Advanced Materials

Wednesday 3 November 2021 - Prospects for All Sensors and Preparation for Sensor-Centric 6G Communications in 2022. This webinar reveals progress in 2021 and prospects for 2022, and much more! Register your place on of the three sessions.

The Henkel Adhesive Technologies business unit is a global leading provider of high-impact material solutions. Its printed electronics material portfolio is an enabler for emerging applications in healthcare, smart surfaces and antenna applications.

With global warming kicking in and rising sea levels displacing millions to arid regions, there needs to be much more cooling of buildings. Two new passive options need to be welcomed that use readily available, non-toxic substances - metamaterials and unprecedentedly white paint reflecting maximum sunlight away from a building.

Wednesday 10 November 2021 - The accelerating transition of printed/flexible electronics from technology push to market pull; Applications of printed/flexible electronic technologies that have been commercialized over the last 12 months; Roadmap for future adoption; A selection of both technical and commercial developments within the sector over the last year.

Most modern concrete usually only lasts decades whereas some of today's alternatives last longer. Concrete degradation of our infrastructure now requires high repair costs, which can be avoided if we use self-healing concrete in the first place. However there are cost and other issues with this relatively new technology.

The discovery in 2018 of superconductivity in two single-atom-thick layers of graphene stacked at a precise angle of 1.1 degrees (called 'magic'-angle twisted bilayer graphene) came as a big surprise to the scientific community. Since the discovery, physicists have asked whether magic graphene's superconductivity can be understood using existing theory, or whether fundamentally new approaches are required - such as those being marshalled to understand the mysterious ceramic compound that superconducts at high temperatures.

TruSpin are an early-stage company based in Birmingham, Alabama making nanofiber products with AC electrospinning. IDTechEx spoke to the CEO, Robert Agnew, about TruSpin's technology and product range, focussing especially on its silicon nanofiber products for Li-ion battery anodes and ceramic nanofibers for heat-resistant PPE.

Nano4Fibers is a Czech company manufacturing nanofiber products. IDTechEx spoke to its CEO, Jan Buk, at TechConnect 2021. Nano4Fibers uses centrifugal spinning to make its nanofibers and produces these in polymer and ceramic forms. A recent success has been its BreaSAFE brand which manufactures reusable nanofiltered masks and respirators as well as other pandemic-related items.

LimeNano Co., Ltd. (named Finetex EnE, Inc. until 2020), sometimes referred to as simply Lime, is a South Korean subsidiary company with facilities mainly producing products related to nanofibers, which they electrospin in-house. Its product lines include technical textiles (Nexture/Nexture Extreme) based on functional membranes, filters for various applications (including industrial and medical) and vent covers for electronic components.

Thursday 28 October 2021 - Overview of current and future electric motor technologies from OEMs; Emerging motor technologies such as axial flux and in-wheel motors; A look at electric motors in cars, vans, trucks, two-wheelers and buses; and more.

Optomec has introduced a new high performance semiconductor packaging solution for the rapidly growing mm-wave electronics market, in response to demands from its customers in the 5G, Autonomous Vehicle, Defense and Medical segments.

Cambrios Film Solutions Corp is a company producing silver nanowire transparent conductive films. It has a somewhat complex history and is now headquartered in Taiwan with operations in Xiamen and Shenzen in China as well as Japan. The company effectively became the property of TPK Holdings in 2016, following post-bankruptcy restructuring - at this stage there are indicators that it has been fully absorbed by its parent company.

Under US sanctions, Huawei's revenue in the first half of 2021 was RMB 320.4 billion, which despite COVID-19 is a 38% decrease from RMB 454 billion in the same period last year; Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, pointed out that Huawei's goal is to survive. IDTechEx has recently launched the new version of their market research report on 5G - "5G Technology, Market and Forecasts 2022-2032". Some of the findings from the new report are presented in this article.

IDTechEx spoke to Dr Yohan Kim, a Research Engineer at Fraunhofer IAP, at the TechBlick virtual conference on printed/flexible electronics in October 2021. The discussion centred around Dr Kim's research area, quantum dots.

At the TechBlick virtual conference on printed/flexible electronics in October 2021, IDTechEx spoke to Peter Willaert, Product Manager (Printed Electronics) at Afga-Gevaert. Agfa's Orgacon conductive ink products, which are available in silver nanoparticle and PEDOT:PSS formulations, were the subject of the discussion.

Creative Materials introduces 129-06 temperature sensing conductive ink, adhesive and coating in either one component or two component versions.

NanoCnet is an early-stage company making conductive inks and other products based on their proprietary "silver nanostrand" technology, high aspect ratio silver nanoparticles with an oblong cross section. They state that these are more stable and much cheaper to make than silver nanowires whilst fulfilling a similar function.

Think of a temperature sensor - and a traditional glass thermometer, or perhaps a small thermistor would probably spring to mind. However, a new class of temperature sensors is rapidly emerging that offers spatial resolution together with a thin-film format.

Thursday 21 October 2021 - IME offers multiple advantages relative to conventional mechanical switches, including reduction in weight and material consumption of up to 70% along with a much simpler assembly. Given these benefits, and increasing interest from OEMs/manufacturers/material suppliers, IDTechEx forecasts IME to be a $1.5bn market by 2032.

Noninvasive glucose monitoring devices are not currently commercially available in the United States, so people with diabetes must collect blood samples or use sensors embedded under the skin to measure their blood sugar levels. Now, with a new wearable device, less intrusive glucose monitoring could become the norm.