Recently, the new technology promotion conference held by Fulai New Materials (605488.SH) in Shanghai has attracted market attention. The core topic of this conference, which brought together 310 institutions and 499 investors, directly pointed to the future prospects of flexible sensors.
The company clearly stated that the flexible sensor market is leaping from "billions of dollars to tens of billions of dollars" and plans to build a new growth engine in the three major directions of "environmentally friendly coating packaging materials, electronic-grade functional materials and flexible tactile sensors". This signal not only reflects the company's confidence in technological innovation, but also reveals the explosive growth cycle that the flexible sensor industry is about to usher in.
The company is currently building a pilot line for flexible sensors, and there is a certain degree of variability and uncertainty in subsequent research and development and orders. As of now, the company's flexible sensor project has not generated any revenue or profit, and will not affect the company's performance.
From the perspective of the future market size, the relevant person in charge of Fulai New Materials said that the tactile solution for one dexterous hand is more competitive in the market within 2,000 yuan. However, before mass production is achieved, it is difficult to reduce the cost to this price. In addition, it is estimated that flexible sensors account for about 10% of the overall value of humanoid robots, which has a high market value.
Market potential: the logic of transition from tens of billions to hundreds of billions
According to industry research reports, the global flexible sensor market size is expected to exceed US$15 billion in 2025, and China, as a core market, accounts for more than one-third, reaching US$6 billion, with an annual compound growth rate of up to 18%. The "tens of billions of dollars market" goal predicted by Fulai New Materials actually points to a deeper level of technology iteration and scenario expansion:
1. Technology-driven: Breakthroughs in technologies such as nanomaterials, conductive polymers, and micro-nano processing have enabled flexible sensors to have the advantages of high sensitivity, low power consumption, and low cost. For example, the resistive technology route has become the preferred solution for companies such as Fulai New Materials due to its outstanding signal stability and cost-effectiveness.
2. Scenario extension: From smart wearables, medical health to industrial testing, and humanoid robots, the application boundaries of flexible sensors continue to expand. Taking humanoid robots as an example, their "electronic skin" needs to rely on flexible sensors to achieve tactile feedback, and this field is regarded as a key direction by Fulai New Materials.
3. Policy and capital support: China's "14th Five-Year Plan" lists flexible electronics as a cutting-edge technology. With the advancement of national strategies such as the Internet of Things and intelligent manufacturing, the industry is ushering in a policy dividend period. At the same time, intensive research by institutions such as Caitong Securities and Guojin Securities shows that capital has high expectations for the implementation of technology.
Technological breakthrough: the key path from laboratory to industrialization
The core advantage of flexible sensors lies in their physical properties that subvert traditional rigid sensors:
Material innovation: The application of materials such as graphene and polyimide makes sensors bendable and stretchable to adapt to complex environments. For example, Fulai New Materials achieves low-cost mass production through coating technology, highlighting its industrialization potential.
Integrated design: The multifunctional sensor array can simultaneously detect parameters such as pressure, temperature, and humidity to meet the multi-dimensional perception needs of smart devices. Domestic companies have achieved technological breakthroughs in medical monitoring patches and industrial robot tactile systems.
Intelligent upgrade: Combined with AI algorithms, flexible sensors extend from "perception" to "decision-making". For example, in the field of health monitoring, real-time physiological data can warn of disease risks through algorithms, promoting the upgrade of wearable devices from "recording tools" to "health managers".
Application scenarios: from consumer electronics to trillion-level industrial ecology
The commercialization of flexible sensors has penetrated multiple fields:
Humanoid robots: As the core component of "electronic skin", flexible sensors give robots tactile perception capabilities. Fulai New Materials is cooperating with OEMs in research and development, aiming to enter the market segments such as dexterous hands and industrial testing.
Medical health: wearable blood glucose monitoring patches, implantable heart sensors and other products promote the development of personalized medicine. The flexible pressure sensor developed by a domestic company has been used in smart bracelets to monitor heart rate, blood pressure and other indicators in real time.
Intelligent manufacturing: Industrial robots use flexible sensors to achieve precise grasping and force control, and the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) in automotive electronics relies on its weather resistance and reliability.
Smart home and Internet of Things: Flexible temperature and humidity sensors optimize home environment control, and flexible touch screens enhance the interactive experience, which meets the needs of smart cities.
Challenges and opportunities: industry chain synergy and ecological construction
Despite the broad prospects, the industry still needs to break through multiple bottlenecks:
Technical barriers: high-end sensors rely on imported materials, and domestic companies have gaps with international giants in the fields of nanomaterial preparation and signal processing algorithms.
Cost and standardization: The complex mass production process leads to high costs, and the lack of unified industry standards restricts large-scale applications.
Ecological synergy: It is necessary to integrate upstream material suppliers, midstream manufacturers and downstream application providers to form a closed-loop industrial chain. Fulai New Materials has tried to build competitive barriers through strategies such as deploying patent pools and expanding overseas markets.
Summary
The outbreak of the flexible sensor industry is essentially the result of the resonance of technological innovation, market demand and policy guidance. Fulai New Materials' radical layout is only a microcosm of the industry wave. With the deep integration of technologies such as 5G, AI, and the Internet of Things, flexible sensors are expected to become the "nerve endings" of the intelligent era and leverage a trillion-level market. However, if companies want to win in this competition, they need to continue to increase research and development, deepen industrial chain cooperation, and accurately position high value-added application scenarios. It can be foreseen that in the next ten years, flexible sensors will transform from "cutting-edge concepts" to "infrastructure", redefining the boundaries of human-computer interaction and intelligent perception.
This paper is from Ulink Media, Shenzhen, China, the organizer of IOTE EXPO (IoT Expo in China)
