Texas Instruments

Precision Micro

Precision Micro is a UK-based photochemical etching company. IDTechEx spoke with Rachael O'Connor (Sales Manager) with respect to metal bipolar plates for fuel cells.

Waymo: Autonomous Trucking

Waymo is one of the key players and leaders in both autonomous trucking and robotaxis. It has backing from Alphabet (parent company of Google). Waymo is running daily commercial trips (with a safety driver) for potential partners and expanding its fleet and operations ready for full autonomous missions.

Nuro: Curbside Delivery Robots

Nuro makes zero-occupant autonomous delivery vehicles. It has commercial partnerships with Kroger and 7-Eleven and is completing autonomous grocery deliveries to customers today. Nuro was one of the first companies to receive permission to operate a commercial autonomous service in the US and is pushing policy makers to continue making progress for the autonomous vehicle industry.

Evonik 3D Printing

Evonik is a German specialty chemicals company founded in 2007. One of its divisions manufactures and sells materials for 3D printing, which will be the focus of this profile. IDTechEx spoke to Benjamin Willy, Global Marketing Manager Photopolymers — High Performance Polymers, at Evonik 3D Printing.

VividQ

VividQ is a Cambridge, UK-based firm which focuses on developing IP for computer-generated holography, both for software and optical engine hardware. Its method of generating holograms is efficient on common GPUs and its display solutions may be constructed from off-the-shelf hardware. The key use cases it targets are AR wearables and automotive HUDs.

Zendar: High Performance, Cheap Automotive Radar

Zendar is a start-up working on improving automotive radar. Zendar believes that current automotive radar is limited by the weak computational processing power embedded in the sensor. They suggest a move to a central processing unit with more computational power which can handle multiple radar front-ends at one time. This would be a similar architecture to Tesla in the way it handles its camera information.

Fusion Processing

Fusion Processing is an engineering consultancy working with autonomous technologies to improve vehicle and road safety. Fusion Processing has been involved in several trials around the UK and has accumulated more than 1.8 million kilometres of service so far.

Headmade Materials

Headmade Materials is a German start-up developing a Metal AM standard called Cold Metal Fusion, where metal powders can be printed with selective laser sintering (SLS) printers. IDTechEx spoke with Levent Akbas, chief commercial officer at Headmade Materials, on their technology and materials.

6K and Our Next Energy Collaboration to Create Low-Cost Gemini Cathode

6K and Our Next Energy Inc announced a partnership as ONE looks to scale up and commercialize its Gemini cell chemistry. The organization signed a letter of intent outlining how the companies will work together to significantly lower the cost and manufacturing capital required when producing this new battery material.

In the Future Your Entire Car Could Be a Radar Antenna, Says IDTechEx

Radar miniaturization is one of the key trends that IDTechEx has identified in "Automotive Radar 2022-2042". There are several factors that are contributing towards this, such as moving from 24GHz to 77GHz which shrinks the antenna size. Or, transitioning from SiGe-BiCMOS based transceivers to Si-CMOS ones, which reduces the number of discrete computational components and shrinks the circuit board. So, with the size continuing to come down, IDTechEx asks, how small can it get?

A New Way to Ink: Next Step in Wearable Tech?

Scientists have developed an inexpensive way to transform an ordinary shirt into an electronic smart shirt—one able to monitor and adjust body temperature or even allow the wearer to apply heat to a sore shoulder or back. All from a design printed on the fabric of the shirt or any other piece of clothing.

Zadar Labs: Software-Defined Radars

The automotive radar market is rife with innovative technologies coming from start-ups. Zadar's contribution to the space is a re-imaging of the boundary between software and hardware. New Si-CMOS based componentry is making radar's much more flexible and facilitating on-the-fly, over-the-air updates that can continuously improve the radar's performance over the lifetime of the vehicle.

Velo3D Ships First Sapphire XC to an Aerospace Customer

Velo3D Inc has announced its first Sapphire XC delivery. The Sapphire XC, or "Extra Capacity," is the company's newest and largest metal 3D printer that delivers both faster production and larger parts.

Uhnder: Digital Code Modulation Automotive Radar

Uhnder is a start up working on radar on chip technologies for automotive and other applications. Uhnder use a 28nm Silicon CMOS technology to construct a single chip with 192 virtual channels giving high imaging potential. Uhnder has also moved away from the widely frequency modulated continuous wave emission pattern in facour of digital code modulation, this brings increased performance and robustness to interference.