The underestimated sensor market shows its potential.

The summer has just passed, but in the sensor industry, it's just entering its "summer."

In the spotlight of the semiconductor industry, sensors have never been as dazzling as integrated circuits. They rarely appear in the core PPTs of technology press conferences and are seldom the focus of capital chasing. However, this "silent perceiver" is quietly supporting half of the digital economy.

01

Humanoid Robots, the Next Big Thing

Sensors are widely used in three major fields: consumer electronics, automotive electronics, and industrial manufacturing, which occupy the main share of the market. In 2024, consumer electronics continued to lead with a 26.5% share, reaching a market size of 107.62 billion yuan; the automotive electronics field followed closely with a 21.2% share, with a market size of 85.95 billion yuan; and the industrial manufacturing field ranked third with a 20.5% share, with a market size of 83.28 billion yuan.

Although consumer electronics still accounts for the largest proportion, the market's attention has begun to shift to future growth engines. Among them, intelligent vehicles and humanoid robots are undoubtedly the two most promising tracks.

Automotive Electronics: The Intelligentization Competition Begins

Cars are evolving from simple means of transportation to mobile intelligent terminals. This transformation has directly detonated the demand for sensors.

Now, automotive electronics has become the field with the fastest-growing sensor applications. The number of sensors per vehicle has soared from 200 in 2020 to 300 in 2025.

This change is mainly due to two major trends: first, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is expected to exceed 40% in 2025, and their core components such as battery management systems and motor controls have a strong demand for temperature, pressure, and current sensors; second, the rapid popularization of Level 3 and above autonomous driving technologies has driven the annual shipment growth rate of environmental perception sensors such as lidar, millimeter-wave radar, and cameras to exceed 50%.

According to Precedence Research data, the global automotive sensor market size was $40.24 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach about $88.18 billion by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.16%.

Humanoid Robots: Entering the Era of Industrialization

Now, humanoid robots are gradually entering the stage of actual application deployment, and 2025 is generally regarded by the industry as the year of mass production.

In March this year, the BotQ humanoid robot factory of Figure AI was officially exposed. The first-generation production line is expected to have an annual capacity of 12,000 humanoid robots, and the company plans to expand the production capacity to 100,000 units per year within the next four years. It's worth mentioning that this is the world's first modern factory where "robots manufacture robots."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has publicly stated on multiple occasions that the Optimus robot will enter the trial production stage, with a planned production of 5,000 to 10,000 units that year. The initial target is 1,000 units per month, and the purchased components can support a production capacity of 10,000 - 12,000 units.

The core of robot intelligence lies in the improvement of its perception and cognitive abilities. As the key component for robots to perceive external information, sensors are the foundation for achieving robot intelligence.

So, which will bring greater incremental growth, cars or robots? And which type of sensors will bring unprecedented dividends?

Both Saizhuo Electronics and Hanwei Technology believe that automotive electronics is the "certainty" at present, while humanoid robots are the "potential stocks" of the future. In the short term, new energy vehicles are still an important direction for driving the demand for sensor chips. But in the long run, with the maturity of technology and the decline in costs, humanoid robots are expected to replicate the growth curve of cars and become the next "super terminal," bringing a broader market space.

Automotive sensors mainly include two major categories: body perception sensors and environmental perception sensors. Among them, body perception sensors include pressure sensors, position sensors, temperature sensors, linear acceleration sensors, angular acceleration sensors, air flow sensors, gas sensors, etc., and environmental perception sensors mainly include in-vehicle cameras, ultrasonic radars, millimeter-wave radars, lidars, infrared sensors, etc.

Compared with traditional industrial robots, humanoid robots have higher requirements for sensors. In addition to traditional requirements such as current sensors and temperature sensors, they also include force sensors, electronic skins, vision sensors, inertial sensors and other sensors with high value and key to performance improvement.

Among them, force sensors are the sensor category with the highest value proportion and are the key to end execution. Six-dimensional force sensors have long been monopolized by international brands due to their high technical complexity and R & D difficulty. Electronic skin is the main application of flexible tactile sensors and complements force sensing. Inertial sensors are the key to achieving the dynamic balance of humanoid robots; vision sensors are obviously the most direct "eyes" of humanoid robots.

02

Localization of Sensors: Entering the Deep Water Zone

The global sensor market pattern is relatively fragmented, and overall, it is dominated by overseas leading manufacturers.

The general-purpose sensor market is dominated by Bosch, Broadcom, Qorvo, STMicroelectronics, TI, etc. The automotive sensor market is mainly led by international Tier 1 manufacturers, including Bosch, Continental Group, BorgWarner, Sensata, DENSO, Infineon, Aptiv, Allegro, TI, and ADI; in the field of industrial automation, there are Siemens, TDK, etc.

Yuhong Minxin told reporters from Semiconductor Industry Review that the current global sensor market presents an obvious hierarchical competition pattern. In the high-end mechanical sensor field, especially in high-end pressure sensors, foreign imported brands still occupy an absolute dominant position, with a market share of about 90%. Although domestic brands perform well in the mid - and low - end markets, their market share in the high - end field is still less than 10%.

