Advanced Materials

Li-ion batteries are widely used in various markets, such as in consumer electronics, electric vehicles (EVs) and stationary energy storage. However, as demand for Li-ion batteries continues to increase, the need to manage their sustainability through their entire lifecycle, including at end-of-life (EOL), is also becoming increasingly important.

With the continuous increase in the thermal design power (TDP) of chips, traditional air-cooling methods are struggling to meet the cooling requirements of modern hyperscale data centers. As a result, liquid cooling has emerged as a promising solution due to the high specific heat capacity of liquids.

Thursday 20 July 2023 - Navigating the Liquid Cooling Dominance in Data Centers - An IDTechEx Roadmap; Air cooling: An overview of the traditional air-cooling approach and its benefits and limitations; Direct-to-chip/Cold Plate Cooling: An exploration of cooling methods that involve direct contact between the cooling medium and the chips or the use of cold plates; Immersion cooling: An examination of cooling techniques that utilize immersion of servers or components in dielectric fluids; Coolant comparison and regulations: A comparison of different coolants used in liquid cooling systems, along with relevant regulations; Single-phase and two-phase cooling: An analysis of single-phase and two-phase cooling methods and their applications in data centers; Thermal interface materials (TIMs): An overview of the importance of thermal interface materials in efficient heat transfer within cooling systems.

Thursday 27 July 2023 - Surging Demand for Lithium-Ion Batteries Driving the Carbon Nanotube Market. 10-year market outlook for CNTs; Analysis of CNT usage in the energy storage industry, including technology trends in LiBs and next generation batteries; Overview of other key applications; Discussion of key players and supply chain pain points; Emerging technologies incl. green feedstock

The energy storage market is booming, driven predominantly by the electrification of the transportation sector. With the increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries (LiB), significant attention has been given to the supply chain of materials for LiBs beyond lithium itself. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are gaining traction as a conductive additive at the cathode of LiBs, paving the way for significant expansion in the CNT market.

For many decades there has been an extensive amount of materials science R&D focussed on developing next-generation gas separation membranes. However, to date, the market is still dominated by those polymeric materials that initially gained commercial adoption in the late 20th century.

This is a data-centric world. The growing amount of data generated in various industries increasingly drives the demand for high-bandwidth computing. Applications such as machine learning and AI require powerful processing capabilities, leading to the need for dense transistor placement on chips and compact interconnection bump pitches in packaging.

Thursday 6 July 2023 - Drivers and constraints of Li-ion battery recycling; Value chain and economics of Li-ion battery recycling; Policies and regulation overview in different regions; Technologies used in this market, including hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy and direct recycling; Introduction to market analysis and future global recycling facility expansions

Over the past 16 years, the thermal design power (TDP) of GPUs has quadrupled. With the increasing demand for AI, cloud computing, and crypto mining, IDTechEx expects the power consumption of server boards and data centers to continue rising.

Wednesday 28 June - Where Metamaterials Meet Tele-Communications. What is a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), and why are they likely to be needed for high frequency telecommunications.; The different types of RIS (passive, semi-passive, active) and where they are likely to be deployed; Manufacturing processes and materials required for RIS production.