Research Articles

The aerogel market is forecast to exceed $700m within the next decade. This may appear modest for a unique material family that has been known for nearly a century, but after long periods of stagnation and several market failings this would represent a significant growth from the market status in 2020. This article will look at what will be driving this growth.

Drone sensors are critical to wider drone adoption. IDTechEx forecast that the market for drone sensors will be greater than $2.9Bn by 2031, according to their recent market research report "Drone Market and Industries: 2021-2041"

Investment and development in haptics is accelerating, and the supply chain providing the actuators, drivers and software behind these key components is evolving at a faster pace every year. IDTechEx's latest report on haptics, "Haptics 2021-2031: Technologies, Market & Players", predicts that the industry will be worth nearly $5bn in 2025.

Companies are successfully innovating as an old technology pivots quickly to tackling a global problem.

Among the Li-ion batteries competitors, the Redox Flow Battery (RFB) system is one of the main competitors currently approaching the market.

Why sustainable diesel when electric vehicles will dominate the market? How sustainable are such 'sustainable fuels' really? What are the emerging technologies in this space? Senior Technology Analyst Dr Alex Holland joins Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx to discuss the new IDTechEx report "Sustainable Alternative Fuels 2021-2031"

IDTechEx expects electric motorcycle sales in Europe to grow at least 50% year-on-year in 2020, building on the momentum of recent years.

Growth in global energy consumption has caused CO2 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to rise, in turn causing an increase in average global temperatures. The combustion of fossil fuels including coal, oil, and natural gas, has been a key driver behind this, providing the underlying driver for the production and use of non-fossil alternative fuels that can help reduce emissions.

Phone systems change every ten years. 5G communications is now rolling out worldwide. It is time to plan 6G communications for 2030! Although little is decided - not even the frequency - much can be said about the extremely ambitious 6G objectives and challenges. This article gives the IDTechEx appraisal of 6G communications 2021-2041.

Thursday 25 February 2021 - Solar cars and boats are now mainstream, some never plugging in. The technology of the most advanced ones is being licensed to others, a robot shuttle being next up.

Printed/flexible sensors offer multiple benefits relative to their more established rigid counterparts, including lower weight, flexibility/conformality, and potentially lower manufacturing costs since printing facilitates high-throughput continuous production methods. In this article IDTechEx identifies top five innovative printed/flexible sensor technologies along with their associated applications.

Like the Beatles in the 60s, Tesla has arguably achieved the feat of being simultaneously the best and most popular at what they do. As the IDTechEx report "Electric Vehicles: Land, Sea & Air 2021-2041" discusses, Tesla enters a new market and quickly becomes the top-selling electric vehicle maker. In this article, we focus on Tesla's innovations in the field of power electronics and some of the new materials opportunities being created.

Given the exciting properties, graphene has always been linked as a revolutionary material for the electronics industry. CVD graphene is cited as the ideal solution in providing a perfect single layer produced in a low cost continuous R2R process, but the manufacturing and commercial reality have proved very different. After a long period of research, and with players regularly exiting and entering the field, we are only now starting to see this technology mature and the dawn of the commercial reality.

Exploring trends in the change of the cathode chemistry; EV cell energy density; reduction of battery pack materials weight; and strategies of EV auto makers.

By 2026, demand for sustainable aviation fuels could reach over 3.5 billion litres. Find out more in the brand new IDTechEx report, "Sustainable Alternative Fuels 2021-2031" - biofuels, renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuels, e-fuels, green ammonia, technologies, players, markets.

This video presentation shares some of the research from the new IDTechEx report "Solar Vehicles 2021-2041 2nd Edition". www.IDTechEx.com/Solar

COVID-19 is driving 3- and 4-digit growth for antimicrobial companies - this market has received significant attention from governments, industry, and even consumers over the past year (2020) due to the technology's potential to address transmission of COVID-19.

The WHO said in 2019 that over 70% of the world's population have access to clean water. Clean water is required by all and is a product that has a direct impact on the consumer. Many companies must meet targets and goals set by their country or industry body with water cleanliness and pollution monitoring. However, unlike the oil and gas industry, the water industry is behind with its uptake of digitization and in the monitoring of networks in many countries across the globe.

With more than 1TWh of battery capacity installed in the ten-year forecast and a market size of $56bn, the "Batteries for Stationary Energy Storage 2021-2031" report shows the fast-growing scale of this market, analyzing the main technologies involved in this energetic revolution.

3D printing offers an efficient method to improve current manufacturing limits across economic sectors such as transport, construction, and medical and dental industries allowing rapid prototyping and on-site production and repairs.

Brand new report available from IDTechEx - "Antimicrobial Technology Market 2021-2031" - antimicrobial additives and antimicrobial coatings provide continuous and residual antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal action

Thursday 11 February 2021 - More Cells, Less Pack: Materials for Electric Vehicle Batteries. This webinar covers An overview of materials used in battery cells and battery packs; Key OEM designs and how this could change; and The impact of the above on material demands and markets.

With sensors, the systems and software are a bigger business than the sensors themselves. For example, your body has primitive sensors such as eyes and fingers, but it processes the data in combination, so the whole is greater than the parts. Call it "sensor fusion", something increasingly seen in the automotive, healthcare, and robotic industries.

Thursday 18 February 2021 - Emerging 3rd and 4th generation emissive materials for OLED displays; A technological transition that increases the efficiency of organic photovoltaics; Functional inks for lighting; and Low temperature component attachment materials.

The remarkable price increases in particular US stocks, most notably GameStop, made the news last week as the power of retail investors to move markets became clear. On Monday 1st Feb, the BBC reported that silver prices increased by around 10 % as retail investors turned their attention to commodities, reaching a 5-month high of almost $950/kg.

Thursday 4 February 2021 - This webinar will include: Battery technologies; The main players in the industry; Key geographical markets; and Competition from plug-in hybrids, 48V hybrids and battery electric vehicles

Wednesday 3 February 2021 - 5G communications has come to a phone near you and 6G communications received strong investment in 2020 as we move to its standards, specification and substantial rollout in 2030. However, this time will be different because the objective is far more heroic.

In 2017, after four years of setbacks and crashes, Alphabet shut its project flying solar-powered fixed-wing drones in the upper atmosphere to beam the internet to those cut-off. They have now ended their upper-atmosphere balloon version as well.

Tesla has plans to enter a new market: India. This story has unfolded only one way so far. Tesla decides to enter a new market and quickly becomes the top-selling EV maker by leveraging its powerful brand and class-leading technology at a competitive price. But will it be so easy in India?

The electric truck market in the US is primed for huge growth. Having largely lagged behind China and Europe in electric commercial vehicle deployment, the transition to zero-emission vehicles in this sector now seems set to begin in earnest.

Printing solar panels like newsprint using organic semiconductors is the longstanding aspiration, given the obvious benefits of renewable energy and the potential for low-cost, large-area, energy-efficient production.

Tuesday 2 February 2021 - The webinar includes: Impact of COVID-19 on the markets for different classes of 3D printed materials; Impact on 3D printed materials markets in different geographical regions; and Overall 10-year forecast for the 3D printed materials market.

Multiple drivers are emerging for graphene as the value-added material of choice. One market driver that is perhaps surprising but will have a major impact over the next decade is sustainability.

With the growing market for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), will this drive further demand for NiMH batteries and stop them from being eliminated from the automotive market?

The lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) present very different material demands at the cell- and pack-level compared with the internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicles they replace.

The new IDTechEx report, "Transparent Electronics Materials, Applications, Markets 2021-2041", describes a market increasing fivefold from 2021-2031. By 2041 it will be over $23 billion.