Bosch Sensortec, which shipped greater than 1 billion MEMS sensors in 2024, is now a 20-year-old outfit with an formidable purpose of constructing MEMS sensing as important to client electronics because the microprocessor.
Market analysis agency Yole Group has acknowledged Bosch Sensortec as the worldwide market chief in MEMS sensors for the fourth consecutive yr. “Bosch Sensortec has been one of many fundamental driving forces within the MEMS trade,” mentioned Jean-Christophe Eloy, president and founding father of Yole Group. “The corporate has advanced from a startup with a powerful technical imaginative and prescient into a worldwide chief in clever sensing for client electronics.”
The timing of Bosch Sensortec’s inception in 2005 was impeccable; the smartphone revolution would arrive a few years later, remodeling the MEMS sensor world by bringing sensor know-how into real-world affect. “As smartphones started to vary the world, we introduced deep technical experience,” mentioned Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO of Bosch Sensortec.
He recollects the early days when a handful of engineers would all slot in a single assembly room. “I bear in mind us taking part in early cell phone video games in that room simply to know how a gyroscope would possibly improve the consumer expertise.” Through the years, miniaturization grew to become the important thing driving drive by combining MEMS and ASIC layers via superior packaging applied sciences equivalent to through-silicon vias and buried bonding.
It decreased the sensor footprint and enabled AI computation immediately on the chip. “Twenty years in the past, our first MEMS accelerometer was 15 instances bigger in package deal quantity than at present’s ultra-compact sensors,” Finkbeiner mentioned. “At present, you possibly can hardly see these sensors; they’re solely barely larger than a grain of sand.”
Determine 1 Miniaturization reworked MEMS sensors up to now twenty years. Supply: Bosch Sensortec
Before everything, this miniaturization opened the door to new functions in space-constrained environments, spanning from true wi-fi stereo earbuds and wearables to sensible residence gadgets. Furthermore, as a substitute of redesigning {hardware}, design engineers can replace software program to adapt performance, rushing up time-to-market and enabling broader use instances.
MEMS sensors within the AI period
The subsequent tectonic shift within the MEMS sensor house is said to synthetic intelligence (AI). Bosch Sensortec describes itself as a provider of clever sensing methods that combine MEMS know-how, embedded software program and edge AI.
Client electronics merchandise—from smartphones and wearables to sensible properties and hearables—are related gadgets that require greater than uncooked information. They demand context and energy-efficient intelligence. Right here, AI-powered sensors that course of information immediately on the sensor itself guarantee privateness, prolong battery life, and allow new options like exercise recognition, gesture management, and indoor navigation.
Determine 2 The AI-powered sensors remodel uncooked information into actionable alerts for smartphones, wearables, hearables, and sensible properties. Supply: Bosch Sensortec
Bosch Sensortec claims that 90% of its merchandise will function on-sensor intelligence by 2027. Moreover, its long-term purpose is to ship over 10 billion clever sensors in complete by 2030. “From silicon to system, we’re constructing sensor options that form tomorrow’s related, sustainable applied sciences,” Finkbeiner mentioned.
He concludes by saying that whereas the corporate’s startup part could also be over, the spirit of experimentation stays. That’s an important premise for AI‑pushed sensor methods in a related world.
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