Research Articles

IDTechEx Research assesses that the entire RFID market will be worth $11.76 Billion in 2018, up a steady 5% from 2017. A small sub sector of that entire market, but one which will grow at a faster rate of 12% from 2017 to 2018, is the market for RFID sensors.

Excitement is building in the printed and organic electronics sector as demand grows and investors focus in on the opportunities.

Exploring the commercialization of flexible electronics, one of the key focus points of this year's Printed Electronics USA event on November 15-16 in Santa Clara, CA.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 31st October titled Flexible, Printed and Organic Electronics: Latest Progress.

In this article, we provide an overview explaining the major technology changes and market trends that underpin this growing interest. We will also consider how the future will look like, discussing the rapid rise and fall of multiple technologies.

IDTechEx will host a free webinar on Tuesday 24 October titled Innovations in 3D Printing 2017.

Despite a speed up of electrification which is bad news for thermoelectric based waste heat recovery in internal combustion engines, not all has been bad for this energy harvesting technology.

IDTechEx analysts have long warned that the leading lithium-ion battery manufacturers have been taking risks in their headlong redesigns to obtain higher energy and power density, lower cost per kWh and ironically better safety, for example from less-flammable and non-flammable electrolytes.

IDTechEx is hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 17th October 2017 titled Lithium-ion Batteries - from Raw Materials, to Gigafactories, and beyond.

This week an announcement came that Aspen Aerogels has won the initial determination in a US International Trade Commission (ITC) investigation. IDTechEx has been closely following the aerogel industry and discuss here the reasons behind this case, the initial result, and the implications of this announcement.

IDTechEx Launchpad will showcase innovations from 10 start-up companies at the IDTechEx Show! held in Santa Clara, USA on November 15-16 2017. All winners will be showing a new working prototype or product, many for the first time.

IDTechEx will host a free webinar on Thursday 12 October titled Thermoelectric energy harvesting:a time of turmoil.

Trucking is a big business. In the US, trucking industry revenues are in excess of $726bn. No wonder then that autonomous trucking is a hot topic.

The world's first conference on energy independent electric vehicles took place at the Technical University of Delft 27-28 September. It was well timed because many major new versions are about to hit the market addressing major global challenges.

New robotics is already quietly transforming many aspects of agriculture, and the agrochemicals business is no exception. Here, intelligent and autonomous robots can enable ultraprecision agriculture, potentially changing the nature of the agrochemicals business.

Sensors conference features the latest technologies for Healthcare, Wearables, IoT, and Mobile devices.

IDTechEx predict that 2017 will be the first billion dollar year for wearable sensors, with growth coming in three waves.

Connected healthcare is a transformative socio-technological model for healthcare management and delivery that leverages a range of technology innovations available today in order to provide optimized, flexible, targeted healthcare services.

Battery elimination, indeed elimination of all energy storage, is moving to even higher power, from electronics to electrical engineering.

All the publicity currently goes to the race to make regular and premium cars have longer range. This is because most people want only one car so it must be capable of the long distance trip however rare. That must be achieved despite the inadequacy of charging points in number, speed and compatibility of interface and payment means.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 3 October 2017 titled RAIN RFID: Market Size, Opportunities and Outlook.

Cast your mind back a few years and you will find a conductive ink business that appeared very mature and slow moving. Then everything began to change...

New Zealand leads the world in zero emission renewable grid electricity now at 85%. With a nice balance between geothermal, hydroelectric, unusually continuous wind power and some solar, the country has less intermittency of green power than most.

As the world's first conference on Energy Independent Electric Vehicles approaches on September 27-28 in the Technical University of Delft Netherlands, key players, all of whom are speaking at the event, have been announcing some remarkable new developments.

No, not what you thought. Japan has very dirty power generation with renewables stuck at around 10% for two decades then rising last year to approach 15%. New Zealand has now powered up from 80 to 85% renewables feeding its grid - around the figures of Iceland and Norway.

Analyst IDTechEx has long appraised the auto industry as consisting of those leading the move to pure electric powertrains such as Tesla, Renault + Nissan, Yutong and BYD of China, those only recently giving it major emphasis such as Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen (under duress) and Daimler and those almost in denial such as Fiat Chrysler, Mazda and Suzuki, their pure electric activity being more of a gesture than a serious activity.

While grid load from electric vehicles is expected to rise in the near future. Engineers are already looking for solutions to make electric vehicles function independently of the grid.

Robotic technology will transform the forklift industry, causing a colossal transfer of value from human-provided driving services, towards spending on autonomous industrial material handling machines, thus fuelling an industry revenue boom far exceeding recent growth trends.

The IDTechEx report, Energy Independent Electric Vehicles Land, Water, Air 2017-2037 covers markets, technology timelines, energy harvesting and extreme powertrain efficiency involved. Constantly updated, it now reveals backing of many large companies.

Once we had rows of ugly stalks along the roadside that took your coins for parking - or more often failed to take your coins for parking. Unloved, they have now largely gone and no one mourns their passing. Unfortunately, in

Battery elimination, indeed elimination of all energy storage, is moving to even higher power, from electronics to electrical engineering

Last mile delivery remains an expensive affair in the parcel delivery business, often representing more than half of the total cost. Its importance is also growing thanks to a change in the composition of total deliveries with B2C deliveries rapidly taking on a bigger share.

Cast you mind back a few years and you will find a conductive ink business that appeared very mature and slow moving. The boom years of the photovoltaic industry were ending, the dominant big suppliers seem well entrenched, and the technology was, at best, only incrementally improving, with new technologies such as nanoparticle inks failing to get traction. Then everything began to change.

With over two months to go until the IDTechEx Show! at the Santa Clara Convention Center on November 15 - 16, over 90% of the exhibit space is already sold. The event brings together the hottest emerging technologies including materials, components and systems with end users, who seek to use these technologies to differentiate their products through greater capability.

Charging station manufacturers would have you believe that they will swamp the world with their products although they typically have no payback. The argument is that they are essential for the deployment of the pure electric on-road vehicles considered vital in combatting both global warming and deaths in cities from noxious emissions.

Ceramic Metal Composites (CMC) and Metal Matrix Composites (MMC) are not new concepts, but they have never reached their potential.