Looking at different fields, consumer electronics is the field where sensor localization first achieved breakthroughs. The industrial sensor market presents a pattern of "foreign capital dominates the high - end, and domestic products seize the mid - and low - end." Among them, high - end industrial scenarios are still the "weakness" of domestic sensors. For example, the market for core components such as high - precision vision sensors and laser displacement sensors is still monopolized by foreign giants. The intelligent vehicle sensor field and high - end equipment fields represented by humanoid robots are the "deep water zone" for sensor localization, with high technical barriers and long certification cycles. For example, international giants such as Bosch and Continental dominate the core markets of lidar, millimeter - wave radar, high - precision inertial sensors, etc. However, domestic manufacturers have achieved breakthroughs in some segmented categories, such as in - vehicle sensors and sensors for battery management systems (BMS).

Specifically in terms of sensor categories, gas, image and pressure sensors have achieved significant breakthroughs and have the ability to compete with international brands; while emerging categories such as flexible sensors, MEMS sensors, and IMUs show great growth potential. Fields such as high - end MEMS technology and sensors for the "three - electric" systems of vehicles still face relatively large challenges and are still monopolized by foreign companies.

Saizhuo Electronics believes that domestic sensors can expand their market share in two ways:

First, for the mature products of international giants 3 - 5 years ago, use more advanced processes (such as 90nm instead of 180nm) to surpass them in terms of cost, size, and function integration, and complete the localization of the mid - and low - end markets. Second, cooperate deeply with local customers, provide highly customized solutions, respond quickly to customer needs, and solve the pain points they encounter when using foreign products.

Regarding the problems that domestic sensors urgently need to solve, the author learned the following three points through Saizhuo Electronics and Hanwei Technology:

Manufacturing capacity is the most core bottleneck. Although sensor chips do not have high requirements for the process (mostly 90nm/0.18μm), the reliability and stability of domestic mature process production lines still cannot fully meet the requirements of high - end applications such as automotive - grade. Many domestic design companies still rely on overseas foundries for tape - out. The IDM model allows companies to strictly control every link from wafer growth to final product shipment, thereby maximizing product yield and performance. This is a prerequisite for winning the trust of high - end customers and entering the international first - class supply chain. Therefore, the IDM model is crucial for the sensor industry.

In terms of packaging and testing, sensor packaging is highly customized and often requires "heterogeneous and irregular packaging" to adapt to specific application scenarios. This places high requirements on packaging and testing factories and is also a key link restricting industrial collaboration. Companies with their own packaging and testing capabilities have significant advantages in customization and rapid response.

Industrial chain collaboration and market verification: The design, manufacturing, and packaging and testing links must be closely coordinated. At the same time, domestic chips need to prove their reliability through large - scale and long - term market applications to break the "distrust" barrier of customers. This requires the joint efforts and patience of the entire upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.

03

"Sensors + AI": The New Focal Point

If sensors in the past were "faithful recorders," then future sensors will become "intelligent thinkers."

AI is deeply integrated into sensors, bringing about a profound transformation. In the field of intelligent manufacturing, AI sensors help enterprises achieve precise control, improve production efficiency and quality by monitoring data from all aspects of the production line in real - time.

The intelligent transportation system is another important field for the application of AI sensors. Through AI sensors installed on traffic lights and intersections, the intelligent transportation system can monitor traffic flow and vehicle movement in real - time, provide immediate feedback on traffic congestion, and help optimize traffic light control.

In the autonomous driving system, AI sensors are used to monitor the vehicle's surrounding environment in real - time, including other vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic signs. The data from these sensors is transmitted to the central processing unit for complex calculations and analyses, thereby realizing the intelligence of autonomous driving and traffic management.

In the field of medical and health, AI sensors also have broad application prospects. Through AI sensors integrated in medical devices, doctors can monitor patients' physiological data such as heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar in real - time, so as to more accurately judge patients' health conditions and formulate personalized treatment plans.

Smart home is another important field for the application of AI sensors. By integrating AI sensors into household devices, intelligent monitoring and control of the home environment can be achieved.

ST is one of the early enterprises that thought about how to make sensors more intelligent. A pure sensor is just a silent observer and a passive reporter, unable to actively participate in the system. However, with the support of AI algorithms, it can actively perform data fusion, classification, and prediction on the device based on the collected data, so as to more intelligently handle various situations, assist in decision - making, optimize products, and make the solution design more concise.

In the field of "AI + sensors," domestic manufacturers are also actively exploring technological integration and application innovation. Major enterprises are constantly making efforts in fields such as continuous optimization of AI algorithms, accelerating data processing speed, improving model training efficiency and generalization ability. For example, they are developing more efficient distributed training algorithms, using the collaborative architecture of edge computing and cloud computing to achieve rapid processing of large - scale data and model updates, and improving the real - time response performance of the system.

04

From the Background to the Forefront

Sensors, once an overlooked field, are now driving the intelligent transformation of the automotive, robotics, industrial, and even the entire society at an unprecedented speed and intensity. They are the cornerstone of the digital economy and the bridge connecting the physical world and the digital world.

The next three to five years will be a critical period for sensor technology iteration and market pattern reshaping. For China, this is not only a huge business opportunity but also a strategic window to achieve independent and controllable industrial chains and enhance global scientific and technological discourse power.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Semiconductor Industry Review" (ID: ICViews), written by Feng Ning, and published by 36Kr with authorization.