Latest trend of sensor technology is toward progress of sensor materials, integration, manufacturing using micro machining and scale up of application systems. And the development of new sensors using these technology has achieved many remarkable results. Domestic sensor market is now rapidly expanding. Under the circumstances, Fuji Electric have been developing and commercializing various new sensors, with regard for sensor technology as essential elementary technology for characterizing various systems and devices. This paper describes a general situation of Fuji Electric's sensors and their prospects emphasizing process and factory automation uses.

Commissioned by the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International Trade and Industry for the large-scale national R & D project "Advanced Robot Technology," we have developed new tactile sensors.
The sensors detect force by means of single-crystal silicon and have three types: 3D-3mm, 3D-1mm, and 1D-2mm. The first two types can detect 3-component distributions of external force, and the last one can be equipped on a robot fingertip.
The paper describes an outline of these tactile sensors and details of the 3D-1mm type.

This paper describes high-sensitivity AFIC technology used for auto-focus(AF) cameras and its applied products. An integrating operational amplifier is used for the sensor and photo-current is accumulated only in integral capacitance. This makes the influence of photodiode junction capacitance and comparator input capacitance negligible, leading to improvement of sensitivity. Measures to cancel the offset voltage of operational amplifiers and switching noise were taken as well. The new products improved by these methods have achieved 8 times as good sensitivity as Fuji Electric's former types.

As the automation of industrial machinery developed, demands for position sensors such as proximity switches, photoelectric switches, and ultrasonic switches have been increasing. Recent demands have shown a tendency to have functions and characteristics improved for specified industrial use in addition to conventional general-purpose sensors. This paper introduces Fuji Electric's newly developed sensors intended for the automobile, multistory parking lot, machine-tool, and printing machine industries and refers to considerations for application.

This paper describes the types and principles of radiation sensors and compares their actual characteristics in a form of specification table. Particular description is given to sensors for radiation monitoring including survey meters (rate meters) and sensors for personal exposure control, placing an emphasis on semiconductor sensors for personal exposure control and environmental control such as area monitoring and dust monitoring.

Inductive proximity switches are indispensable to automation in industrial fields as sensors composing automatic control. The proximity switch market in recent years has been demanding long-distance detection, 2-wire type, and improvement in handling.
To meet these requirements, Fuji Electric developed a new IC and has commercialized inductive proximity switches using it. This paper introduces an outline of the new IC and its application, proximity switch PE2 series.

The Fuji video sensor is an inspection apparatus suitable for factory automation to automatize visual inspection of products. The general-purpose Fuji video sensor multiwindow series was developed before. To cover a wider range of uses, Fuji Electric has developed a new inspection apparatus with high-resolution and high-speed processing function to inspect the inside of containers. This paper gives an outline of the development.

The optical system using optical fibers based on optical technology have been applied widely to practical use making the most of its numerous merits. Its application is increasing also in the field of factory automation. Fuji Electric developed completely optical components that can take the place of conventional electrical components such as push-button switches and limit switches, and devices to build networks with those components. This paper describes an outline of the system and main detecting components: optical magnetic proximity switches, optical limit switch with monitoring function, transceivers, and optical thermal switches.

FFI, the only one field bus commercialized in the world, is an advanced field instrumentation system that adopts optical fiber in the physical layer. Since marketed in 1985, FFI has been supplied to many users and has contributed to the rationalization and reliability improvement of field instrumentation with the characteristics of the field bus and optical-fiber transmission.
This paper introduces the lineup of field devices for FFI systems. Those devices from sensors to final control elements prepared abundantly can meet almost all systems.

FCX series transmitters, which were developed in 1989, have been accepted by many users because of a high-accuracy rating of ±0.1% and usch a new concept as convertibility between analog and smart.
Fuji Electric has added two types of new transmitters. One is available for high-temperature and high-vacuum conditions. The other has unique seal diaphragms on which gold and ceramics are coated. This paper describes the construction, principle, specifications, and test results of these transmitters.

The ultrasonic flowmeter has a unique feature which can measure flow rate inside a pipeline from its outer surface utilizing the characteristics of the ultrasonic wave as an elastic wave. Fuji Electric has developed TIME DELTA series and put them on sale on the basis of the field results and improvements of previous types produced since 1974. The new series consist of small and easy-to-use transmitter FLV applying ASIC and SMT, and detector FLW which can be mounted in a short time by one person. We adopted ABM method for the measurement of fluid containing bubbles besides the TLL method.

Fuji Electric developed an aqueous ozone analyzer using a thin film semiconductor type ozone gas sensor jointly with the department of Waterworks, Osaka Prefectural Government. This unit uses a method of detecting ozone with the gas sensor after transferring dissolved ozone to the gaseous phase.
Its merits are continuous measurement without any reagent, wide-ranging measurement and high selectivity, and sensor arrangement out of contact with sample water. The characteristic evaluation that was carried out in a advanced water treatment pilot plant verified good correlation with the conventional titration method and stability over 6 months.
Future application to ozone water treatment is expected.