Semiconductor manufacturing processes require many chemicals and specialty gases. Owing to its cryogenic properties, exceptional thermal conductivity, chemical inertness, and high diffusivity, helium is used throughout the semiconductor manufacturing line, particularly for wafer cooling where there are no viable alternatives.

Underlying the hype for SiC (silicon carbide) and the future potential of GaN (gallium nitride) for EV power electronics, challenges remain for both technologies. While OEMs, tier-one suppliers, and market analysts generally agree that SiC and GaN will eventually share the market with incumbent Si technologies, the exact roadmap and time scale remain uncertain. A development in its relative infancy that IDTechEx expects to boost overall performance, volume capabilities, and cost, are engineered substrates.

Tuesday 24 September 2024 - How Chronic Supply Challenges Are Reshaping Helium Use in Key Industries. An overview of global helium production and supply; Impact of supply challenges on different industries e.g. semiconductors and fiber optics manufacturing, cryogenics, and several others; Technological advances to reduce helium consumption (e.g. MRI and NMR); Trends in the adoption of substitutes or reclamation systems; Outlook for global helium production capacity and demand

The autonomous truck industry is experiencing a significant revival, with vehicle delivery numbers continuously breaking records. Companies across Asia, Europe, and the United States are eagerly advancing into the commercialization testing phase. Autonomous trucks are addressing critical real-world issues by reducing transportation costs and optimizing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) through meticulous, practical calculations.

Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) is one of the most important ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) features a vehicle can have. Studies have shown that pedestrian crash risk is reduced by 25-27% and pedestrian injury crash risk by 29-30% through the implementation of AEB.

Thursday 5 September 2024 - An overview of the construction machine industry; Drivers for electrification and current government legislation; Comparisons of electric and diesel machine performance; Analysis of total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits of electric machines; Batteries for the construction machine industry

The key to wider adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) will be lower-cost models with a more approachable price point. The most expensive component of an EV is the battery pack. As well as increasing the energy density and reducing the cost of the battery cells, another avenue to cost reduction is through more efficient packaging of the cells.

Helium is a finite resource that plays a critical role across several industries including medical imaging, thermal management systems for batteries, aerospace engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, semiconductor manufacturing, fiber optics, particle physics, scientific balloons, and many more.

Thursday 12 September 2024 - How Is Critical Material Recovery Unlocking a Multi-Billion Dollar Market? Introduction to critical materials and key application markets; Critical material sources and why secondary material streams are rapidly emerging; Critical material recovery technology trends and their application in secondary sources; Valuable lessons to learn from established critical platinum group metal and semiconductor recovery; IDTechEx's outlook and conclusions on emerging critical material recovery markets and key growth opportunities.

Autonomous buses represent one of the most challenging platforms in the autonomous driving industry. In recent years, commercial interest has shifted towards roboshuttles and robotaxis, partly due to the complex operational design domains (ODD) of autonomous buses.

End-of-life equipment from automotives, electric vehicles, e-waste and decarbonized energy technologies are rapidly emerging secondary raw material sources for valuable critical materials. A new report from IDTechEx forecasts that US$110B of critical materials will be recovered annually from secondary sources by 2045, with a combined weight of over 3.3 million tonnes.

The executive summary of the European Commission's "Initiation of an anti-subsidy investigation concerning imports of new battery electric vehicles... originating in the People's Republic of China" contained an important definition. The statement sets out the Commission's aims regarding the anti-subsidy investigation and defines the product in question as a battery electric vehicle (BEV) designed for the transport of 9 or less passengers.

The construction machine industry is still in its early stages of electrification, with the first small electric machine only coming onto the market in 2015. However, IDTechEx's new report, "Electric Vehicles in Construction 2024-2044: Technologies, Players, Forecasts", highlights how the electric machines of today are bigger and better than their predecessors from less than 10 years ago.

Thursday 22 August 2024 - Navigating the Autonomous Bus Revolution: Challenges, Successes, and Future Trends. Comprehensive analysis of industry challenges and solutions; In-depth examination of market dynamics and commercialization factors; and Market outlook and future trends

With the ever-increasing need for heat dissipation, high-performance thermal interface materials with higher thermal conductivity and other properties are becoming essential. Driven by this trend, a number of high-performance TIMs are emerging. This article primarily introduces the advantages and drawbacks of advanced carbon-based TIMs. However, it is worth noting that many other TIMs offer superior performance.

With more than 90% of road traffic accidents coming down to human error, the importance of autonomy and its safety benefits cannot be overlooked. As the industry moves into a new era of autonomous driving technologies, safety benchmarks and standards are evolving, forcing car companies to adopt new technologies to keep their cars competitive.

While the focus of the automotive market has been on electrification to meet CO2 regulations, these are not the only regulations that will significantly impact the automotive industry. PFAS are becoming a greater concern throughout multiple industries. With the uncertainty around PFAS regulations, there are a few avenues that automotive players could pursue to replace the refrigerants they use.

Roboshuttles are small, fully electric, and operate at Level 4 autonomy, making them an ideal last-mile solution. They were once highly anticipated in the autonomous driving industry as a promising mobility solution, and at one point, over 25 companies were competing in this space. However, IDTechEx has observed a yearly decline in the number of active companies from 2020 to 2024, and the industry has not advanced to the large-scale commercial testing phases as hoped.

Efficiency is the key goal of electric vehicle development. This is especially true of power electronics, where one increasingly adopted approach is to integrate multiple functions into the same package. For automotive OEMs, this can result in reductions in overall weight to increase the efficiency of the vehicle while also reducing the cost of production.