China's temperature sensor market ushered in rapid growth

With the increasing popularity of the concept of the Internet of Things, the sensor market once again ushered in rapid development opportunities. The sensors mainly include pressure sensors, temperature sensors, flow sensors, level sensors, wireless sensors, and biosensors. Sensors are an important basic component of the information industry and are used in space, military, home appliances, automotive electronics, IT, medical and special equipment. According to statistics of INTECHNO Consulting, the global sensor market in 2008 exceeded US$50 billion and continues to maintain rapid growth. It is expected that it will reach US$60 billion by 2010, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 9%. As one of the fastest growing areas in the sensor market, China's sensor market has exceeded 32.7 billion yuan in 2008, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 10%.

The temperature sensor is a semiconductor device that utilizes the characteristic that the value of the core thermistor changes with temperature and converts the non-electrical physical quantity into an electrical quantity, thereby performing accurate temperature measurement and automatic control. As an important category of sensors, temperature sensors account for more than 15% of the total demand of sensors. In 2008, the global market for temperature sensors was over US$7.5 billion, and in 2010 it could exceed US$9 billion.

Thermistor is a class of sensitive components. It is the core component of the temperature sensor and is divided into positive temperature coefficient thermistor (PTC) and negative temperature coefficient thermistor (NTC) according to different temperature coefficients. The cost ratio of the thermistor to the temperature sensor is about 40%. In 2010, the global market size of NTC and PTC thermistor will exceed 4 billion US dollars.

At the 2010 annual meeting of the China Electronic Component Industry Association's Sensitive Components and Sensors Subcommittee, some experts pointed out that the development of the automotive industry, home appliances, 3G network, and other favorable factors, the fastest development of temperature sensors, Both have a compound growth rate of more than 15%. In 2009, the market size exceeded RMB 5 billion. The market size of NTC and PTC thermistors exceeded RMB 2 billion.

Compared with traditional products, the new temperature sensor shows a trend of miniaturization, high precision, and low power consumption. In the new era, the application of temperature sensors has been further expanded. NTC as an important branch of temperature sensors, medical electronics, mobile communications, office automation, automotive electronics are all new applications.

In the field of medical electronic devices, medical electronic devices are increasingly becoming highly integrated and tend to be of personal care type, such as home care, home health care, and personal health checkups. The application of hospital equipment is toward miniaturization, portability and professional development. The miniaturized high-precision temperature sensor is the biggest driving force for the rapid development of medical electronic equipment. It is estimated that in 2010 China's medical electronics industry will require approximately 35 million temperature sensors, with an annual growth rate of more than 15%, and the development of this industry will continue to maintain this momentum for at least five years.

In the field of communications products, temperature sensors are indispensable components and neurons of network systems. They are mainly used in communication products such as cell phone batteries, notebook motherboards, LCD monitors, and computer microprocessors for temperature detection. Only in the field of mobile communications, according to statistics and predictions made by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on the production and sales volume of mobile phones, the temperature sensors required in 2010 will exceed 1.3 billion, and will increase at an annual growth rate of around 9% in the next few years.

In the field of automotive electronic components, high-precision composite devices with a temperature sensor as the core component are among the key components for improving the smartness, energy saving, and comfort of automobiles. Its market application status, technology trend and future development trend are closely related to the overall improvement of domestic automotive electronics technology strength; its stable quality, reliable performance, and high accuracy will all contribute to the safety, comfort, intelligence and energy saving of automobiles. Have a significant impact. The automobile industry is one of the industries that China is currently vigorously developing. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s automobile production in 2009 was 13.64 million vehicles, and this figure is expected to reach 16 million vehicles in 2010, with a growth rate of more than 15%, and will continue to maintain strong growth in the future. In 2010, the market size of automotive temperature sensors in China will exceed 448 million, and the annual growth rate will not be lower than the growth rate of auto production.

The heating element and the heating element are another important branch of the temperature sensor—the fastest growing application of PTC. It is estimated that in 2010, the demand for PTC heating films with hairdressing salons as the main market was more than 350 million. With the production of international cosmetology and hairdressing products concentrated in China's Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions, the annual growth rate of heating components in the next five years will be no less than 15%; the number of heat-generating components for air conditioners and heaters will reach 32 million, an annual increase. More than 9%.