IDTechEx

Versatile New Material Family Could Build Realistic Prosthetics

Nature's blueprint for the human limb is a carefully layered structure with stiff bone wrapped in layers of different soft tissue, like muscle and skin, all perfectly bound together. Achieving this kind of sophistication using synthetic materials to build biologically inspired robotic parts or multicomponent, complex machines has been an engineering challenge.

Amber Molecular

Amber Molecular Inc. is an early stage Canadian company that is focusing on fluorescent materials for red and orange OLEDs. These are designed to be paired with TADF materials to increase the electrical efficiency, lower the manufacturing costs, and widen the color gamut, of OLED devices. The company's commercialization strategy applies their significant synthetic flexibility to value-added strategic partnerships with TADF companies and OLED manufacturers.

Powering Robots with Biomorphic Batteries

A new rechargeable zinc battery can provide much more energy and integrate into the structure of a robot like biological fat reserves store energy in animals. This approach to increasing capacity will be particularly important as robots shrink to the microscale and below—scales at which current stand-alone batteries are too big and inefficient.

Inkjet Printed Thin Skinned Solar Panels

Solar cells can now be made so thin, light and flexible that they can rest on a soap bubble. The new cells, which efficiently capture energy from light, could offer an alternative way to power novel electronic devices, such as medical skin patches, where conventional energy sources are unsuitable.

Vertical Aerospace Unveils All Electric Flying Taxi

Vertical Aerospace has revealed the VA-1X flying taxi, designed to be a high performing aircraft able to connect entire regions as well as carrying out shorter missions across single cities. VA-1X is set to be the world's first certified winged all-electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft, and is on course to start commercial flights in 2024. Build will begin shortly, with manufacturing taking place in the UK.

Valgotech LLC

We interviewed President Dr David Olawale August 2020. His areas of expertise include multifunctional composites, sensor systems, product development and technology commercialization.

Additive Manufacturing of Copper

Copper is one of the most important materials to all of human activity. With very good electrical and thermal conductivity with relative abundance the impact is far reaching.

How much lower can Li-ion prices go?

Li-ion cost declines have stemmed primarily from improvements to manufacturing, plant utilisation, Li-ion chemistry and increasing economies of scale with demand for Li-ion batteries increasing by nearly an order of magnitude over the past 10 years.

Powercast

This is a background profile covering Powercast, a prominent and longstanding company in the field of RF charging and energy harvesting. The bulk of the content was written in 2017, but key figures are updated to 2020.

SmartKem

SmartKem offers a portfolio of materials for organic thin film transistors. The main target application is flexible display backplanes, including OLEDs, LCDs and EPDs. In August 2020 they announced they had developed a prototype that applied their flexible backplane to an array of miniLEDs with a target applications of full area local dimming (FALD) of LCDs.

Materials Informatics: Choosing a Successful Strategic Approach

Materials informatics is quickly becoming one of the most significant areas of interest for chemical and material companies.

Join the Webinar on Optics and Displays in AR, VR, and MR

Wednesday 16 September 2020 - Seeing Is Believing: The Truth Behind the Optics and Displays of AR/MR/VR. Why do optics and displays Matter? What are the key properties in choosing an optical set-up? What are the key properties in choosing a micro-display? Where are these markets going in the next decade?

Mahindra, REE Automotive to Develop Electric Commercial Vehicles

Mahindra & Mahindra, part of USD 19.4 billion Mahindra Group, and REE Automotive signed a memorandum of understanding to explore development and manufacturing of electric commercial vehicles for global markets.

Efficient Low-Cost System for Producing Power at Night

Researchers have designed an off-grid, low-cost modular energy source that can efficiently produce power at night. The system uses commercially available technology and could eventually help meet the need for nighttime lighting in urban areas or provide lighting in developing countries.

Cutting Surgical Robots Down to Size

Recently, surgical robots have started to appear in operating rooms to further assist surgeons by allowing them to manipulate multiple tools at once with greater precision, flexibility, and control than is possible with traditional techniques. However, these robotic systems are extremely large, often taking up an entire room, and their tools can be much larger than the delicate tissues and structures on which they operate.

Fruit Peel Turns Old Batteries Into New

Scientists have developed a novel method of using fruit peel waste to extract and reuse precious metals from spent lithium-ion batteries in order to create new batteries.

RxFunction Awarded DoD Contract for Rehabilitation Research

RxFunction Inc has been selected by the Defense Health Agency to receive a Small Business Innovation Research Direct Phase II contract to fund development that will incorporate Walkasins sensory neuroprosthetic technology into artificial limbs for enhanced rehabilitation of gait and balance for active-duty military members, veterans, and civilians with lower limb trauma and/or loss.

Harting

Harting is a German company that manufactures a wide range of electrical, electronic and mechanical components, including connectors and 3D-MID devices. This profile focuses on their activities in 3D-MID, more specifically laser direct structuring (LDS).

Sintx Technologies

Sintx Technologies is an OEM ceramics company developing and commercializing silicon nitride. In addition to biomedical and industrial applications, Sintx are now exploring silicon nitride as an antimicrobial material. IDTechEx analyst Nadia Tsao interviewed Sintx CEO Dr Sonny Bal on 13 August 2020.

The AR/MR/VR Optics & Displays Market Will Grow to Over $28bn by 2030

The new IDTechEx report, "Optics and Displays in AR, VR, and MR 2020-2030: Technologies, Players and Markets", covers the complete range of optics and display technologies which are used in spatial reality products.