Research Articles

Electric traction motors may have originally been developed in the 1800s, but the market continues to evolve today, with the growing electric vehicle (EV) market providing new technologies, opportunities, and demand.

Over the past 16 years, the thermal design power (TDP) of GPUs has quadrupled. With the increasing demand for AI, cloud computing, and crypto mining, IDTechEx expects the power consumption of server boards and data centers to continue rising.

Energy density of EV batteries continues to increase, but the innovation is not just limited to the battery cells. Much of the improvement is also coming from how the cells are packaged together.

Computer chips have been part of cars for a long time, but no one really cares about them until they stop working or they are late to the production line, grinding manufacturing to an industry-shaking halt

IDTechEx have recently published the market research report "Antiviral and Antimicrobial Technology Market 2023-2033", covering additives and coatings that can provide residual antimicrobial protection to surfaces.

What do electronic skin patches, thin-film flexible photovoltaics and automotive interior consoles have in common? All are produced using printed & flexible electronics, an alternative approach to conventional printed circuit boards that combines additive manufacturing with flexible substrates.

Wednesday 28 June - Where Metamaterials Meet Tele-Communications. What is a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), and why are they likely to be needed for high frequency telecommunications.; The different types of RIS (passive, semi-passive, active) and where they are likely to be deployed; Manufacturing processes and materials required for RIS production.

Li-ion batteries dominate the electric vehicles (EV), consumer electronics and stationary energy storage markets. However, the sustainability of these batteries through their entire lifecycle must be managed, including at End-of-Life (EOL). IDTechEx's new report, "Li-ion Battery Recycling Market 2023-2043", finds that an estimated 23.8 million tonnes of lithium-ion batteries will be recycled in 2043.

In 2022, Walmart made a momentous announcement that sent ripples through the RFID industry. As the world's leading retailer, Walmart revealed its ambitious plan to expand the utilization of RFID technology beyond retail apparel and encompass other critical retail departments.

Thursday 22 June 2023 - Gas Separation Membranes: Decarbonization Driving New Market Opportunities. Overview of the technical advantages, history, and limitations of gas separation membranes; Technology appraisal of incumbent and emerging membrane materials; Market analysis of the emerging application areas including biogas upgrading, carbon capture, and the hydrogen infrastructure; For each market, a comparison against alternative separation techniques (e.g., PSA or cryogenic) and discussion on pain points and technical requirements; Independent outlook and technology roadmap for the commercial penetration of membranes in the fields of energy and decarbonization

Anyone who has used a 'smart lens' app on their smartphone is familiar with machine vision. Rather than simply reproducing and storing a picture for later viewing, machine vision applies an image processing algorithm to obtain additional insight, such as locating edges or object identification.

Battery performance testing forms an important part of the second-life EV battery market. Remanufacturers will aim to use the best-performing EV batteries in their final second-life systems, such as stationary storage systems or lower-power electromobility applications.

On June 5th, Apple ended years of speculation and finally announced a mixed reality (MR) headset. The US$3499 Vision Pro headset confirmed some expectations and confounded others. IDTechEx has been tracking the mixed, augmented and virtual reality markets since 2015, with reports on headsets and accessories and optics available now and a report on displays for AR/VR soon to be released. This insight into the AR/VR industry and associated technologies provides context to IDTechEx's initial analysis of Apple's headset design philosophy.

Decarbonization is the main market driver across the industrial sector. In every roadmap there is an evolving mix of solutions that span the technology readiness spectrum, each with their own proponents and critics.

While the current AI boom is only just getting started, an early winner is Nvidia, who - on Tuesday, May 30th - saw the company's market capitalization exceed US$1 trillion for the first time. For a chip designer with no fabrication capabilities of its own, this is a significant moment.

The construction industry is in the early stages of electrification. Many of the leading OEMs now have multiple electric offerings over a range of machine types and the electric construction vehicle market is beginning to take off

In the rapidly evolving landscape of hydrogen, the global push for low-carbon hydrogen production is accelerating the exploration of sustainable, scalable, and economically viable technologies.

In the past decade or so, the additive manufacturing industry has been characterized by an ever-increasing number of hardware players trying to capture their own share of the market. While there were signs of consolidation in the early 2010s, given major moves by industry leaders like Stratasys and 3D Systems, AM has instead seen a consistent stream of newcomers with their own innovative takes on AM, such that IDTechEx now segments their 3D printing hardware forecast by seventeen different categories to account for such diversity.

Na-ion is probably the most prominent metal-ion battery chemistry outside of Li-ion, working via the same 'rocking chair' (where the alkali-ion shuttles from a non-metal anode to a cathode during discharge and vice versa during charge) principle of reversible cation intercalation, at a positive and negative electrode.

