5G, 6G, RFID & Telecoms

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.

Walk around the aisles of a local shop: aside from the prices, little has changed since the introduction of the bar code in the 1970s. While customers have smartphones in their pockets and there are sophisticated inventory management systems in the background, the digital revolution has yet to alter the packaging of most consumer items.

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.

Computer chips have been part of cars for a long time, but no one really cares about them until they stop working or they are late to the production line, grinding manufacturing to an industry-shaking halt

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.

In 2022, Walmart made a momentous announcement that sent ripples through the RFID industry. As the world's leading retailer, Walmart revealed its ambitious plan to expand the utilization of RFID technology beyond retail apparel and encompass other critical retail departments.

Wednesday 21 June 2023 - IDTechEx's Key Semiconductor Trends in Edge AI, Automotive, and Advanced Semiconductor Packaging. AI-crucial technologies, such as autonomous driving, and the current state of the technology landscape; AI as enablers of new functionalities at the edge, such as for the smartphone market; Requirements for AI hardware at the edge; Semiconductor technologies used in autonomous vehicles; Capabilities of automotive semiconductor suppliers and the role of foundries; Key technology trend in semiconductor packaging; Growth drivers in main application areas for advanced semiconductor packaging: high performance computing (HPC) applications/data centers, communication networks, autonomous cars, and consumer electronics

What is packaging for? From its initial purpose of simply protecting the product to driving sales via consumer engagement, the role of packaging has substantially evolved. Smart/intelligent packaging continues this trend towards greater functionality, employing sensors, printed electronics, and wireless communication to add value in novel ways.

Advanced semiconductor packaging technologies are crucial due to the slowing of Moore's law and rising costs of monolithic Si IC development and manufacturing. Initially, components were individually packaged and integrated at the PCB board level, but as devices become smaller and require higher processing capabilities, component integration needs to be pushed beyond board level.