Research Articles

Thursday 7 April 2022 - This webinar includes discussion of the various approaches of manufacturing 3D electronics, their differentiating factors, readiness level, and the applications to which they are best suited; Case studies showing how 3D electronics can be used in many different applications; and much more.

The current state of 5G has seen less technological innovation than might have initially been expected. There is certainly more scope for technical development and hence opportunities for several technologies and materials, a critical one of which is the semiconductor technology with wide bandgap semiconductors.

Thursday 31 March 2022 - Rebounding From COVID to Hit $18 Billion. This webinar will include a discussion of COVID-19's effect on metal AM; key trends influencing metal AM's rise, including discussion on relevant players and news; and an overview of IDTechEx's metal AM market forecast

While 3D electronics has long been used for adding antennas and simple conductive interconnects to the surface of 3D injection-molded plastic objects, more complex circuits are increasingly being added onto surfaces made from a variety of materials by utilizing new techniques.

'What gets measured gets managed' is a well-known adage in business, but could it also be applied to mitigating the effects of climate change? The recently published IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report emphasizes the importance of adaptation alongside emission reduction.

Charging speeds for electric vehicles (EVs) vary, from as little as 15 minutes using an ultra-rapid 350 kW charger, to as much as 24 hours when relying on a domestic wall outlet. Eventually, we could reach a point where recharging barely takes longer than filling up with fuel.

The revolutionary promise of nanocarbons has been touted for more than 3 decades, but despite the extraordinary properties and commercial hype, the success has been limited - until now. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) may not be as glamorous as their younger sibling graphene, but IDTechEx forecast the annual demand to exceed 70 ktpa by 2032 as for the first time the manufacturers experience a mass-market pull rather than a material push.

The MWC event in Barcelona earlier this month gathered more than 60,000 mobile experts from all around the world. From digital applications to network infrastructure, IDTechEx was there to cover major developments in the industry! Here are some of the key trends we observed at MWC2022 Barcelona.

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned us over the threat global warming is posing, with consequences already being felt and accelerating rapidly. At the same time, the price of oil is at its highest since 2008 and is likely to continue to soar. Although prices at these levels are largely war-driven, both oil and gas prices were already climbing as economies reopened last year. These events have just shown how energy vulnerable and dependent on fossil fuels the global economy still is.

Construction machines are estimated to generate around 400 Mt of CO2 emission per year, which is around 1.1% of global CO2 emission. Decarbonization of non-road mobile machines will therefore be an important factor in efforts to limit global climate change. With an increasing number of countries around the world committing to a net-zero carbon future, the construction industry is facing growing scrutiny of its' greenhouse gas emissions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted a key target market for metal additive manufacturing - aviation. Additionally, global supply chain disruptions have led companies to re-evaluate their operations. Within this environment, how has metal additive manufacturing fared?

Announcements of developments to alternative, next-generation, non-lithium battery chemistries, including redox flow, metal-air, or sodium-ion batteries, are now a regular occurrence. Despite interest in these alternatives, Li-ion batteries remain the dominant choice for consumer devices, electric vehicles, and stationary storage. However, the importance of non-lithium battery chemistries is expected to grow considerably over the next 10 years, especially in the stationary energy storage sector. By 2025, IDTechEx forecast that >10% of the stationary market will be accounted for by non-lithium chemistries, up from <5% in 2021.

Thursday 24 March 2022 - Green Construction: Growing Demand for Electric Construction Machines. Electric construction vehicles a $105 billion market in 2042. Find out more in this webinar presented by IDTechEx Technology Analyst, Dr David Wyatt

Carbon Nanotubes 2022-2032 - Market, Technology, Players - MWCNTs, FWCNTs & SWCNTs benchmarking study and critical appraisal; VACNTs, sheets, yarns, composites, slurries, and more; granular CNT market forecasts; key manufacturer profiles and analysis; interview-based company profiles

The US Department of Energy's paper, "Grid Operational Impacts of Widespread Storage Deployment" analyzes requirements to 2050. It variously calculates 1.3 TWh required to just over 6.0 TWh in its 94% renewable electricity, Zero Carbon scenario. Earlier, other researchers calculated 80% wind and solar will require 5.4 TWh of energy storage so it is obvious that huge amounts of storage are needed. Even that is with massive over-production and therefore curtailment - electricity only being generated 10% to 20% of the time on average. Polluting peaker plants only have 11% capacity factor so, on that model, bad replaces bad in that respect.

California DMV has recently released its new 2021 autonomous testing and disengagement data, which essentially describes how safe autonomous vehicles are. IDTechEx has performed its analysis on the data and the results may surprise you.

COVID-19 is a double sword. COVID pushes businesses to adopt technologies quicker to improve production as well as management efficiency, in order to survive. COVID-19, on the other hand, catalyzes an ongoing issue - the semiconductor shortage - that has had a substantial influence on a wide variety of businesses in recent years, including the RFID industry.

