One of the fastest growing segments within the $64bn wearable technology industry will be medical wearables, which will grow to $19.7bn in 2024, according to IDTechEx Research. Healthcare Sensor Innovations 2020, hosted in San Jose on March 17th to 18th, identifies and assesses the opportunities for printed and flexible electronics in healthcare as the technology enables a new wave of medical wearable devices. 

While there has been steady growth in the adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), mass adoption requires improvements to both range and cost. Improved performance and cost of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) plays a big role in providing this and considerable investment is being poured into the research and development of the next generation of LIBs. 

IDTechEx Research have reviewed the potential evolution roadmap of material technologies in emissive displays. First, fluorescent OLED materials were developed. These offered narrow emission, maturity, and stability, but suffered from low internal quantum efficiency (IQE) due to their inability to harvest the so-called triplet states.

Electric vehicles by land, water and air are rapidly arriving and rapidly being misunderstood. For example, the battery cost will be overtaken by the other electricity management from the solar bodywork on your Tesla pick-up truck, its motors, power electronics. Motors last forever? No. We now push motors so hard they wear out, increasing sales. 

3D printing has been touted as being a manufacturing cure-all for a whole host of different applications. The reality is very different, but this doesn’t stop the onslaught of news articles proclaiming 3D printing to be the answer. Here’s a roundup of the weird and wonderful world of 3D printing in 2019.

IDTechEx has issued an in-depth report called, ‘Robot Shuttles and Autonomous Buses 2020-2040’. Robot shuttles are an important new, reconfigurable form of transportation for goods and people that may even function as mobile offices, workshops, restaurants and more. It finds that the heart of the subject is upright, boxy, eight to 20 person vehicles that are symmetrical like a small train so they never do a U turn.

Here come previously impossible devices and structures. The new IDTechEx report, ‘Smart Material Opportunities in Structural Electronics 2020-2030’ has analysed and forecasted a remarkable $200bn materials opportunity by making dumb structures smart. Save weight, space and cost. Eliminate maintenance.

Along with the rest of the automotive sector, the medium and heavy-duty truck market is evolving. Governments around the world, recognising the potentially catastrophic repercussions of unfettered climate change and witnessing the detrimental impact on human health from vehicle exhaust pollutant emissions in urban environments, are taking decisive action, that will, in the coming decades, drive vehicle manufacturers to zero on-road exhaust emissi...

Last mile delivery is the most expensive part of the delivery chain, often representing more than 50% of the overall cost. This is mainly because it is the least productive and automated step. As such, many are seeking to bring automation into the last mile. In recent years, many companies around the world have been innovating to utilise autonomous mobile robots, drones, and autonomous vehicle technology. By: Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, Researc...

XR, or extended reality, products are at the forefront of technological change. Virtual reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). With so many different XR products now available for a variety of use cases, it is important to understand how the different technologies are used, and companies which create them.

IDTechEx Technology Analyst Dr David Wyatt has recently published a report update ‘Electric Truck 2020-2030’, focusing on electrification in the medium and heavy-duty truck markets, providing a comprehensive set of market forecasts.

In the past decade, progress continues in the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies, as we see market leaders like Google’s Waymo have achieved the milestones in on-road testing of their self-driving fleets, and companies like Tesla announced ambitious plans to commercialise robotaxi services in geo-fenced areas by 2020.

Autonomous driving technologies are disrupting the business models for the traditional auto industry. In the past decade, we have seen tech giants like Google and Baidu, as well as mobility service companies such as Uber and Didi joining the race with car companies to shape the future mobility system. Autonomous mobility can become a $1.4tn market by 2040 in terms of car sales.

Autonomous driving is shifting the existing automotive supply chain from the traditional system of OEMs and suppliers to a collaborative ecosystem comprising OEMs, mobility service providers, software and hardware solution providers, and infrastructure providers. We have recently seen competitors joining hands and forming some unlikely-sounding alliances to reduce the cost of autonomous driving development, as well as to share resources and capab...

Only a 100 kilowatt-hour battery pack is in the luxury Vision EQS concept car of Mercedes yet it will deliver increased 700km range, partly because low drag factor is now going to be taken seriously, learning from Tesla. Range sells electric cars. Long range ones sell in 100 times the numbers and have three times the resale value.  By IDTechEx Chairman, Dr Peter Harrop

‘RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2019-2029’, the global annual survey of the RFID industry by analysts IDTechEx, has revealed that in 2019 the number of passive RFID tags sold will increase by 13% over 2018. That includes passive RFID tags across the three main frequencies used (RAIN, HF and LF). Of those three frequencies RAIN RFID will see the highest growth from 2018 to 2019 at 20% with HF RFID (including NFC) at fiv...

Solar vehicle bodywork has just progressed from curiosity to key enabling technology. The new 180-page IDTechEx report, ‘Solar Cars, Buses, Trucks, Trains 2020-2030’ explains why and forecasts the next ten years with solar cars set to reach $15bn by 2030, which will just be the beginning. The focus is mainly road vehicles - solar already provides significant car traction power. 

Since the inception of electronic devices there have been radical improvements in performance and miniaturisation. However, the form of electronics has barely changed – typically discrete components are mounted on circuit boards which are put in a box.  By Raghu Das, CEO, IDTechEx

Here, Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, Research Director at IDTechEx, has discussed the global graphene market, more information on the topic can be found in his report ‘Graphene, 2D Materials and Carbon Nanotubes: Markets, Technologies and Opportunities 2019 to 2029’. 

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Rivian recently announced a project to use its second-life batteries as energy storage units in a microgrid initiative in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, which was severely impacted by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and has been struggling with power since then.