Physics / mechanism
Sensors transduce a physical quantity (pressure, photons, temperature, chemical concentration, acceleration) into an electrical signal. The core physics depends on the modality: piezoresistive/capacitive for MEMS pressure/inertial, photoelectric effect for image sensors and LiDAR receivers, electrochemical for gas/biosensors, pyroelectric/bolometric for thermal IR. Key parameters: sensitivity (signal/input unit), noise floor (NEP for optical, μg/√Hz for IMUs), bandwidth, drift, and power. State of the art: Sony/Samsung BSI CMOS image sensors at sub-micron pixels; Bosch MEMS IMUs at <10 μg/√Hz noise; uncooled VOx bolometers at NETD <30 mK. Integration trend is sensor fusion on-chip with edge inference.
Competitive landscape
MEMS sensors (Bosch, STMicro, TDK/InvenSense) dominate inertial/pressure at commodity margins. Photonic sensors—silicon photonics-based LiDAR, integrated spectrometers, optical gyros—compete on performance-per-power at higher ASP. Emerging: quantum sensors (atomic interferometry, NV-center magnetometers) threaten MEMS in navigation accuracy but remain pre-commercial. Chemical/biosensors fragment by vertical. The meaningful battleground is CMOS-integration density vs. heterogeneous packaging of III-V or LN-on-Si for photonic modalities.
| Modality | Key metric | Integration path |
|---|---|---|
| MEMS inertial | Noise floor μg/√Hz | Monolithic CMOS |
| Photonic (LiDAR/spectro) | NEP, angular res | Si photonics / III-V flip-chip |
| Quantum | ppb sensitivity, drift | Hybrid, nascent fab |
Companies using
Connected ideas
Sources
Frontier (open questions)
- To be added.