Research Articles

A complimentary collection of insights written by IDTechEx industry experts, covering key technology innovation trends shaping the next decade.

Celebrating Chinese New Year 2026: IDTechEx Highlights Rising UK Engagement with Chinese Automakers and Asia-Pacific Industry Collaboration

Quantifying the smallest phenomena or enabling the securest of communications is possible with developments in quantum technologies. This article covers the latest trends and forecasts across quantum sensing, computing, and communications.

This article evaluates some of the strengths and weaknesses of reflective and diffractive waveguides used in augmented reality (AR) optics for smart glasses.

Join IDTechEx Technology Analyst Shihao Fu on Thursday 19th February for this expert webinar where we will explore how regulatory clarity, automation, sensor integration, and evolving business models are enabling certain drone applications to scale, while others continue to face structural barriers. Choose your preferred time zone - the webinar runs three times in one day.

Grid-scale energy storage (ES) markets are dominated by pumped hydro storage (PHS) and Li-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS). The reducing costs of Li-ion technologies continues to create challenges for other energy and battery storage technologies, such as redox flow batteries (RFBs) to penetrate short-duration grid-scale markets. However, the different demands of emerging applications such as data centers and long duration energy storage could be key for RFB developers to target. This article from IDTechEx examines the future strategies and considerations for flow battery developers and emerging applications.

Join IDTechEx Principal Technology Analyst Conrad Nichols on Tuesday 17th February for this expert webinar "Battery Storage Trends in Data Centers and Commercial & Industrial Applications". Choose your preferred time zone - the webinar runs three times during the day.

IDTechEx analyst Conrad Nichols discusses the role of batteries in data centers.

An increase in commercial flights and the moving away from government operations is resulting in a rising interest in thermal protection systems for spacecraft. This article explores different approaches with a focus on aerobraking and passive and ablative systems.

In this brief video Senior Technology Analyst Pranav Jaswani covers the advancement of direct lithium extraction processes.

Hand delivering parcels to the front door, providing companionship for people living alone, or working in warehouse manufacturing lines are some of the potential applications for robots. This article explores service robots, mobile robots, and collaborative robots.

Missed out on CES this year? Or did you attend but miss the chance to explore the sensor innovations on display? In this article, IDTechEx Principal Technology Analyst Dr Tess Skyrme outlines three important trends for the sensor market evident from our trip to Las Vegas this year.

While the HEFA pathway dominates sustainable fuel production globally, feedstocks are limited. In this article, IDTechEx explores advanced biofuel technologies expected to rise when the world runs out of HEFA.

Join IDTechEx Technology Analyst Noah El Alami on Thursday 12th February for this expert webinar "How Materials Can Enable Commercial Quantum Technologies". Choose your preferred time zone - the webinar runs three times during the day.

White biotechnology is a key step in a circular economy, enabling the transformation of waste to industrially useful chemicals via a sustainable process. This article delves into two of the key market drivers for industrial biomanufacturing: government policy and technology advancement.

There has been a continuous increase in the cost of platinum since 1970. In this article, IDTechEx introduces the role of Pt as a catalyst in PEM fuel cells and outlines several ways in which the industry is striving to reduce its dependence on the ever increasingly expensive precious metal.

As optical transceivers continue to advance in bandwidth, power efficiency, and integration level, their influence is extending beyond the data-centre network and into the way AI systems themselves are architected. Increasingly, the transition toward optical interconnects is not driven by raw bandwidth demand alone, but by the growing tension between electrical SerDes scaling, system power budgets, and physical architecture constraints. To understand how this shift is unfolding, it is useful to first distinguish between scale-up fabrics, connectivity in AI systems.

Green hydrogen has been promised as the clean energy carrier of the future, but recent project delays and cancellations have raised questions about whether it will truly become a cornerstone of the energy transition or turn out to be an overhyped technology that fails to scale. In this article, IDTechEx explores key market trends and regional developments that could shape the future of the green hydrogen market.

Join IDTechEx Senior Technology Analyst Pranav Jaswani on Thursday 29th January for this expert webinar "Direct Lithium Extraction: Reshaping Global Lithium Supply Through Efficiency & Sustainability". Choose your preferred time zone - the webinar runs three times during the day.

As communication systems move to higher frequencies (e.g. 5G/6G) and data transfers move to higher rates, minimizing transmission losses and maintaining signal integrity become very important. This is where low-loss materials come in. With several different options for low-loss materials available in the market, this article looks at the key properties and factors to consider that guide the selection of materials for high frequency applications.

