China - October 10, 2024

Tiny sensors big business in central China city

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Central China's Zhengzhou City is becoming known as a leading production base for sensors, crucial pieces of equipment for many of today's connected devices.

From manufacturing and robotics to transportation and energy, sensors are used in a broad range of scenarios.

At this intelligent sensor lab, researchers are testing "electronic skin", a flexible tactile sensor that mimics human touch. It integrates 100 sensing points per square centimeter and can respond to external pressure changes in about one millisecond.

Elsewhere in the city, sensors are installed on wind turbines to make power generation safer and more efficient. Each turbine makes just 14 revolutions per minute but can generate 2,000 kilowatts of electricity per hour.

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Fang Xin, Assistant director, Zhengzhou Zhongke Integrated Circuit and System Application Research Institute:

"This is the laser wind detection radar dubbed 'wind catching master' which is developed by us. It is timelier and more efficient than the conventional wind measurement, and can increase the power generation efficiency by 3 percent to 5 percent, so that the income produced by each wind turbine can be raised by about 140,000 U.S. dollars. Now we are conducting joint development with enterprises, universities, and scientific research institutes, aiming to develop more sensor products that meet market demand in chip design."

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The city is now home to around 3,000 sensor-related upstream and downstream companies, creating an annual output value of over four billion U.S. dollars.

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