IDTechEx

Micromotors get Supercharged

Someday, microscopic robots could perform useful functions, such as diagnostic testing in lab-on-a-chip sensors, micropatterning surfaces or repairing equipment in tight spaces. But first, scientists need to be able to tightly control the microbots' speed.

Switzerland's Local Blockchain-Based Electricity Market

For one year, 37 households in Walenstadt have sold solar power in a local blockchain-based electricity market. The participants involved in this pioneering project, the first of its kind in the world, were very positive about their experience.

Construction Industry's First Fully Electric Backhoe Loader

The fully electric backhoe loader will significantly lower daily operating costs, produce zero emissions, reduce maintenance demands and satisfy local/project-based incentives for working with electric equipment/vehicles.

Multi Material Metal 3D Printer

Multi-metal printing gives designers and engineers the ultimate degree of freedom to make better parts. Multi-metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion creates a range of new use cases and applications.

Roll-Up TVs and Bendable Smartphones: Choices for Flexible Electronics

A future with foldable, bendable, flexible and ultrathin electronics is fast becoming our present. The materials responsible for these consumer goods are typically polymers — plastics — that conduct electricity. To better understand this promising class of substances, scientists developed a technique that uses light to quickly and accurately test materials' conductivity — and potentially reveal behavior that other methods could not.

Wearable Device Camouflages its Wearer in all Weather

Researchers have developed a wearable technology that can hide its wearer from heat-detecting sensors such as night vision goggles, even when the ambient temperature changes--a feat that current state of the art technology cannot match.

Integrated Device Printed Directly Onto Label

CPI's Printable Electronics Centre is a design, development and prototyping facility. We provide support in bringing new printable electronics products and processes to market quickly by offering facilities and expertise that help reduce our clients' level of R&D risk and capital investment. Taking advantage of our state of the art deposition, patterning and printing equipment leads to faster, more efficient development and production enabling clients to enter new markets quickly and with minimal risk. CPI can accelerate new product development by providing access to proven performance conducting, semiconductor, resistive materials and inks.

Webinar Tuesday 17 March 2020 - Electronics Reshaped

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 17 March 2020 titled Electronics Reshaped: How Flexible, Stretchable and Structural Electronics is Unleashing New Design Freedoms in Healthcare, Mobility and Retail.

High Energy Li-Ion Battery is Safer for Electric Vehicles

A lithium-ion battery that is safe, has high power and can last for 1 million miles has been developed by a team in Penn State's Battery and Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Center.

Clariant

IDTechEx visited Clariant in Höchst near Frankfurt to learn more about their silver nanoparticle activity. We talked with Carsten Schauer in this visit.

Heraeus

IDTechEx visited Heraeus in Hanau to learn more about their new particle-free silver ink technology. This material is mainly targeted at conformal package-level EMI shielding.

Beyond Graphene: Exploring the expanding 2D material family

Graphene has started to gain commercial success. IDTechEx view a tipping point approaching as more commercial applications emerge in composites, coatings, energy storage, thermal management solutions, sensors, and more.

Event summary: Flex 2020

IDTechEx Technology Analyst Dr Matthew Dyson attended Flex 2020. The Conference is organised by Semi, the industry organisation for electronics manufacturing. Their main event is SEMICON, with Flex a much smaller conference focussing on flexible/printed electronics.

Ultrathin Organic Solar Cell is Both Efficient and Durable

Scientists have succeeded, in collaboration with international partners, in creating an ultrathin organic solar cell that is both highly efficient and durable. Using a simple post-annealing process, they created a flexible organic cell that degrades by less than 5 percent over 3,000 hours in atmospheric conditions and that simultaneously has an energy conversion ratio--a key indicator of solar cell performance--of 13 percent.

Showing Robots how to do Your Chores

Training interactive robots may one day be an easy job for everyone, even those without programming expertise. Roboticists are developing automated robots that can learn new tasks solely by observing humans.

New Lithium Batteries From Used Cell Phones

Lithium-ion batteries are used around the world and though over the last few years they have had some competition, such as sodium and magnesium, they continue to be indispensable due to their high density and capacity.

Integrating Electronics onto Physical Prototypes

Researchers have invented a way to integrate "breadboards" — flat platforms widely used for electronics prototyping — directly onto physical products. The aim is to provide a faster, easier way to test circuit functions and user interactions with products such as smart devices and flexible electronics.

UK's First Electric Forecourt Under Construction, Opening Summer 2020

The first of a nationwide network of over 100 Electric Forecourts is now under construction and will open this summer. The Electric Forecourt near Braintree, Essex, can charge 24 electric vehicles at once with superchargers that can deliver up to 350kW of charging power, enabling people to charge vehicles within 20-30 minutes initially, and much faster in the future as battery technologies mature.

Vacuum Technology Used to Freeze Dry Orange Juice

ULVAC, Inc. (Headquartered in Japan) is a global leader with the most comprehensive portfolio of vacuum technologies in the world. ULVAC has been continuously developing manufacturing solutions in applications of thin film battery, power device, non-volatile memory, and PZT piezoelectric MEMS sensor which are all key elements for the IoT world.

PragmatIC

PragmatIC manufacture flexible integrated circuits (termed FlexICs) which are targeted first at RFID tags and also other applications that require constrained complexity. Their main selling point is their low cost (< $0.01, depending on complexity and volume), making them an attractive alternative to silicon. PragmatIC have also developed a revolutionary approach to fabrication that, when compared to conventional silicon ICs, requires much less capital expenditure and a design-to-production cycle-time of less than one week.