Research Articles

The rise of co-packaged optics is transforming modern data centers and high-performance networks by addressing critical challenges such as bandwidth density, energy efficiency, and scalability. CPO enhances interconnect bandwidth and energy efficiency by integrating optics and electronics within a single package, significantly shortening electrical link lengths.

Lithium is the lightest and smallest alkali metal in the periodic table and possesses a high electrochemical potential. These attributes make it attractive for use in batteries, as it can provide a high energy density per unit weight, with few viable substitutes. While lithium finds diverse applications in glass ceramics, lubricating greases, air treatment, and pharmaceuticals, batteries dominate its end-use segment.

On a global level, the decarbonization of heat energy methods is needed more and more as heating and cooling accounts for around 50% of energy consumption, with 30% being from industrial heating. 90% of these industrial heating processes include the use of fossil fuels, which leads to high global emissions from industrial processes alone. To meet net zero targets, things need to change.

Helium is a finite resource that plays a critical role across several industries including medical imaging, thermal management systems for batteries, aerospace engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, semiconductor manufacturing, fiber optics, particle physics, scientific balloons, and many more.

Thursday 12 September 2024 - How Is Critical Material Recovery Unlocking a Multi-Billion Dollar Market? Introduction to critical materials and key application markets; Critical material sources and why secondary material streams are rapidly emerging; Critical material recovery technology trends and their application in secondary sources; Valuable lessons to learn from established critical platinum group metal and semiconductor recovery; IDTechEx's outlook and conclusions on emerging critical material recovery markets and key growth opportunities.

The brain computer interface market represents an array of technologies which can decode neural signals, or in other words, read minds. Electrodes or sensors can be placed either on the surface of the head, within the skull, or even within the brain itself to record brain activity. This data can then be used for cursor and keyboard control, speech decoding, and even exo-skeletons. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the quality of life for people living with spinal cord injury, quadriplegia, and other motor and speech function impairments.

Multiple consumer electronics giants, including Apple, Samsung, and Nokia, have previously shown interest in flexible smartphones. Indeed, it naturally seems like the next step after foldable and curved smartphones have seen development and commercialization in the last decade. However, the path to fully flexible smartphones is far from simple, and the reward for successful development is ambiguous.

Sodium-ion batteries bring new opportunities for lower costs, greater sustainability, and safety into the battery market. With sodium being more widely available than lithium, concerns about energy security and supply-chain shortages can hopefully start to decrease for economies.

Autonomous buses represent one of the most challenging platforms in the autonomous driving industry. In recent years, commercial interest has shifted towards roboshuttles and robotaxis, partly due to the complex operational design domains (ODD) of autonomous buses.

End-of-life equipment from automotives, electric vehicles, e-waste and decarbonized energy technologies are rapidly emerging secondary raw material sources for valuable critical materials. A new report from IDTechEx forecasts that US$110B of critical materials will be recovered annually from secondary sources by 2045, with a combined weight of over 3.3 million tonnes.

Photonic Integrated Circuits are photonic circuits formed on a semiconductor material that allows light to pass through it, such as silicon dioxide, also known as Silica (or Glass). These photonic circuits contain components for manipulating light passing through the circuit, enabling functionalities such as data transmission, sensing, and processing within a compact form factor. PICs are fundamentally altering how we manage and utilize optical signals, paving the way for advancements across multiple industries.

The executive summary of the European Commission's "Initiation of an anti-subsidy investigation concerning imports of new battery electric vehicles... originating in the People's Republic of China" contained an important definition. The statement sets out the Commission's aims regarding the anti-subsidy investigation and defines the product in question as a battery electric vehicle (BEV) designed for the transport of 9 or less passengers.

IDTechEx projects that the combined market for optical and radio-frequency metamaterials will reach US$15 billion by 2034. This article will delve into the key applications driving the expansion of the Radio-Frequency (RF) metamaterial market.

Demand for battery energy storage systems will continue to increase over the coming decade across key countries as the volume of renewable energy sources penetrating electricity grids continues to increase. Governments have continued to announce incentives and schemes to promote the growth of BESS, as well as announce and increase targets for both RES and battery and energy storage.

The construction machine industry is still in its early stages of electrification, with the first small electric machine only coming onto the market in 2015. However, IDTechEx's new report, "Electric Vehicles in Construction 2024-2044: Technologies, Players, Forecasts", highlights how the electric machines of today are bigger and better than their predecessors from less than 10 years ago.

Thursday 22 August 2024 - Navigating the Autonomous Bus Revolution: Challenges, Successes, and Future Trends. Comprehensive analysis of industry challenges and solutions; In-depth examination of market dynamics and commercialization factors; and Market outlook and future trends

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies strip carbon dioxide (CO2) from waste gases and directly from the atmosphere before either storing it underground or using it for a range of industrial applications. IDTechEx forecasts significant growth for CCUS.

