Researchers have taken a major step forward in the development of sensitive electronic skin with integrated artificial hairs. E-skins are flexible electronic systems that try to mimic the sensitivity of their natural human skin counterparts. Applications range from skin replacement and medical sensors on the body to artificial skin for humanoid robots and androids.

JinkoSolar has achieved a major technical breakthrough for its 182 mm high-efficiency N-type monocrystalline silicon solar cell. JinkoSolar has set a new world record again with the maximum solar conversion efficiency of 25.7% for its large-size monocrystalline silicon TOPCon solar cell.

Epishine is partnering with ASCA to strengthen and further develop the world-wide OPV market. ASCA recently acquired the most relevant intellectual property portfolio on printed OPV and the companies have signed a licensing agreement to share it beginning of April. The contract will enable the Swedish-based manufacturer Epishine to further improve its organic indoor light energy harvesting solar modules.

TactoTek and DuraTech Industries announced that DuraTech has licensed TactoTek IMSE technology. DuraTech is a TactoTek Design and Innovate licensee with rights to sell, design, and produce parts that use TactoTek's intellectual property which includes 44 patent families with over 130 granted patents, as well as extensive trade secrets and know-how for designing and producing IMSE parts. DuraTech will create and deliver IMSE solutions for its customers in North America and around the world from production facilities in the USA.

As electronics being increasingly ubiquitous, there is a clear trend toward greater integration. Rather than simply making space for a rigid 2D circuit board (PCB) within the product, electronic functionality will be either mounted conformally onto surfaces or incorporated within the structural materials.

Semiconducting nanomaterials with 3D network structures have high surface areas and lots of pores that make them excellent for applications involving adsorbing, separating, and sensing. However, simultaneously controlling the electrical properties and creating useful micro- and macro-scale structures, while achieving excellent functionality and end-use versatility, remains challenging.

Single-use plastics account for between 30-50% of all plastic applications. Eliminating single-use plastics poses opportunities for alternative materials to supplant their applications. Materials that are biodegradable and home compostable, rather than requiring industrial composting, are particularly valuable. For this reason, there is much interest around plant polysaccharides as a source of biodegradable material. In this premium article, IDTechEx discusses three key polysaccharides derived from plants and seaweeds: nanocellulose, thermoplastic starch, and seaweed-derived hydrocolloids.

E Ink has announced the launch of E Ink Gallery 3, a next generation of color ePaper for the eReader and eNote markets. E Ink Gallery 3 is based on the E Ink ACeP Advanced Color ePaper platform. In this platform, a full-color gamut is achieved through a four particle ink system: cyan, magenta, yellow and white, which allows a full color gamut at each pixel.

Existing therapies for healing wounds include dressings, negative pressure bandages, growth factor-based and anti-inflammatory drugs, debridement, and ultrasound treatments. But even under the best conditions, the average time for complete wound closure is 12 weeks using these methods.

New solar cell devices that are cheaper and easier to make could soon make their way to market thanks to materials. Traditional solar cells are made from silicon, which has good efficiency and stability, but is relatively expensive to make and can only be manufactured in stiff panels. Perovskite solar cells offer an intriguing alternative; they can be printed from inks, making them low cost, high efficiency, thin, lightweight and flexible.

The future certainly looks sunny for solar cells equipped with two electricity-generating semiconductors. With good reason - their potential efficiency is far higher than that of conventional single solar cells. They can also be lighter and more flexible, depending on their component materials.

E Ink announced the launch of E Ink Spectra 3100 Plus five-color ePaper. Spectra 3100 Plus adds bright orange to the existing four colors (black, white, red, and yellow) of the previous generation. The combination of five vivid and saturated colors creates a more eye-catching display, which will help retailers improve their marketing and advertising performance.

Never before has point-of-care testing been so crucial to healthcare systems. In the last 2 years, COVID-19 has caused the point-of-care biosensors industry to expand by almost 300%. A recent IDTechEx report explains the drivers causing the shift from conventional laboratory-based diagnostics toward point-of-care diagnostics performed directly at hospitals, clinics, offices, and at home.

Have you ever wondered if bacteria make distinctive sounds? If we could listen to bacteria, we would be able to know whether they are alive or not. When bacteria are killed using an antibiotic, those sounds would stop - unless of course the bacteria are resistant to the antibiotic. This is exactly what a team of researchers have managed to do: they captured low-level noise of a single bacterium using graphene.

E Ink announced they are working with six ePaper module partners, including BOE Technology Group, DKE Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Xing Tai Technology Co., Ltd., Innolux Corporation, Qingyue Technology, and Yes Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. to promote E Ink Gallery Palette and E Ink Gallery Plus color ePaper products.

Imagine a future in which you could 3D-print an entire robot or stretchy, electronic medical device with the press of a button—no tedious hours spent assembling parts by hand.

Holoportation is a type of capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted live anywhere in real time.. When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, it allows users to see, hear, and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in the same physical space.

Scientists have developed a new conductive ink for use in printed electronics with significantly improved resistance to oxidation. After this ink is printed, it self-organizes into a conductive pattern with a copper core-nickel shell nanostructure. Use of this cheaper, more stable ink may help popularize printed electronics.

Milling rice to separate the grain from the husks produces about 100 million tons of rice husk waste globally each year. Scientists searching for a scalable method to fabricate quantum dots have developed a way to recycle rice husks to create the first silicon quantum dot LED light. Their new method transforms agricultural waste into state-of-the-art light-emitting diodes in a low-cost, environmentally friendly way.

This premium article delves into the LOPEC 2022 event, held from 22nd-24th March, which IDTechEx attended in-person. It will focus on materials, with an analysis of the most interesting and commercially relevant companies in the fields of copper-based conductive inks, transparent conductors, other conductive inks, and non-conductive materials.