Internet of Things

Internet of Things (IoT) is the third revolution in the information technology industry. It simply means the interconnection of vast heterogeneous network frameworks and systems in different patterns of communication, such as human-to-human, human-to-thing, thing-to-human or thing-to-thing^[1]. IoT objective is to connect almost everything under a common infrastructure, which helps to control devices and keep us informed about the status of devices. The development of the IoT can be divided into the embryonic stage, the preliminary development stage and the high-speed development stage.

Industrial Chain of the IoT

The three layers in production chain of the IoT are sensor layer, network layer, application layer and the functions are data collection, data transmission and date application, respectively.

• Sensor layer

As the bottom layer of the IoT, sensor layer is the information feedback link of the whole system. The data is identified by various types of wireless intelligent sensors, RFID, quick response code, camera, and transmitted to gateway equipment through short-distance wireless communication (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Ultra wide band, etc.).

• Network layer

Network layer receives the data from sensor layer through wide area communication network (Public telephone network, Internet, WiMax, broadcast television network, 3G/4G/5G mobile network, etc.), and transmits the data to application layer controller and user terminal after processing and analysis.

• Application layer

Application layer is the top layer of the IoT. It mainly solves industry problems in specific vertical fields based on the data of the network layer. Several IoT applications, which include energy, enterprise, healthcare, public service, residency, retail, and transportation have been designed and implemented to detect environmental changes and send updates to a cloud computing server via mobile communications and middleware. For instance, on-board units in cars can instantly detect and share information about the geolocation, speed, following distance of cars, and gap with other neighboring cars.

Semiconductors of the IoT

Sensors, chips, network, display and others are key to the development of the IoT, especially chips. With the increasing flexibility requirements of the IoT, low-power and high-reliability semiconductor chips are widely used in various basic devices. Microcontroller unit (MCU) and system on chip (SoC) are main chips in the IoT industry. MCU has low complexity and is suitable for short distance information transportation of smart devices, mainly applied in smart home, consumer electronics, healthcare, industrial electronics and other fields. SoC is more complex and has more integrated functions, which can be applied to embedded electronic devices with complex functions, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous driving, and industrial Internet.

Significance of the IoT

What Can We do?

As a globally renowned semiconductor supplier, Alfa Chemistry has the ability to supply superior-quality semiconductor materials for IoT companies around the world. Our company promises "reasonable price, short production cycle, good service" to customers. Looking forward to cooperating with you.

Reference

1. Alaba, F.A.; et al. Internet of Things security: a survey. Journal of Network and Computer Applications. 2017, 88: 10-28.