The "Three-Year Action Guide for the Smart Sensor Industry (2017-2019)" formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is about to be released. It clarifies that the development goal and direction of the sensor industry is smart sensors, establishes a corresponding industrial development roadmap, determines the industrial development path combining MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) processes and integrated circuit processes, and sets policy support principles guided by market applications. These plans and policy promotions will become the inevitable choice for achieving safe, independent, and controllable industrial development, which can not only promote the rapid and healthy development of China's sensor industry but also enhance the country's ability for independent industrial development and its core competitiveness.

Deep-seated contradictions and problems in domestic industrial development

For a long time, the industrialization of sensors in China has not received sufficient attention, which is incompatible with market demand and their role, enterprises are all at the stage of small-scale production, with problems such as outdated processes and unreasonable structures, lacking the basic conditions for industrialized production. Core technologies and products remain at the initial stage of laboratory or small-batch production, making it difficult to achieve economies of scale. Among the more than 1700 enterprises, colleges and universities, and research institutions in China, there is R&D and small-batch manufacturing of sensor products to varying degrees. Due to the high proportion of enterprises producing non-professional and non-mainstream products, the output value is relatively low, and the level of attention is insufficient; therefore, enterprises with an output value exceeding one hundred million yuan account for only 5% of the total, and professional manufacturers with complete product ranges are less than 3%. Compared with foreign countries, there is a significant gap in product quality, process level, production equipment, enterprise scale, market share, and comprehensive competitiveness. The development of new products still lags behind by nearly 10 years, while the level of industrialization lags behind by 10 to 15 years. According to industry statistics and forecasts, China's sales of sensitive elements and sensors exceeded 1200 hundred million yuan in 2014. In 2015, the demand may reach approximately 652.9 hundred million units, with a growth rate greater than 18%, Exceeding 1300 hundred million units. Approximately 60% rely on imports, More than 80% of core chips rely on imports, MEMS sensors used in the Internet of Things almost entirely rely on imports. This has resulted in long-term foreign control and monopoly over China's continuously growing vast market, causing not only losses in economic benefits, but also posing serious impacts and threats to national information security in political, economic, and military sectors. At the same time, it severely restricts and affects the development of China's Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, and "Internet Plus", as well as smart cities, particularly the overall development and improvement of the military industry and weapon equipment levels, making practical issues and contradictions particularly prominent.

In addition, the lack of sufficient attention and support in national strategic planning and industrial policies, deviation of resource allocation from industry development, and insufficient policy focus are also one of the main reasons for the significant gap between sensor industrialization in China and internationally. Over a long period, the industry has become fragmented, with small scales, a lack of leading enterprises and talent to drive development, an incomplete industrial chain, low industrial integration and aggregation, and aggravated industrial hollowing, creating a significant gap compared with developed countries. The prominent problems and contradictions are as follows:

First, resource matching and attention are insufficient, and problems such as difficulty in obtaining loans and high financing costs have existed for a long time. Overall technical equipment is backward, with low levels of automated production and testing, and the production process is referred to as manufacturing "industrial crafts" with poor product quality. The investment demand for process technology and equipment is large, and enterprises are unable to carry out technological transformation and improve equipment capabilities. These issues directly affect the overall improvement of scientific research and production process technology, seriously impacting the industrialization process.

Second, the transformation of scientific and technological achievements is difficult, with a disconnect between scientific research and industrial production. Technological innovation resources are in research institutes, not in the hands of enterprises. Enterprises lack independent innovation capabilities, and there is a lack of channels and bridges for the transformation of achievements. Achievements and industrialization form two separate entities, with low levels of practical application. The mechanism and system for combining scientific research achievements with industrialization are not sound enough, leading to insufficient momentum and sustainability in industrial development.

Third, the orientation of talent flow is deviated, lacking the influence and demonstrative driving role of leading figures. First, there are too few researchers engaged in basic theoretical research and technology development; Second, talent training deviates significantly from the specialization, mass production, practicality, and industrialization requirements of sensors; **The flow of talent cannot reach small and medium-sized enterprises such as sensor manufacturers, the degree of talent aggregation is low, and there is a lack of cultivation of leading talents and the exertion of the role of outstanding entrepreneurs**.

Fourth, the support strength of industrial policies is insufficient, and the tax burden on enterprises is too heavy. The sensor industry has high technical content, is talent- and technology-intensive, and has higher development costs than other industries. Enterprises bear excessive burdens, enjoy fewer tax and other policies among equivalent high-tech industries, have small scales, and have insufficient adaptability to various industrial policy support conditions, making it difficult to obtain project fund support.

Fifth, long-term impact from imported products, chaotic market fairness order, and high barriers. Mature supporting markets have long been monopolized and squeezed by foreign countries, causing domestic enterprises to lack competitive advantages in production scale, variety, quality, and price, with insufficient market response speed and personalized service capabilities, lacking scale effects and driving roles. In addition, excessive market promotion and product sales costs, too many constraints and requirements, and high entry thresholds are also constraining factors for entering a virtuous cycle.

Creating a "dual ecosystem" industrial environment

Promoting multi-technology integration and coordinated development

It is widely believed in the industry that, constrained by market monopoly and technological blockade, it is impossible for sensor industrialization development to obtain core technologies and key processes from developed countries. Top-level design for industrial and industry development is needed, formulating national-level overall planning and strategic policies for support. Specific recommendations include the following basic principles and measures:

First, elevate strategic status, strengthen overall planning, designate sensors as a "national industrial development priority target," list them as a "national strategy" project, and include them as key support and priority development content in the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" plan. Establish a "special fund for sensor industrialization development" to incentivize small and medium-sized enterprises to develop products with strong professionalism, distinctive features, and specialized technologies, encouraging and promoting small and medium-sized enterprises to develop towards industrialization.

Second, build and promote national and industry-level public service platforms for technology R&D, testing, and standard intellectual property rights, jointly established by the government, universities, research institutes, and enterprises. Establish a Sensor Standards Committee, formulate a sensor standard system, and accelerate standard construction. Promote and unite enterprises, colleges and universities, research institutes, industry associations, and support institutions to establish an industrial alliance.

Third, create a good ecological environment for the sensor industry and establish the China International Sensor Industrial Park. Optimize the industrial development environment, form complementary advantages of industry resources, promote the combination of production, education, and research, and create opportunities for upstream and downstream integration. Through industrial aggregation, integration, and mergers and acquisitions, build an international sensor industrial park—China's "Sensor Valley"—in domestic regions with prominent and relatively concentrated industrial advantages, featuring clear technical and product characteristics, a complete industrial chain, and international market capabilities. Form normalized support and services and a six-dimensional integrated industrial structure of government, industry, academia, research, application, and service functions, to achieve industrial aggregation and scale effects, forming an industrial aggregation area with a complete industrial chain, reasonable structure, international influence, and annual output value scale, promoting industrialization development and overall industry capability improvement. The purpose is to make innovation truly effective, make the industry truly distinctive, give the region brands and advantages with international competitiveness, establish the concept of an international market, base itself on the international market, and build the region into a regional namecard with international advantages and characteristics.