Advanced Materials

Several of the IDTechEx team attended 2016FLEX in Monterey, CA, last week, to learn the latest about flexible hybrid electronics and network with approximately 600 of our colleagues in this industry. 2016FLEX is an event run by the FlexTech Alliance, previously known as FlexTech. This article summarizes some highlights from the show.

At 2016FLEX, a vast array of alliances, standards institutes, and innovation initiatives were represented. Many presented their views of the industry and their roadmaps for the coming years. This article summarizes some of the key highlights in this area.

eMagin Corporation develops and manufactures OLED microdisplays in the USA. eMagin has secured a number of patents for OLED microdisplay technologies, optical systems and head-worn display technologies, including direct emission OLED microdisplays that do not require color filters. IDTechEx senior analyst Dr Guillaume Chansin summarises their activities in this profile.

InVisage is a pioneer in hybrid CMOS image sensors. The company is based in Menlo Park, CA and has received over $100m in funding. InVisage has developed a technology called QuantumFilm, which is a light sensitive layer of quantum dots. Remi Lacombe presented their latest progress at the IDTechEx Sensors USA conference.

IDTechEx gave a talk at the Electronic Display Conference in Nuremberg, Germany. The conference had more people than the previous edition and celebrated its 30th year, which reflects how important displays have become in our everyday life. The presentation from IDTechEx was on two disruptive technological trends in flat panel displays: quantum dots and flexible OLED.

IDTechEx interviewed Darren Bischoff, Director of Business Development & Marketing at Boston-Power, Inc. who talked about the company and their technology. Boston Power, established in January 2005 by Christina Lampe-Onnerud, is a privately owned lithium-ion battery manufacturing company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston Power's innovative battery chemistry, which is made of nickel-based cathode material, and cell design offer high energy density, wide operating temperature, long life and safety for different applications ranging from industrial and consumer electronics through to electric vehicles and stationary energy storage.

Lumiode is a spin out from Columbia University focused on commercializing micro-LED displays. Dr Vincent Lee, the company's CEO spoke to IDTechEx Principal Analyst Dr Harry Zervos about Lumiode's technology, roadmaps and addressable markets.

New research has shown how graphene can be manipulated to create the most light-absorbent material for its weight, to date.

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Despite being heralded as a breakthrough "wonder material," graphene has been slow to leap into commercial and industrial products and processes.

Lite-On is a Taiwanese company that manufactures consumer electronics components such as LEDs, semiconductors, storage, etc. It is also working on printing antennas on mobile phones using aerosol deposition. We caught up with their research team to learn more about their progress and challenges.

The conductive inks and paste business has come alive again. In this article IDTechEx Research will explain this business in detail and will describe how and why everything is changing.

Last year IDTechEx Research asserted that the transparent conductive film industry had entered a period of intense consolidation. We have been proved right as the consolidation period is beginning to take its first round of high profile victims.

Tangio PE is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sytek Enterprises, established in North Vancouver, BC in 1982, a manufacturer of printed Electronics, membrane switches, force sensors, graphic overlays and labels.

Manufacture of longer, thinner, and uncontaminated carbon nanotubes, and successfully isolating them, have been ongoing challenges for researchers.

Multitaction is a Finland-based large-area interactive display manufacturer. It's technology is based on optical (IR) vision systems. The main market is the enterprise segment. The key advantage is stems from the system's ability to create different large-scale shapes composed of an arbitrary arrangement of 50" displays. The system can also handle an unlimited number of users and different input types.

Humavox is an Israeli startup developing RF-DC wireless charging systems targeted for use in small devices, including consumer electronics, wearables, IoT and healthcare applications.

If the buzz at the Consumer Electronics Show is any indication of things to come (and usually, it is), 2016 is expected to be the year of virtual reality (VR). Much anticipated VR headset launches, announcement of investment in enabling technologies, and developments of optimized components made virtual reality the words on everyone's lips at CES2016 in Las Vegas. IDTechEx detail and benchmark the key competing display technologies that will enable this revolution.

Ecoflux is a supplier of quantum dots in Korea. They can produce CdSe, CdS, PbSe, PbS, CdTe, as well as cadmium-free quantum dots.

Research demonstrates carbon nanotubes creating wafer-thin, flat structures that enable the miniaturisation of a range of optical devices.