The market composition of transparent conductive films and materials has not dramatically shifted for some years. It is heavily reliant upon select markets such as flat consumer small/medium sized electronic touch screens. Indeed, the IDTechEx Research report Transparent Conductive Films and Materials 2018-2028: Forecasts, Technologies, Players puts this reliance around 85-90% today. The emergence of new applications has also been slower than many had predicted and hoped. This report finds that so-called 'old' applications are still the vast majority of the market.

In this premium article below we cover some of the latest activities with printed, flexible batteries.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday 14 February titled A Market Outlook for the Aerogel Industry.

For over 16 years IDTechEx analysts have studied the printed electronics market in all its guises - organic, flexible and hybrid electronics. There have been tremendous successes such as OLED displays and conductive ink for PV, touch screens and bio sensors. There has also been tremendous investment creating new enabling materials, processes and components that will enable new capabilities and differentiate and improve products.

In this brief slide deck, we briefly outline the key aspects and challenges of growing high-quality graphene as an electronic substrate. This could take the form of a film of graphene on a wafer or another substrate. Therefore, we will consider chemical vapour deposition as well as epitaxial growth. Here, we will also outline some of the R&D progress on this topic. This slide presentation will be the first of two presentations. The second one will consider the use of graphene as an electronic material.

In-mold electronics (IME) is a process of integrating printed decorations and electronic circuitry with thermoforming and molding.

The speech user interface landscape is changing, as described in IDTechEx's brand-new report "Voice, Speech, Conversation-Based User Interface 2019-2029: Technology, Player, Market".

In this slide presentation, we will first give a brief introduction to the basic operation of thin film transistors, also distinguishing them from wafer-based transistor technologies.

A polymer aerogel combines the benefits of an aerogel with the conveniences of a plastic (i.e., polymer).

NEO Tech AMT GmbH is one of the leading companies developing systems for 3D Printed Electronics (3D PE). The company installed the first 5 axis 3D PE system in 2010. Rapid advances lead to the first commercial installation for mass production for printed 3D circuits in mobile communications devices in 2015.

Advancements in material science and material processing will always play a central role in any technological progression. IDTechEx has been providing leading market analysis on a broad range of advanced materials and their technology analysts have given their pick of the key news stories from 2018.

As the result of a heritage that includes 3M and Kodak, Carestream applies more than 100 years of coating leadership to deliver innovation in roll-to-roll coating.

New enabling alignment technology ready for the market. Potential applications in Medical Technology, Display Technology and Thermal Interface Materials. Raghu Das from IDTechEx interviews CTO Dr. Hemmen about the status of the technology, customer value and market.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 18 December titled RFID 2018 Update: Market Size and Outlook.

A recent, bestselling IDTechEx report found that the market for electronic skin patches will be worth $4.8bn in 2018. The report covers 26 different application areas, >85 companies and 95 different product case studies, with inclusion of historic market data by sector and subsequent market forecasts predicting that revenue from electronic skin patches will reach $10bn by 2023 and $15bn by 2028. This is the most comprehensive study on electronic skin patches, studying this emerging wearable technology product type that so many companies are investing heavily to develop and commercialize.

Technology analyst Dr Bryony Core reports on her findings at the IDTechEx Show! Santa Clara 2018

2018 saw a significant step for aerogels in consumer electronics - but what is an aerogel? The Dell XPS 13 launched at CES 2018 and included the use of a material called silica aerogel for improved thermal performance. Aerogels are often dubbed "space-age technology" with most internet searches directing the reader towards use cases in the NASA stardust probe and Mars Rover, but the history, material diversity, and commercial status are very different.

IDTechEx is hosting a free webinar on Thursday 13 December titled Printed, Organic and Flexible Electronics: Status, Forecast and Opportunities.

On 4-6 December 2018 IDTechEx Research is hosting six half-day forums which will provide vital business intelligence on advanced functional materials covering material production techniques, performance versus market need, applications, players and forecasts. In this article, we highlight some of the trends that will be covered in the forums.

Approximately 3,500 attendees from 42 countries attended the IDTechEx Show!, which featured 284 exhibiting organizations. The event, held in Santa Clara, California, is unique in bringing together eight key technologies with the organizations that seek to use them.