Advanced Materials

IDTechEx Launchpad will showcase innovations from 21 start-up companies at the IDTechEx Show! held in Berlin, Germany on 11-12 April 2018. All winners will be showing a new working prototype or product, many for the first time.

IDTechEx analysts attended SPIE Photonics West 2018, which took place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco (USA) during the first week of February. SPIE Photonics West is the largest international event on photonic technologies with 20,000+ attendees.

TWI are an engineering firm that specialize in joining and composite technology. They have recently developed a smart composite that can transmit data through the part without wires using surface waves. IDTechEx technology analyst Dr Richard Collins visited TWI and spoke with Paul Burling (Progamme Manager - Defence).

In this article, we will review the latest developments on core existing as well as nascent emerging applications.

UniPixel offers a public company offering a high-performance and low-cost transparent conductive film technology. Their technology is based on the metal mesh concept and is produced using roll-to-roll micro embossing, printing and copper plating. There are a strong contender for challenging ITO's (indium tin oxide) dominance in the transparent conductive film business.

Materion Aerospace Metal Composites (AMC) are leading manufacturers of metal matrix composites. IDTechEx analyst Dr Richard Collins interviewed Andrew Tarrant (Director).

Off grid electricity production can be broadly scaled in size into four categories as shown in this article.

There is a flood of new electronic and electrical devices reintroducing poisons very similar to those in tobacco smoke, diesel fumes, asbestos and other killers. There has been no tracking of what is arriving, assessing toxicity and likely prevalence. Uniquely, the new IDTechEx report, "Toxigen Materials and Alternatives in Electronics/ Electrics 2018-2028" now does just that.

Primarily, batteries deal with intermittency and inadequacy of electricity supply, the extreme case being complete lack of electricity for moving EVs

Surface irritant is a medical term describing materials that can cause directly and indirectly various pathologies. They are physical toxins and the ones of concern are mainly small structures.

Cell-based biosensors can simulate the effect of various substances, such as drugs, on the human body in the laboratory. Depending on the measuring principle, though, producing them can be expensive. As a result, they are often not used.

This event continues to grow with 400 registering at the entrance and 48 table top exhibitors including a busy IDTechEx stan

Everything in the world of robotics is changing: robots are becoming uncaged, mobile, collaborative and increasingly intelligent and dexterous, moving beyond their traditional strongholds to bring automation to previously inaccessible tasks.

Soft robots that can sense touch, pressure, movement and temperature.

As the demand for lightweight materials increases in the automotive and aerospace industries, so does the demand for suitable processing methods. Can we minimize material use? Can we obtain high-strength welds without damaging temperature sensitive composites?

A new breakthrough in the manufacturing of aerogels, the world's lightest solid materials, promises to make the plastics used to make airplanes, cars, and electronics ten times lighter.

Mechanical engineers have designed a super-efficient and long-lasting electrode for supercapacitors. The device's design was inspired by the structure and function of leaves on tree branches, and it is more than 10 times more efficient than other designs.

A group at PARC have developed an oral biosensor within a mouthguard for sensing in saliva. IDTechEx attended a presentation on this work by David Schwartz at 2018FLEX in Monterey, CA.

Now in its fifth year, Energy Storage India Expo (ESI Expo) took place in New Delhi from the 10th to the 12th January 2018, at the India Habitat Centre. The event was organised by Customised Energy Solutions, a US-Indian company that focuses on renewable energy management and consulting in energy storage. IDTechEx analyst Lorenzo Grande was invited there to give a presentation on future battery technologies.

A group at Georgia Tech have been developing organic photodetectors, developed as options that can be more feasible for scaling over large areas than the silicon-based incumbent. IDTechEx attended the presentation by Canek Fuentes-Hernandez at 2018FLEX in Monterey, CA.