Thursday 15 August 2024 - Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) Unveiled: Network Evolution, Packaging Innovation, and Market Trends. With data centers experiencing unprecedented demand for higher data throughput and improved power efficiency driven by the rise of AI, machine learning, and the proliferation of cloud-based services, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions to enhance network infrastructure. CPO is rapidly gaining traction as it promises to address the limitations posed by traditional pluggable optical modules.

With the ever-increasing need for heat dissipation, high-performance thermal interface materials with higher thermal conductivity and other properties are becoming essential. Driven by this trend, a number of high-performance TIMs are emerging. This article primarily introduces the advantages and drawbacks of advanced carbon-based TIMs. However, it is worth noting that many other TIMs offer superior performance.

Quantum technology exists in unsuspecting places, including cameras, computers, and smartphones. While quantum technology research has existed in various forms for over a hundred years, the 21st century saw an increased effort toward commercialization, and the market segments of quantum sensing, quantum computing, and quantum communications emerged.

Major CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and storage) players converged in Houston, Texas, in the last week of June for the 2024 iteration of the Carbon Capture Technology Expo North America. Co-located with the Hydrogen Technology Expo, the event boasted over 8000 attendees and 400 exhibitors - including IDTechEx.

With more than 90% of road traffic accidents coming down to human error, the importance of autonomy and its safety benefits cannot be overlooked. As the industry moves into a new era of autonomous driving technologies, safety benchmarks and standards are evolving, forcing car companies to adopt new technologies to keep their cars competitive.

As the penetration of variable renewable energy increases in key countries, so will the need to manage the increasing uncertainty and variability in electricity supply.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are underway, and elite athletes from all over the world are competing in various games using a range of different skills. With constant debate over gold, silver, and bronze medals, a comparison can be made with the conductive inks market. Silver flake-based inks are set to win gold in a number of different application areas, beating out competition from a host of conductive ink types.

Thursday 8 August 2024 - Flexible Batteries: Differentiation of Technologies and Application Market Analysis. This webinar will first examine the different flexible battery technologies, then move onto an analysis of flexible battery application markets.

While the focus of the automotive market has been on electrification to meet CO2 regulations, these are not the only regulations that will significantly impact the automotive industry. PFAS are becoming a greater concern throughout multiple industries. With the uncertainty around PFAS regulations, there are a few avenues that automotive players could pursue to replace the refrigerants they use.

Roboshuttles are small, fully electric, and operate at Level 4 autonomy, making them an ideal last-mile solution. They were once highly anticipated in the autonomous driving industry as a promising mobility solution, and at one point, over 25 companies were competing in this space. However, IDTechEx has observed a yearly decline in the number of active companies from 2020 to 2024, and the industry has not advanced to the large-scale commercial testing phases as hoped.

Over the past decade, the capacity of data center Ethernet switches has surged from 0.64 Tbps to 25.6 Tbps, driven by the adoption of 64x400 Gbps or 32x800 Gbps pluggable optical transceiver modules. However, these high-speed modules, within their current form factors, pose significant challenges. Issues include the required densities of electrical and optical connectors, as well as escalating power consumption.

Efficiency is the key goal of electric vehicle development. This is especially true of power electronics, where one increasingly adopted approach is to integrate multiple functions into the same package. For automotive OEMs, this can result in reductions in overall weight to increase the efficiency of the vehicle while also reducing the cost of production.

The advanced recycling market predominantly focuses on technologies like pyrolysis and depolymerization (thermal, chemical, and enzymatic). To a lesser extent, methods such as gasification and hydrothermal liquefaction are also being explored. However, these technologies face increasing scrutiny and restrictions in some regions due to their environmental impact.

Materials informatics is transforming how materials companies approach R&D, bringing data-centric approaches, including AI and machine learning, to materials science to reduce costs and develop new products faster.

Thursday 1 August 2024 - How Emerging Business Models and Technologies Will Accelerate Point-Source CCUS Deployment. This webinar will explore the CCUS business model, including methods of profiting from CCUS even within the current regulatory landscape, and how carbon markets are set to shape the future of CCUS.

Electrification is tough. It has taken around 15 years to convince car owners that battery power is a viable alternative to their fossil fuel comfort blanket. In the construction, agriculture, and mining industries, electrification is an even steeper uphill battle. In these industries, if a machine runs out of battery, the operators will soon start losing money.

IDTechEx Explores Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies - Carbon dioxide removal is required alongside reducing emissions to help reach net zero. Once removed from the atmosphere, CO2 can be stored in numerous ways, such as trees and ecosystems, ocean reservoirs, and underground geological storage.

Since the conception of flexible battery technologies, suppliers have searched for strong application markets for their products. In the last five years, niches have finally begun to materialize, though the specific use case depends on battery technology.

By 2044, it is expected that the global trucking fleet will be supported by an additional half a million L4 autonomous drivers, while the remaining drivers will either act as supervisors or work in less developed regions. The autonomous truck industry is projected to have an annual growth rate of 25.6% over the next 20 years.