Enhancing the relationship between people's health and wellbeing and the global movement of digitalization with the use of wearables will allow for a wider understanding of health conditions or the optimization of communication. This article explores different device types and their use cases.

This article describes the variety of optics required for XR (extended reality) devices. For AR glasses, this includes waveguides and other technologies such as birdbath combiners, whilst for VR headsets, solutions include pancake, Fresnel, and aspheric lenses. Across XR devices, different optics solutions are required based on the intended use case, with a variety of factors contributing to the suitability of an optics technology for a specific device. Factors include weight, optical efficiency, image quality, form factor, and cost.

In this article, IDTechEx Technology Analyst Noah El Alami explores the material and fabrication challenges in scaling up quantum computers and sensors based on superconducting chips.

In-mold electronics (IME) is a manufacturing technology that prioritizes functionality and the seamless integration of electrical components into 3D structures. This article covers the use of IME for a sophisticated and lightweight aesthetic and some of the market forecasts over the next ten years.

Join IDTechEx Senior Technology Analyst Eve Pope on Thursday 22nd January for the expert-led webinar "Sustainable Fuels: Technology Innovations and Market Developments for Biofuels and E-Fuels", offering independent, research-backed insights.

The vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technology is the most commercially deployed flow battery chemistry. However, high electrolyte costs have inhibited the wider market penetration of the technology, especially since Li-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) costs continue to fall. Vanadium electrolyte leasing models may help to reduce upfront cost to some degree, though the commercialization of cheaper, alternative flow battery chemistries will also drive global flow battery market growth. This article examines the current state of VRFBs and the evolving commercialization of alternative redox flow battery (RFB) technologies.

Thermal management systems could be likened to the glue holding operations together, to ensure systems can run smoothly in optimal conditions. This article explores in particular IDTechEx's research into thermal management for battery energy storage systems and electric vehicles.

Decarbonization of the aviation and maritime sectors will require large amounts of low-carbon fuels to reach global net-zero targets. IDTechEx forecasts that the global sustainable aviation fuel market may reach US$50 billion in 2036.

In this article, IDTechEx Technology Analyst Noah El Alami discusses the potential of the new generation of nuclear technologies - fission small modular reactors (SMRs) and fusion energy - in powering the ever-increasing capacity of AI data centers.

Join IDTechEx Principal Technology Analyst Dr Yu-Han Chang on Thursday 15th January for the expert-led webinar "CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) Technologies and Market Outlook for Next-Gen AI Systems", offering independent, research-backed insights.

The growth of Li-ion batteries creates surging demand for lithium, but there is an increasing need for extraction methods that are efficient, sustainable, and versatile across different environments and regions. This article highlights how the emergence of direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies will allow producers to satisfy these needs while scaling up to meet global lithium demand in the coming decade.

Graphene and advanced coatings are two of the subject matters explored in IDTechEx's extensive portfolio of Advanced Materials and Critical Minerals research reports. This article explores some of graphene's main applications and a wide variety of advanced coating types.

The service robotics industry has grown quickly in recent years, spurred on by advances in robotics technology and artificial intelligence (AI), and is set to alleviate labor shortage issues across multiple industries. This IDTechEx article examines the winners in the short and long term in the service robots market.

Global battery energy storage system (BESS) deployments continue to be deployed at a rapid pace, with surging deployments seen especially in grid-scale markets. Giant Li-ion BESS players dominate this market leaving untapped opportunities for smaller players to exploit in commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors, behind-the-meter (BTM). However, operating in this underappreciated market can be complex, given the vast end-use applications and changing regional drivers. This article highlights the emerging demand for C&I BESS technologies.

BESS developers are adopting various passive and active thermal management materials and technologies to improve the safety of their Li-ion BESS technologies. By understanding the root causes and impacts of BESS failure, battery storage players and regulators can target Li-ion BESS technology development with a greater targeted purpose, putting an emphasis on safety to reduce fire and explosion risk. A key pathway to address Li-ion BESS failures could also be with large-scale fire testing (LSFT).

2025 has seen a slew of announcements for high speed electric vehicle (EV) motors, with several exceeding 30,000rpm! What is behind this sudden need for speed? In this article, IDTechEx discusses the benefits, challenges, and solutions for taking this approach. With IDTechEx's latest report on Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2026-2036 predicting that over 140 million EV motors will be required in the year 2036, shifting technology trends could see new opportunities for motor manufacturers and their suppliers.