Wednesday 14 June 2023 - Key for Decarbonisation but Challenges Lie Ahead. Li-ion batteries; Li-ion second-life and battery recycling; Alternative battery chemistries and energy storage technologies; Green and blue hydrogen

The desire for zero-emission power generation has seen solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) touted as a possible solution. SOFC's capability to run on hydrogen and at a higher efficiency than alternative fuel cells when providing combined heat and power (CHP) is an enticing prospect, while fuel flexibility allows for a transition from hydrocarbons towards zero emission power generation as part of the hydrogen economy.

Wednesday 21 June 2023 - IDTechEx's Key Semiconductor Trends in Edge AI, Automotive, and Advanced Semiconductor Packaging. AI-crucial technologies, such as autonomous driving, and the current state of the technology landscape; AI as enablers of new functionalities at the edge, such as for the smartphone market; Requirements for AI hardware at the edge; Semiconductor technologies used in autonomous vehicles; Capabilities of automotive semiconductor suppliers and the role of foundries; Key technology trend in semiconductor packaging; Growth drivers in main application areas for advanced semiconductor packaging: high performance computing (HPC) applications/data centers, communication networks, autonomous cars, and consumer electronics

Nuclear Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) aim to disrupt the nuclear industry, slashing the cost of nuclear energy to competitiveness with renewables + storage and making new decarbonization-enabling uses of nuclear power possible.

Like many industries, the construction vehicle and machine industry is on the path to electrification. It has been one of the latecomers to the electrification game, with little happening from OEMs until after 2020. But this is changing, with more electric product announcements covering a wider selection of vehicle types under the construction banner.

Thursday 1 June 2023 - Discuss the key applications for a solid oxide fuel cell, including the argument for utilising SOFC technology against competing solutions, and an overview of combined heat and power (CHP) operation; Highlight innovations in materials, manufacturing processes, and fuel choices for solid oxide fuel cells; Outline movement of major players in the SOFC market, including the driving forces behind the market today; Overview the solid oxide fuel cell market within the context of the broader fuel cell market, with consideration given to electrolysers

Wednesday 7 June 2023 - AI capabilities and why these matter; The link between AI and semiconductor manufacture; Reasons for government funding initiatives into shoring up domestic semiconductor supply chain capabilities; Outlook, both with regards to the effectiveness of these campaigns, as well as the global semiconductor supply chain and AI chips until 2033.

As autonomous vehicles (AV) become increasingly attractive, one technology that is playing a crucial role in their development is lidar. Lidar, short for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses lasers to measure distances and create detailed 3D maps of the environment.

What is packaging for? From its initial purpose of simply protecting the product to driving sales via consumer engagement, the role of packaging has substantially evolved. Smart/intelligent packaging continues this trend towards greater functionality, employing sensors, printed electronics, and wireless communication to add value in novel ways.

With the high inflation, increasing labor costs, labor shortage, energy crisis, and hybrid working, the manufacturing industry experienced significant turmoil in 2022. Although some of these have started to get eased, 2023 is still expected to be a challenging year for the manufacturing industry.

RAPID + TCT is one of North America's biggest trade shows and conferences for the additive manufacturing (AM) industry. This year, IDTechEx attended and spoke at the show; they interviewed prominent players and observed industry trends.

Thursday 8 June 2023 - The Future of Cell Chemistry and Pack Structure. An overview of materials used in battery cells and battery packs; Trends in cathode chemistry and anode materials; Battery pack designs: cell-to-pack and cell-to-body; The impact on thermal management and materials; Trends in other materials: composite/polymer enclosures, interconnects and insulation

Advanced semiconductor packaging technologies are crucial due to the slowing of Moore's law and rising costs of monolithic Si IC development and manufacturing. Initially, components were individually packaged and integrated at the PCB board level, but as devices become smaller and require higher processing capabilities, component integration needs to be pushed beyond board level.

Thermal runaway and the associated battery fires have proven to be a critical concern for customers, battery designers, and electric vehicle manufacturers. Many vehicles have experienced battery fires and hundreds of thousands have been recalled.

Microcontrollers (also known as controllers, MCUs and other name variations) are the backbone on which modern vehicles are built. Regardless of whether a car is powered by petrol, diesel, electric, hydrogen, PDG, or anything else, its functionalities will be heavily dependent on controllers.

In this complimentary whitepaper, Dr James Edmondson discusses the evolution in the architecture of electric vehicles, and the part this has to play in key challenges faced by the EV industry.

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way since the success of DeepMind over Go world champion Lee Sedol in 2016; the world is beginning to change according to the new possibilities afforded by AI. From the robust predictive abilities of OpenAI's ChatGPT - where the AI chatbot can be used for all sorts of purposes, from creating scripts (including malware) to writing academic essays - to AI image generators that are so good that they can win Sony world photography awards, the complexity and capabilities of AI algorithms are growing at a startlingly fast pace.