Inertial sensors are a class of devices that convert object motion into electrical signals based on inertia and related measurement principles, including accelerometers, gyroscopes and their combined sensors, mainly used to detect acceleration, rotation, vibration, shock, and tilt. There are various inertial sensing technologies, taking gyroscope as an example, including mechanical gyroscope, ring laser gyroscope (RLG), fiber optic gyroscope (FOG), hemispherical resonant gyroscope (HRG), MEMS gyroscope, silicon photonic optical gyroscope (SiPhOG), quantum gyroscope and so on. Among them, MEMS technology leads inertial sensors into a new era of “small size, low cost, high integration, multi-function and intelligence”. Today, MEMS inertial sensors are everywhere: from “smart phones and tablets” to “wearable devices and physical game consoles”, from “industrial control and vibration monitoring” to “drones and automobiles”. “Drones and automobiles”, from “aerospace” to “defense” ……
Currently, the market for discrete inertial sensors is saturated and prices are eroding, while the market for combined inertial sensors is booming. The world’s leading MEMS inertial sensor manufacturers, represented by Bosch, STMicroelectronics and TDK InvenSense, continue to develop combined inertial sensor products, such as: 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope combination for 6-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU), refer to the report “Consumer MEMS Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Product Comparative Analysis – 2022 Edition”; 3-axis accelerometer + 3-axis magnetometer combination for 6-axis electronic compass (eCompass). Combined sensors have some advantages that discrete sensors can not be compared, for example: the use of the same ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) processing signals, and multiple sensor chips packaged together, can reduce costs; if the two sensor chip process is the same or similar, can be made into a single chip, greatly reducing the size of the sensor; filtering, data fusion and artificial intelligence (machine learning) and other algorithm integration, the Improve the added value of the product, it is difficult for competitors to imitate.
With the introduction of the Intelligent Sensor Processing Unit (ISPU) in 2022, ST further integrates digital signal processors (DSPs) and artificial intelligence algorithms inside MEMS inertial sensors to infuse system-in-package (SiP) devices with local decision making, while providing significant space and power savings and enhancing privacy and security by keeping data local. The ISPU offers substantial advantages in four “P’s”: Power ConsumpTIon, Packaging, Performance and Price, enabling a wide range of endpoints to achieve edge intelligence without waking up the system or transferring data to the MCU and gateway/cloud. The ISPU analyzes inertial sensing data to ensure accuracy and efficiency in tasks such as activity recognition and anomaly detection.
High-end inertial sensors cover a wide range of applications, such as single-axis, low-cost configurations for industrial control; and multi-axis, highly integrated, high-performance configurations for aerospace and military defense. The global market for high-end inertial sensors (module level) exceeds $3.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $4.5 billion in 2027. The market for high-end inertial systems is driven by traditional markets such as military modernization, defense “Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT)”, and emerging markets such as commercial space applications, robotics, industrial automation, and autonomous/unmanned vehicles.
High-end inertial sensor applications are fragmented, but market share is concentrated among three well-known giants: Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, and Safran. Many of the smaller players focus on specific technologies, markets and applications, making it difficult to go head-to-head with the giants. While the competitive landscape has remained stable over the years, the pace of investment and M&A has accelerated over the past few years, with Safran, for example, acquiring MEMS inertial sensor maker Sensonor in 2021 and merging Colibrys with Sensonor to form Safran Sensing in 2022, and ECA Group acquiring high-end inertial sensors in In 2022, ECA Group acquired iXblue, a high-end inertial sensor manufacturer, and the two companies merged to form the ECA-iXblue Group. In addition, startups such as Anello and OSCP are raising funds to develop optical gyroscopes based on silicon-optical integration technology.
In order to grasp the inertial sensor industry and technology trends, and to satisfy the thirst for knowledge of the majority of practitioners, McMasters Consulting has opened this training course, inviting experts and scholars from famous universities and research institutes to teach: (1) Overview of high-end MEMS inertial sensors; (2) Multi-axis MEMS inertial sensors; (3) Detailed explanation of high-precision MEMS accelerometer technology; (4) Accelerometer-based Accelerometer-based vibration monitoring and fault diagnosis; (5) dual-mass line vibration (tuning fork) MEMS gyroscope; (6) high-precision solid fluctuation (ring) MEMS gyroscope; (7) based on the acousto-optical effect of traveling wave gyroscope; (8) MEMS gyroscope vacuum packaging technology; (9) MEMS gyroscope based on the key technology of north-seeking orientation; (10) MEMS inertial sensing system design (10) MEMS inertial sensor system design and application; (11) MEMS inertial sensor reliability analysis.
