Research Articles

The current outbreak of a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has hit China in the past month and spread to 25 nations. Early detection and diagnosis are essential to reduce the prevalence of infectious diseases and to prevent them from becoming epidemic or even pandemic.

The rise of electric vehicles is creating many new material opportunities. One such material class is the die attach material used in power electronics.

Since their accelerated growth began in 2015, 2019 saw two of the top three regions selling electric cars plateau as a short-term transition from 'carrot' to 'stick' unfolds. In China, serious subsidy phase-outs, amid relaxing of internal combustion engine bans (to stimulate overall car sales), are to blame. Similarly, growth in the US has been underpinned by Tesla, whose tax credits were slashed mid-year as quotas were reached.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Wednesday 12 February 2020 titled XR: What is XR, and where is it going?

What does it take to commercialize photonic beam steering?

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) must be better managed for patient care to improve. The protocols for monitoring patients are rapidly evolving. Historically, patients who fall ill are required to travel in order to visit a general practitioner or hospital. This procedure may soon become a thing of the past.

IDTechEx attended AutoSens 2019, the event took place at the car museum in Brussels. This event is focused on all future vehicle perception technologies, including lidar, radar, and camera. In this article, we summarized key learnings around lidar technologies.

In this article, IDTechEx highlight the trends, challenges, and innovation opportunities, shedding light on the likely technology roadmap towards QLED.

Understanding the future of the Li-ion supply chain requires clarity on the technologies and chemistries that will be used over the coming decade.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Wednesday 5 February 2020 titled Plant-Based and Cultured Meat: The Future of Meat Alternatives.

Electric vehicles by land, water and air are rapidly arriving and rapidly being misunderstood. Motors last forever? No. We now push motors so hard they wear out, increasing sales.

There is dramatic change in some industries, with leading printed electronics vendors moving quickly to capitalize on the new sought after capabilities. These opportunities will be addressed at the Printed Electronics Europe exhibition and conference in Berlin on 13 - 14 May (register by 23 January to save 40%).

Here come previously impossible devices and structures. The new IDTechEx report, "Smart Material Opportunities in Structural Electronics 2020-2030" analyses and forecasts a remarkable $200 billion materials opportunity by making dumb structures smart.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday 23 January 2020 titled Electric Vehicle Motor Manufacturers: Which to Buy, Employ, Avoid.

Diagnosing CVD is the first step in patients' road to recovery. It is imperative to detect the disease early in order to administer treatment while it is still treatable. In addition, preventing the disease altogether is becoming more important in healthcare. The main approaches for detecting CVD are currently in vitro diagnostics (IVD) at point-of-care (POC) and the use artificial intelligence (AI) in cardiovascular imaging.

IDTechEx Technology Analyst Dr David Wyatt has recently published a report update "Electric Truck 2020-2030", focusing on electrification in the medium and heavy-duty truck markets, providing a comprehensive set of market forecasts.

Recycling waste plastics is essential to creating a circular economy. Current recycling methods are hampered by issues such as societal perceptions of recycling, to economic barriers and technological; however, over the past few years the number of technical innovations to improve polymer recycling have substantially increased.

IDTechEx has issued the first in-depth report on this called, "Robot Shuttles and Autonomous Buses 2020-2040". Robot shuttles are an important new, reconfigurable form of transportation for goods and people that may even function as mobile offices, workshops, restaurants and more.

New IDTechEx report on AR, VR and MR products by Technology Analyst Dr. Charlotte Coles discusses the technology, market, and players of the past, present and future. XR, or extended reality, products are at the forefront of technological change. Virtual reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality. With so many different XR products now available for a variety of use cases, it is important to understand how the different technologies are used, and companies which create them.

Last mile delivery is the most expensive part of the delivery chain, often representing more than 50% of the overall cost. This is mainly because it is the least productive and automated step. As such, many are seeking to bring automation into the last mile.

