Dr Matthew Dyson Principal Technology Analyst

Matthew is a Principal Technology Analyst at IDTechEx, specializing in printed/organic/flexible/hybrid electronics and sensors. Previous academic work, including on organic photodetectors, has equipped him with a comprehensive understanding across the field. Matthew analyses technical innovations and applications across the printed/organic/flexible/hybrid landscape, publishing his analysis on the IDTechEx portal and in reports. He also manages a team of analysts covering wearable technology, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), and emerging photovoltaics.

Matthew has a BSc Joint Honors (first class) in Physics and Chemistry from Durham University, providing a broad understanding across both disciplines. After a PGCE and two years teaching physics in London, he returned to academia, completing an MRes (with distinction) and PhD in Physics from Imperial College London. This research aimed to better establish processing/structure/property relationships in conjugated polymers. This was followed by two years as a post-doctoral researcher at Eindhoven Technical University, focusing primarily on organic photodetectors (OPDs). His academic research, which has been cited over 500 times, also included work on perovskite photovoltaics and aggregation-induced emission materials.

Matthew covers the printed/organic/flexible/hybrid electronics space, which includes the following (often overlapping) topics:

 

Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) is an emerging manufacturing methodology that aims to combine the benefits of printed electronics with the functionality offered by mounted components. This enables printed circuit board (PCB) replacement in with lighter, conformal alternatives across many industries and includes innovative technologies such as flexible integrated circuits.

 

Conductive inks are one of the most developed markets in printed electronics, with screen-printed silver paste used to make conductive fingers on solar panels. However, there is still plenty of innovation in the sector, with the advent of particle-free, stretchable, and copper inks for applications as diverse as e-textiles and in-mold electronics (IME).

 

Printed sensors span a wide range of applications, ranging from large area image sensors to wearable electrodes.

 

Transparent conductive films are a crucial technology for displays with capacitive touch and are likely to be increasingly important for transparent heaters in electric vehicles and even transparent antennas, along with existing applications such as touch-sensitive displays.

 

3D/additive electronics covers both established topics such as molded interconnect devices along with emerging technologies such as additively manufactured electronics and in-mold electronics. This emerging manufacturing methodology promises to enable more compact devices without the form factor constraints of a rigid circuit board.

 

Photodetectors and image sensors are becoming increasingly important due to the twin drivers of improved machine vision software and the demand for short wave infrared (SWIR) sensing for autonomous vehicles. Innovative technologies that offer tangible benefits relative to existing approaches in this area include SWIR imaging with quantum dots and event-based vision.

 

If you would like to discuss an innovative and commercially applicable technology in any of the above (or tangentially related) topics so that it can feature in IDTechEx's reports, please get in touch at m.dyson@idtechex.com.