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IDTechEx has released a new technical market research report, "Printed and Flexible Electronics for Automotive Applications 2021-2031: Technologies and Markets", which reveals a shift to Electric Vehicles and Autonomy will drive the Printed Electronics automotive market to $12.7 bn by 2031.

As increasing numbers of devices gain electronic functionality, many new applications will require some sort of display. This growth in functional, wirelessly connected devices is an exciting technological transition that could radically reshape how we interact with previously inanimate objects.

Additively manufactured electronics is an emerging approach that takes printed electronics into the third dimension. IDTechEx divides the sector into two aspects: 'fully additive' and 'printing onto 3D surfaces'. Both have multiple application opportunities that IDTechEx believes will develop over the next decade.

Today, antimicrobial technologies are used around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Surfaces and products protected by antimicrobial technology can continuously inactivate and kill harmful microorganisms such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In this article, IDTechEx highlights three innovative start-ups that are developing next-generation antimicrobial technologies.

Given the exciting properties, graphene has always been linked as a revolutionary material for the electronics industry. CVD graphene is cited as the ideal solution in providing a perfect single layer produced in a low cost continuous R2R process, but the manufacturing and commercial reality have proved very different. After a long period of research, and with players regularly exiting and entering the field, we are only now starting to see this technology mature and the dawn of the commercial reality.

Multiple drivers are emerging for graphene as the value-added material of choice. One market driver that is perhaps surprising but will have a major impact over the next decade is sustainability.

IDTechEx currently have a number of healthcare, food and agtech webinars available to watch on-demand. These include presentations on robotic surgery, vertical farming, plant-based and cultured meat, advances in agtech and skin analysis technologies.

Wednesday 13 January 2021 - This webinar, presented by IDTechEx Chairman Dr Peter Harrop, explains how, of the trillions of dollars being spent on smart cities, the advanced materials part is rising to hundreds of billions yearly.

The building of the future may have printed sensors built into the walls, floor, and ceiling to detect water leaks, air quality, usage patterns, and more.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the 3D printing sector and its end users (such as printing bureaus), new directions of travel have nonetheless emerged. Some opportunities have even been directly prompted by the pandemic.