Few of the giant car makers have shown urgency in transitioning away from the internal combustion engine. What's more, the automotive market is set to decline once again in 2019 whilst electrifying newcomers made huge gains in front of sleeping incumbents' noses. Although a large fraction of this is orders (not deliveries), if OEMs do not wake up now, they never will.

Central to any circular economy is polymer recycling. Current mechanical recycling processes face many issues from societal perceptions of recycling, to economic and technological barriers; however, there are a number of companies whose innovations are changing the face of polymer recycling. From IDTechEx's latest report, "Green Technology and Polymer Recycling: Market Analysis 2020-2030" by Dr Bryony Core, here is a rundown of some of these key companies.

2019 has been a big year for plant-based meat substitutes. Spurred on by consumer perceptions of healthiness and a global megatrend towards conscious consumptions, sales of plant-based meat grew by almost 40%, compared with 2017. In the three months after going public, plant-based burger maker Beyond Meat's share price surged by 500% and rival Impossible Foods secured an additional $300 million in funding.

Will the hamburgers of the future be made from animal cells grown in a lab instead of inside a cow? Cultured meat, also known as "cell-based" or "clean" meat, could soon be making its way to our dinner plates, completely bypassing the need for animal slaughter and overcoming some of the major environmental issues that currently plague the global agriculture industry. Even though no products have yet been released and there are major challenges with cost, regulation and scale up, the industry is growing rapidly, with investment reaching a new high in 2019.

Thermal interface materials (TIM) play a crucial role in numerous sectors, from lithium-ion batteries to 5G base stations, LEDs, consumer electronics and more. Heat dissipation is often on the of the limiting factors as many industries look to increase power and reduce the size.

IDTechEx is hosting a free webinar on Thursday 16 January 2020 titled Innovations in Cardiovascular Disease Management.

The trend of investment in and acquisition of mobile robotic companies seeking to automate the movement of goods within warehouses, fulfilment centres, and manufacturing facilities is still rising.

In the past decade, progress continues in the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies. IDTechEx forecasts that autonomous car and mobitliy services will become a $2.5 trillion market by 2040.

Automation in the delivery/logistic and warehousing/fulfilment chain is a growing market. A particularly exciting subset of this is the use of mobile robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles for automation of movement-based tasks.

IDTechEx will be hosting a webinar on 17 December titled RFID: Progress, Trends and Where Next.

Farad Power Inc took home the Best Technical Development within Energy Storage Award from the recent IDTechEx Show in Santa Clara. Their submission on 'Solid State Sodium Ion Batteries for Grid Energy Storage' caught the attention of the independent group of judges, which included Engie Storage, UL and Enevate.

At the recent IDTechEx Show in Santa Clara, C2Sense took the award for 'Graphene & 2D Materials - Most Significant Advancement In Graphene, CNT, Or 2D Material Commercialization'. Their application was on 'Selective CNT Gas Sensors' and was a popular choice with the independent judging panel.

Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) are not glamourous but are often an essential component found in all manner of electronic and energy storage applications. Indeed, they are absolutely pervasive. They are truly a diverse technology in terms of suppliers, material options, deposition techniques, applications, market requirement and performance levels. This makes them difficult to analyse.

Autonomous driving technologies are disrupting the business models for the traditional auto industry. Latest research from IDTechEx forecasts that autonomous driving technologies will accelerate the arrival of peak car sales, in 2031.

As developers' understanding of this disease grows, so will the range of devices at their disposal to address it. They have only scratched the surface of how technology can improve CVD patients' lives and, as they dig deeper, they will continue to unlock the potential of this growing market.

The idea of growing meat outside an animal has been around for a long time. In 1931, Winston Churchill wrote that by the 1980s "we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium." Although his timing was off by four decades, his predictions are beginning to materialise as the world looks for new ways to feed its burgeoning population whilst overcoming the environmental problems of conventional animal agriculture.