With the development of information technology, sensors, as the nerve tentacles of the information industry, will bring people from the "communication era" to the "perception era."  The sensor is an important tool for data acquisition, and an important technical foundation for the new technology revolution and the information society. It is widely used in aerospace, aviation, defense, science and technology, industrial and agricultural production etc. Intelligent sensors based on MEMS technology represent the main development direction of sensors. The advancement of technology can not only improve the level of product intelligence, but also promote the development of Chinese manufacturing.

　　 After 2010, China has become the largest country of industrial manufacturing, but we must be aware of the current situation, which is not strong and unsustainable. The problems are mainly concentrated on the lack of independent innovation, low industrial value, inefficient production, unreasonable industrial structure and product quality etc. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of the manufacturing industry. For example, Made in China 2025 marks the first step in China's manufacturing industry from "big to strong", in which smart manufacturing is positioned as the main direction of Chinese manufacturing, responding to German Industry 4.0, and US Industrial Internet. Mao Weiming, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out: "sensor technology should be combined with computing technology and communication technology as the three pillars of information technology because the sensory manufacturing industry represented by sensors will be an important strategic emerging industry in the future, and it is the source of information system and the core to realize automation and intelligence."

　　 The drawbacks of traditional sensors are highlighted: sensors are closely linked to Chinese manufacturing. Sensors are the basic components, the cornerstone of industry, the key to performance and the bottleneck of development, therefore, its importance is self-evident. The sensor has the characteristics of large usage and wide application, and plays a bridge in the industrial production and manufacture. At present, in China's manufacturing enterprises, it is not new to use sensors to collect, process, and transmit data, however, there exist two problems in traditional sensors:

　　 1. Performance

　　 Traditional sensors are basically belong to low-end basic categories, with slow response, low precision, poor stability, large volume, and poor adaptability to harsh industrial sites (high temperature, dust, humidity, electromagnetic interference, etc.) and high energy consumption, low technical content and short life. While modern industrial controls ensure high-quality and efficient operation of production equipment, and built-in sensors require not only communication but also accuracy and stability. In the application scenarios of different industrial fields, some precision instruments or devices themselves are small in size, which also puts higher requirements on sensor miniaturization.

　　  2. Function

　　 Traditionally, in the process of data collection, we can only use the same working principle through the physical variables were recorded in the form of data and the collected data is sent to the device controller, which cannot automatically and intelligently collect, provide, and analyze massive amounts of data at the front end,  and cannot communicate with the Internet or the cloud at all times. Big data analytics is the foundation for smart manufacturing, which requires sensors to operate more intelligently, which is critical for big data and industrial automation convergence, and also a breakthrough for smart manufacturing.

Therefore, traditional sensors can no longer meet the needs of modern manufacturing, and it is imperative for sensors to develop intelligently. 

　　 Advantages of smart sensors: The concept of smart sensors was first proposed by NASA in the process of research and development of spacecraft. It refers to multi-component integrated circuits with functions of information collection, information processing, information exchange, information storage etc, which is an integrated and systematic sensor by combining communication chips, microprocessors, drivers, and software algorithms. Compared with traditional sensors, smart sensors have the ability to automatically collect information, process data, logically judge, self-calculate, self-diagnose, self-compensate, self-compensate, adapt to external environment with better stability and precision. On the one hand, smart sensors can communicate at the controller level through a more flexible interface, and enable higher data layer communication, and additional data or software system interfaces allow the sensor to perform new analysis tasks and new functions, whose capabilities increase the flexibility, quality, efficiency and transparency of production; on the other hand, due to the addition of intelligent functions, the data provided by smart sensors is more compact and practical, and the utilization efficiency of data resources is higher, and the data processing results obtained are more accurate so that  the intelligent sensors that directly preprocess, compress, and filter data internally can better meet the requirements of intelligent manufacturing. With the applications deepening, smart sensors are gradually developed in the direction of miniaturization, digitization, intelligence, systemization, networking, mobile Internet etc.

     Application of smart sensors: in smart factories, whether it is intelligent robots, intelligent production lines, or automated production equipment, their workflows are basically data acquisition, analysis and processing, many of which are done by smart sensors. Smart sensors not only provide real-time monitoring data for production control, but also provide early warning and status monitoring to make field devices transparent and real-time controllable. At the Hannover Messe, ABB presented a smart sensor, with which the relevant operating status information and status parameters of each motor can be quickly and accurately obtained like vibration, temperature or overload, while measuring energy consumption with an accuracy of 10%, and the data is wirelessly transmitted to the cloud server to analyze the obtained data by the specially developed software converted into usable information,  providing customers with information and advice on motor maintenance. The equipment manager can check the running status of the motor at any time through the smartphone or computer, and can perform planned maintenance according to actual need rather than rely on the planned maintenance, which avoids unplanned downtime and the extension of running time. Preventive maintenance is a very important advantage, as a one-hour shutdown during the production process means a loss of tens of thousands of euros.