Thursday 10 March 2022 - Saving the planet and reducing local pollution and costs means mainly solar and wind power for the next 20 years with its sudden shut-downs, extended weaknesses and inability to follow demand even when it is working. Major stationary storage will be demanded in three waves.

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?

Thursday 3 March 2022 - Introduction to changes in telecommunications infrastructure; Choice of semiconductor technology for sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G; Case studies of sub-6 GHz and mmWave antenna; Overview of die attach materials and methodology; and Thermal interface materials for infrastructure and smartphone

There has been a ramp-up of charging infrastructure to make EV charging more widespread and publicly accessible. A holistic approach is being taken where fast chargers, destination chargers, and home chargers all play an important role in supporting the different electric segments. The industry is seeing increased investments, collaboration, and innovation that will hopefully help today's parking lots become tomorrow's charging stations.

Just jelly-like materials? Well, there is a new one that supports an elephant but goes squishy when it jumps off. The new IDTechEx reports, "Self-Healing Materials Markets 2022-2042" and "Hydrogel Markets in Agriculture, Industry, Energy, Electronics, Electrical, Consumer 2022-2042" have the big picture.

In February 2022, the White House issued an updated list of critical and emerging technologies that the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), and National Security Council (NSC) have identified as being important for US national security. Numerous technology areas have been featured, including advanced manufacturing, hypersonics, biotechnologies, and artificial intelligence. Of these, IDTechEx has highlighted which areas to watch and why exactly the White House has shortlisted them as critical technologies.

This video gives a brief preview of the premium, interactive online platform that gives IDTechEx subscribers on-demand access to all of our data, insights and analysis on technology innovation.

This video gives a very brief preview of the premium, interactive online platform that gives IDTechEx subscribers on-demand access to all of our data, insights and analysis on technology innovation.

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In 2021, it was reported that over 100 employees at Amazon Prime Air, Amazon's drone delivery program, had lost their jobs and dozens of other roles were moving to other projects. This was not exciting news and made some people reflect on the feasibility of drone delivery in the near future.

In our surreal world, we continue to subsidize fossil fuels. We rarely subsidize the huge missing link on the way to 100% renewables, which is providing massive amounts of delayed electricity. People misunderstand. They think we do. Uniquely, the IDTechEx report "Future Stationary Energy Storage: Hydrogen, Batteries, Gravity, Gas, Other 2022-2042" looks at all the proliferating needs and technologies on the essential 20-year timescale ahead. It finds that the problems are largely solved of very brief fluctuations previously avoided by the momentum of rotating machines used in fossil fuel plants.

With the advancement of technologies and robotics, as well as the increasing challenges facing the agricultural industry (e.g., labor shortage, high labor costs, etc.), robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are widely considered as an approach to revolutionize farming. Robots have several advantages over human labor including higher accuracy and efficiency, better consistency and reliability, lower operational costs, and many others. As such, more and more farmers decide to adopt robots (also commonly known as Agbots) and automation to make their businesses more sustainable and efficient.

On the face of it, 2021 was a good year for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) in passenger car markets. Toyota, with their second generation Mirai FCEV, and Hyundai, with their NEXO FCEV, both had record sales, which largely made up for Honda announcing in June 2021 that it had decided to pull the plug on production of their Honda Clarity FCV (citing the lack of hydrogen infrastructure and weak demand).

Li-ion batteries are beginning to hit their performance ceiling, especially with regards to energy density. However, a shift in the anode materials used, namely to silicon or lithium-metal anodes, could provide a stepwise improvement to energy density. Their promise can be highlighted by looking at the high number of early-stage companies primarily developing anode materials, most being focussed on silicon, compared to other areas of Li-ion development.

5G deployment is in full swing with mid-band infrastructure installed by the end of 2021 representing nearly 6 times what it was in 2019. However, this doesn't mean that all of the challenges have been solved. Much of the 5G infrastructure is repurposed 4G equipment at lower frequency bands. The real transition to 5G comes from the adoption of higher frequencies which have largely been categorized into sub-6 GHz and mmWave (> 20 GHz) bands. One of the key challenges is thermal management.

Wearable technology is now way beyond the watch, but IDTechEx identifies these as the ones to watch.

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Smart cities face new, exceptional challenges with new exceptional technologies. Those starting from scratch have seen a shakeout for reasons varying from push-back against people control to failing to raise the money. In contrast, work has begun on the NEOM smart city in Saudi Arabia and the more modest Toyota Woven City at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan that is, in some ways, more advanced. The IDTechEx report, "Smart City Materials, Systems, Markets 2022-2042" has the analysis and forecasts.

Thursday 24 February 2022 - Mobile Robotics in Logistics: Hundreds of Billion Dollar Market in 20 Years? An introduction to mobile robots and how they can be used in logistics; What makes mobile robots an attractive solution to logistics automation; Discussion of key enabling technologies and components; and much more.