Research Articles

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

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.

IDTechEx forecasts that the critical material recovery market value will exceed US$66 billion per year by 2046, as demand, waste volume, and regulatory pressures all grow. Lithium-ion batteries and rare earth magnets are set to become key secondary sources of critical materials, as commercially mature recycling technology capacity scales in anticipation of growing waste volume becoming available in the 2030's.

Solid-state batteries (SSBs) are maturing into early deployment, and with that maturity comes a practical question: what happens at end of life? Recycling is an important starting point for thinking about sustainability and materials security in SSBs, but it is only a small piece of a much larger transition. This article outlines why recycling matters, where it sits in the bigger picture, and how the IDTechEx report "Solid State Batteries 2026-2036: Technology, Forecasts, Players" can guide decisions beyond circularity alone.

As the demand for sustainable, high-performance ingredients continues to grow, specialty chemicals are emerging as a critical focus area in the chemical industry's transition to greener, more precise manufacturing. Unlike commodity chemicals, which are produced in high volumes and valued for their scale, specialty chemicals are defined by their function, purity, and compliance with rigorous performance or regulatory standards. These chemicals are essential to a wide range of products, from food and cosmetics to catalysts and coatings, and their production presents both technical challenges and commercial opportunity.

As AI workloads continue to scale, thermal management has become one of the most critical and costly elements of data center infrastructure. The cost analysis of server cooling components highlights an important reality: while cold plates often receive the most attention, they represent only a fraction of the total thermal system cost. The true economic picture emerges when server-level cooling is aggregated to the rack and facility level.

Join IDTechEx Principal Technology Analyst Dr Tess Skyrme on Thursday 8th January for this 30-minute webinar, where she will overview three exciting sensor technology innovations: AI, Quantum, and Nanocarbons.

Rare earth magnets, advanced coatings, and aerogels, are just a few of the technologies researched and included in IDTechEx's portfolio of Advanced Materials & Critical Minerals Research Reports.

The telecommunications industry is contemplating a problem it hasn't faced before, a lack of growth. As reported by IDTechEx "6G Market 2026-2036: Technology, Trends, Forecasts, Players", YoY growth rates in global wireless traffic have been on a downward trend since 2020 (albeit still exhibiting growth). As the industry continues to lay the groundwork for the CAPEX-intensive shift to 6G, could various manifestations of AI offer a pathway to renewed growth?

This article gives an overview of the mechanisms by which self-healing occurs, an insight into the trade-offs between different mechanisms, and the key applications adopting self-healing materials, including a look to the long-term future of these materials.

IDTechEx analyst Conrad Nichols summarises the latest progress of Redox Flow batteries.

The article explains some of the benefits that adoption of new advanced coating technologies can bring. This can come both in terms of higher performance, as well as supporting both direct and indirect regulatory compliance. These benefits can be brought to several industries, such as automotive, oil & gas, aerospace, construction and wind energy.