Advanced Materials

Surfaces, be they in kitchen appliances, automotive interiors, medical devices, or even furniture, are becoming increasingly smart. Embedded lighting, touch sensitivity, heating, and even haptic feedback enables inanimate and often neglected surfaces into a design feature with seamlessly integrated user controls. But what is the best way to manufacture these smart surfaces?

Thursday 2 March 2023 - Key takeaways from the webinar: Solid-state battery landscape; Solid-state battery development; Controversial opinions on solid-state batteries and corresponding analysis; Important factors for solid-state battery commercialization; Targeting market

The next generation of telecoms technologies, 5G, is not fully deployed yet; in fact, the exciting high-frequency bands of mmWave 5G are not set to take off for another several years, according to IDTechEx forecasts.

Despite component shortages and rising material prices, Electric vehicles (EVs) have continued their strong growth throughout 2022, with sales looking to be increased by over 60% compared with the previous year. One factor that is difficult to overlook is vehicle fire safety. In addition to the major automotive recalls seen in 2020 and 2021 for GM, Hyundai, Ford, and others, 2022 also highlighted issues in other vehicle segments.

Essential to understanding the evolution of the polymer 3D printing industry is exploring the change from low-cost printing technologies and materials to the slow growth and adoption of innovative polymer printing technologies and materials, from viscous thermosets to carbon fiber composites to foams.

Thursday 23 February 2023 - Opportunities for Integrated Functionality. In this webinar Dr Matthew Dyson, a Principal Technology Analyst at IDTechEx, will discuss the following topics: - The status of IME and competing approaches for creating functional and decorative interfaces across multiple application sectors. - The challenges and benefits associated with functionality integration, and how the value proposition of IME is likely to grow over time. - IME specific material requirements, especially for conductive inks. - A roadmap for IME adoption, segmented by industry.

The rapid growth of the electric vehicle market has driven the development, manufacture and sales of batteries, especially lithium-ion batteries, which are dominating the battery industry for a decade.

Membrane materials are of fundamental importance for fuel cells. So significant, in fact, that they typically give their name to the fuel cell, as is the case for Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, with IDTechEx forecasting the market for ion-exchange membranes in PEM fuel cells to be worth over USD$1.1 billion by 2033.

Enhancing 'sustainability' is a widely held aspiration within the electronics industry - realizing this transition is considerably more difficult. To this day, toxic chemicals, material waste, and energy-intensive processing are commonplace.

Friday 10 February 2023 - Status and prospects of competing analogue and digital manufacturing methods for printed electronics; Technical discussion of emerging digital manufacturing methodologies; Evaluation of the benefits and challenges of adopting high throughput R2R manufacturing; and Innovations in component placement and attachment that will facilitate manufacturing of FHE.