TECHNOLOGY NEWS

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.

Thursday 25 May 2023 - How can SMRs open new use-cases for nuclear energy, decarbonizing problem industries in the process? Where in the world are SMRs developing today and where would they be expected to see greatest success? Are evolutionary vs. revolutionary approaches to reactor design more likely to see success in the global SMR fleet? What are the major roadblocks to deployment of SMRs and how could these be overcome? What players are working on SMRs and who is closest to delivering outside of Russia and China?

The RFID industry is expected to maintain its growth trajectory, with IDTechEx forecasting a market value of US$14 billion in 2023, up from US$12.8 billion in 2022. This market value encompasses various RFID form factors, including labels, cards, fobs, and tags, as well as scanners, software, and services for both active and passive RFID technologies. Among these, the "Passive RFID Tags" segment stands out as the largest, comprising more than half of the total RFID market.

Epishine's Unique Production Process Brings Further Advancements to the Solar Energy Industry - Swedish Epishine has made advancements for printed outdoor organic photovoltaics within the Solar Era funded project NFA4R2ROPV thanks to their breakthrough manufacturing process of roll-to-roll printed solar cells.

Innovation roadmap for the metamaterials landscape.

Wednesday 17 May 2023 - Multiple smart packaging technologies, including embedded lighting, wireless energy harvesting, flexible batteries, and low-cost sensing; Case studies showing the deployment and adoption of different types of smart packaging, such as electronic blister packs for pharmaceuticals; A roadmap for the adoption of different smart packaging technologies, and assessment of technology gaps and other adoption barriers

Small modular reactors (SMRs) promise cheaper nuclear energy, supplying zero-carbon grid baseload and enabling new use cases for nuclear reactors. By shrinking the size of nuclear reactors compared to conventional large nuclear reactors, much of the construction is transferred to factory assembly lines, cutting capital costs and making nuclear power cost-competitive with renewables in many applications.

Joint venture GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (Hitachi GE in Japan) is developing the BWRX-300, an SMR (small modular reactor) that is based on the BWR (boiling water reactor) design. It hopes to deploy the first of its SMR designs in 2028.

Legislation restricting the usage of "forever chemicals", or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), is being debated in major markets like the European Union and the US.

The role of packaging has evolved over time, from simply protecting and identifying the product to driving sales via enticing graphics. Smart packaging is the latest iteration, utilizing technology including sensors, indicators, and wireless communication to enhance user engagement, product quality, and supply chain efficiency.

China's HTR-PM reactor, developed primarily by Tsinghua University, is the first land-based, commercial-scale SMR (small modular reactor) to enter operation globally, with full power operation achieved in late 2022.

Canadian "young growth tech company" Terrestrial Energy is developing a small modular reactor (SMR) with flexible use-cases based around a molten salt reactor (MSR) design with short core lifetimes.

Wednesday 26 April 2023 - The current state of the industry, including a comprehensive analysis of the NFC and RAIN markets and their medium-term opportunities; The RFID market by regions, key growth drivers for various applications, and the remaining barriers to high-volume RFID adoption; Emerging technologies that could pose a threat to the RFID industry and innovative trends in RFID technologies that can help businesses stay ahead of the competition

NuScale Power is a US firm which is designing and commercializing a nuclear small modular reactor (SMR) based on multiple small integral pressurized water reactors (iPWRs). It could be the first firm to operate a commercial SMR in the USA.

The CAREM25 reactor is under construction at the Atucha NPP facility near Buenos Aires, Argentina and is expected to come online in 2027. It is the closest SMR to completion outside of Russia or China and is administered by the state-owned utility Nucleoeléctrica Argentina SA.

U-Battery is a primarily British consortium of companies including Urenco, Rolls Royce, and others working on a micro small modular reactor, largely for industrial power applications. The gas-cooled reactor would have an electrical power output of 4MW. IDTechEx attended a roundtable with the U-Battery team.

KEMET produces flexible haptic actuators for a range of applications including AR/VR. IDTechEx spoke with Valerio Zerillo, Product & Business Development Manager.

The RFID business continues to grow. The global RFID market is anticipated to continue to grow in 2023, with IDTechEx projecting a market value of US$14 billion in 2023, up from US$12.8 billion in 2022. This market value comprises of RFID labels, cards, fobs, and other form factors, as well as tags, scanners, and software/services for inactive and active RFID.

When thinking of the applications of low-loss materials in 5G devices, the first that comes to mind for most is 5G smartphones. After all, low-loss materials are integral in enabling advanced 5G antennas-in-packages (AiP) for smartphones, and high-profile smartphone manufacturers like Apple have gone back and forth about which low-loss material they chose for their 5G antennas in their flagship phones like the iPhone.

Refractive lenses are an 800-year-old technology that has stood the test of time. Glasses, cameras, and microscopy are all applications that rely on lenses to redirect light by varying the optical path through a curved piece of glass or plastic. However, the underlying architecture of lenses may be about to change.

The energy crisis, combined with the ever-pressing need to transition to net zero, is driving innovations within the energy landscape. Technology choices, material choices, and business models are shifting and evolving to meet global energy and consumer demands. IDTechEx offer a market intelligence platform covering technology innovation in the energy sector, aiming to help clients address needs and find opportunities in the complex energy landscape .

Forecasts taken from IDTechEx report "RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2023-2033"

Talkin'Things are an RFID company that design, manufacture, and convert ultra-high frequency (UHF) and high frequency (HF) radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Jakub Zaluska, Marketing Director of Talkin'Things, was interviewed by IDTechEx on February 8, 2023.

Innovation roadmap for automotive lidar players.

This presentation was given by IDTechEx Principal Technology Analyst Dr Matthew Dyson at innoLAE 2023.

Surfaces, be they in kitchen appliances, automotive interiors, medical devices, or even furniture, are becoming increasingly smart. Embedded lighting, touch sensitivity, heating, and even haptic feedback enables inanimate and often neglected surfaces into a design feature with seamlessly integrated user controls. But what is the best way to manufacture these smart surfaces?

HID Global is a leading US supplier of secure identity products. HID Global is a group brand of Assa Abloy, a Swedish door and access control giant. IDTechEx interviewed Richard Aufreiter, VP Product Marketing at IDT, and Marcus Holgersson, Strategy & Business Development Director at IDT at HID Global, in February 2023.

The next generation of telecoms technologies, 5G, is not fully deployed yet; in fact, the exciting high-frequency bands of mmWave 5G are not set to take off for another several years, according to IDTechEx forecasts.

Thin film photovoltaics (PV) have historically played second fiddle, dwarfed by the multi-billion US dollar silicon PV industry. This may be about to change. Emerging PV applications, such as indoor energy harvesting and building integrated PV, have specific requirements that will enable thin film silicon alternatives to flourish.

Impinj is a well-established RFID chip, reader IC, reader, gateway, and software supplier. Andy Cobb, Impinj's Vice President of Strategic Finance, and Jill West, Vice President of Strategic Communications at Impinj, spoke with IDTechEx about the company's recent RFID activities on 10th February 2023.