Research Articles

First came the eVTOL hype, followed by startups, investments, prototypes, and vertiport planning. Now, designs are being refined, and type certification is progressing. Battery and hydrogen fuel cell R&D are at their peak. eVTOL pilot training plans are forming, and vertiport construction is starting worldwide.

Refractive lenses are one of humanity's oldest and most ubiquitous technologies. They have developed to dizzying levels of sophistication in the last few hundred years, with today's tiny, high-quality lens assemblies found in smartphones often costing less than a dollar to produce.

Improving the performance and reducing the cost of Li-ion batteries have been primary concerns for the Li-ion battery industry over the past 10-15 years. The environmental and societal implications of Li-ion battery production and deployment have come under increasing scrutiny, along with concerns regarding supply chain concentration.

Thursday 11 July 2024 - SiC, GaN, and the Evolution of Power Electronics. In this webinar, IDTechEx will summarize the current market landscape concerning the wide bandgap semiconductors SiC and GaN and other EV power electronics market trends.

SWIR sensors and hyperspectral imaging are two of the largest types of emerging image sensors, and IDTechEx predicts the market value will reach US$739 million by 2034, highlighting just how valuable the technology will be.

With the trend from Si IGBT to SiC MOSFET in electric vehicle (EV) power electronics, the junction temperature is expected to increase from 150°C to 175°C with the potential to exceed 200°C. This brings significant challenges for thermal management.

Wednesday 3 July 2024 - Introduction to the broad family of conductive inks; Status and outlook for the dominant conductive ink type, silver flake-based ink, including an assessment of current demand and a ten-year forecast; Overview of emerging applications; Critical assessment of the outlook for non-silver inks such as stretchable/thermoformable inks and copper inks.

The Lidar market for automotive applications will grow to US$9.5 billion by 2034. This article discusses Lidar components, which are crucial to enable precise scanning, detection, sensing, and perception. Analyzing the Lidar components helps to understand their functionalities and the latest developments shaping the Lidar landscape.

Electric vehicles, much like combustion vehicles, require a suite of fluids in order to operate optimally. However, the quantities and properties of these fluids can be quite different. With a strongly growing EV market, this presents a large opportunity for not just fluid suppliers but also fluid additives and fluid handling component suppliers.

The mounting global plastic waste crisis has compelled scientists and engineers to seek novel solutions. Among the various technologies being explored, the pyrolysis of plastic waste has emerged as a significant contender.

The use of quantum dots in displays has made it to high-quality prototypes amongst established tech companies like Samsung, Sharp, and TCL. These semiconductor nanocrystals, the size of just 2-10 nanometres, can enable realistic and high-definition displays for TVs, monitors, and smart tablets.

Every year, our oceans absorb 11-15 gigatonnes of CO2 as part of the Earth's natural carbon cycle. An unsung hero in the face of rising global temperatures, negative emission technology pioneers have begun asking a simple question: What if the power of this immense marine carbon sink could be harnessed even further?

Wednesday 26 June 2024 - Introduction and historical sales for the global electric bus market; Key players and emerging market trends; Developments in battery and motor technology, and their impacts on electric buses; Market outlook

Thursday 27 June 2024 - Comprehensive Overview of Thermal Interface Materials: Trends and Developments; An overview of thermal interface materials by TIM form; TIMs in EV battery packs: Trends of TIM's thermal conductivity and property trend; TIMs in EV power electronics: TIM1 (die-attach technologies) and TIM2 overview; TIMs in data centers: TIM opportunities with the transition to liquid cooling; TIMs in 5G TIMs in ADAS; TIMs in consumer electronics

In 2008, the commercialization of the silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET marked a major turning point for the power semiconductor market, representing its first significant development in decades. This technology was pioneered in electric vehicles (EVs) with the 2017 Tesla Model 3. The SiC MOSFET is a transistor that promises high power density, greater efficiency, and is less fallible to high temperatures.

Data centers power the digital world, from storing images of cute cats to analyzing terabytes of data to power the next generation of ChatGPT. In their report "Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits 2024-2034: Market, Technologies, and Forecasts", IDTechEx forecasts rapid, short-term global data center growth due to growth in demand for AI and increased use of cloud-based systems globally.

One of the main reasons that electrification is so appealing in any industry is the reduction in operating costs offered by electric machines. This is especially true across the construction, agriculture, and mining (CAM) industries. Large machines with high uptimes, like mining haul trucks, can consume millions of dollars in fuel over their lifetime.

In April 2024, global energy, technology, and utility provider Hitachi Energy announced a US$1.5 billion investment program to ramp up global transformer production by 2027. IDTechEx's research into electrical grids indicates that transformers are a critical component and potential supply bottleneck for large-scale grid upgrades. These upgrades are essential as society shifts from a transportation sector fuelled by petrochemicals transported in tankers to a sector powered by electricity carried by wires.

Thursday 20 June 2024 - Exploring the Transformative Potential of Electromagnetic Metamaterials; A brief introduction to RF (radio frequency) and optical metamaterials, highlighting key market opportunities; Analysis of the emerging usage of metalenses, one of the most exciting applications of optical metamaterials, with important manufacturing processes potential challenges highlighted; Analysis of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS), the most promising applications of RF metamaterials, with discussion on players, technology roadmap, key case studies, etc; Adoption roadmaps for optical and RF metamaterials; Outlook for the electromagnetic metamaterials market

The conductive inks market will grow to exceed US$6.5 billion by 2034 but remains a highly segmented industry, underpinning both photovoltaics and the emerging field of printed electronics. Taking stock of the different outlooks for the myriad of conductive ink types and the various application areas is a complex task. IDTechEx has tackled this problem by assessing the market for different conductive ink types across 15 application areas and providing granular ten-year market forecasts.

Creating a circular economy is an essential sustainability target for numerous stakeholders in the supply chain: governments, brands, suppliers, and consumers. A key element of this is reducing plastic waste; the OECD estimated that over 350 million metric tonnes of plastic waste was generated globally in 2019

2024 has marked the 20th anniversary of the original isolation of graphene, first achieved at the University of Manchester in 2004, prior to the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. In the two decades since its isolation, graphene has been the subject of immense hype, labeled as a wonder material with superlative properties capable of enabling society-shifting technologies.

Material innovations underpin many of the exciting applications offered by emerging quantum technologies. IDTechEx's latest report, "Quantum Technology Market 2024-2034: Trends, Players, Forecasts", compares platforms based on superconductors, silicon photonics, alkali vapors, semiconductors, nanomaterials, and more. Each is seeking to enable solutions for quantum computing, sensing, and communications, with various advantages and disadvantages for each method.

Thermal management for EV power electronics has long posed significant challenges. The ongoing shift from Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET to potentially GaN HEMT in the future results in higher junction temperatures and increased demand for die-attach materials in EV power modules. In traditional Si IGBT power modules, die-attach materials like Pb95Sn5 and Pb92.5Sn5Ag2.5 struggle to meet reliability requirements for packaging power devices in high-temperature applications due to creep-fatigue concerns.

With 3D electronics, bulky PCBs can be replaced, resulting in sleek and integrated designs. The automotive industry is one of the largest sectors benefiting from this technology, as electronics can be printed in a thin layer onto surfaces or integrated within components, which can be particularly useful for human-machine interfaces (HMIs).