Research Articles

As increasing numbers of devices gain electronic functionality, many new applications will require some sort of display. This growth in functional, wirelessly connected devices is an exciting technological transition that could radically reshape how we interact with previously inanimate objects.

Thursday 15 April 2021 - Green Hydrogen Production Systems: Future Development of the Hydrogen Industry. Understanding of the hydrogen economy concept: characteristics and problematics; Technical analysis of the major electrolyser technologies; and Future evolution of hydrogen market.

Join the IDTechEx webinar Wednesday 31 March 2021 - An introduction to urban air mobility and air taxi services; The basics of eVTOL aircraft design architectures; Background into ongoing eVTOL projects for passenger transportation; and much more!

Photovoltaics is now a key enabling technology for land vehicles and boats. The favorite type is single crystal silicon - it used to be protected by an acrylic sheet on either side, making it bendable when being fitted, but that has strength and weathering issues. Now, much stronger, long-life polycarbonate is taking over.

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is generating much enthusiasm across the world, with the hopes that it could play a major role in the fight against climate change. However, amidst this enthusiasm, the industry suffered an apparent setback in mid-2020 when the Petra Nova facility in Texas, then the world's largest CCUS facility for a coal-fired power station, was closed down.

We are looking for entrepreneurial, enthusiastic people to join IDTechEx to apply their technical knowledge. You will be involved with technology scouting, market research and consultancy in a rapidly growing, exciting, global firm.

The IDTechEx report, "Robot Shuttles and Autonomous Buses 2020-2040," predicted second-generation robot shuttles, and here they come - vectored traction and steering, smart windows, robotic fast charging, and solar bodywork, so 10-40% less charging is needed.

6G Communications will become one of the largest technology investments. It is currently in the healthy first stage of promising everything to widely deploy some in 2030. Even at this early stage, some myths are emerging.

IDTechEx has released a new spreadsheet-based tool that lists our assumptions for several material intensities at a cell- and pack-level for battery-electric vehicle (BEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) batteries in the car market.

For a long time, graphene has been cited as the wonder material that will change the world. The reality has been very different; disillusionment has started to grow as the hype has not translated into revenue. Is the "tipping point" finally approaching?

Air taxis and flying cars are easy to hype but IDTechEx's new report on the subject is not that hype. This independent research into electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for passenger transport reflects the reality of the eVTOL market at this early stage of its development.

6G Communications is coming to your smartphone around 2030, according to Samsung and others, but it can only succeed if it deploys smart surfaces everywhere. Essential to this is printed electronics.

Thursday 25 March 2021 - By 2026, demand for sustainable aviation fuels could reach over 3.5 billion litres. This webinar will introduce key areas including: Renewable diesel growth; Sustainable aviation fuel; and Electro-fuel production technologies and players

Additively manufactured electronics is an emerging approach that takes printed electronics into the third dimension. IDTechEx divides the sector into two aspects: 'fully additive' and 'printing onto 3D surfaces'. Both have multiple application opportunities that IDTechEx believes will develop over the next decade.

Thursday 18 March 2021 - New Opportunities Emerge for the Aerogel Market. The status of the silica aerogel market; Overview of key manufacturers capacity and product benchmarking; Assessment on the rise of Chinese manufacturers; Patent developments; and much more.

Conductive inks are a long-established technology, however, technology rarely stands still, and there is extensive innovation within the conductive ink space. Particle-free inks are an especially promising example with multiple advantages and applications.

The smart surfaces essential to 6G communications will be over $7 billion in 2034 - find out more in the upcoming webinar Thursday 1 April 2021.

Today, antimicrobial technologies are used around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Surfaces and products protected by antimicrobial technology can continuously inactivate and kill harmful microorganisms such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In this article, IDTechEx highlights three innovative start-ups that are developing next-generation antimicrobial technologies.

Thermal management is one of the most important topics in a wide range of applications; from electric vehicle battery packs through to consumer electronics, there is a pressing need to dissipate heat efficiently. Thermal interface materials (TIM) come in numerous types and play a crucial role in the thermal transfer from a heat source. This article looks at what the major innovations are for these materials and why those developments are significant.

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies are likely to play a key role in the fight against climate change, with the UN estimating that CCUS could mitigate between 1.5 and 6.3 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalents per year by 2050. The world has already taken its steps along this pathway, however, for CCUS to have a meaningful impact on emissions in a timely manner, it will need to scale up hundreds of times compared with today's levels.

In February 2021, The US agency DARPA awarded contracts to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and Martin Defense Group (formerly Navatek) to build demonstration versions of the new Manta Ray unmanned underwater vehicle with an energy-harvesting system to power it indefinitely, allowing the robot submarine to carry out missions lasting months or years without returning to base or refueling.

Wednesday 10 March 2021 - What are the key antimicrobial technologies on the market today?; How do they work? Mechanisms of action for key antimicrobial technologies; Innovations in antimicrobial technologies - what are companies developing?; and more.

Thursday 4 March 2021 - Summary of the current electric light commercial vehicle, electric medium and heavy-duty truck, and electric bus markets, and IDTechEx's outlook for these sectors; The role for battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell electric vehicles; and more.

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.