Feature Story

10 Early Stage Technology Innovations Point to the Future

The electronics industry is evolving quickly, with innovations in emerging technologies, including printed electronics, wearable technology, 3D printing, sensors, energy harvesting, electric vehicles and new advanced materials, appearing at an astonishing rate. Next week, at the IDTechEx Show! in Santa Clara, CA, ten such startup companies will be showcasing their tech as part of IDTechEx Launchpad.

"The show will have over 200 exhibitors. However, there are many young companies who raise money on Kickstarter or come out of a university, and we wanted to be able to put them in front of the 3,000 or so people who will be at the show," Raghu Das, chief executive officer of market research firm IDTechEx told EBN in an interview. "They probably couldn't do that on their own. So we decided to take the 10 most exciting embryonic technologies and let people see what they can do. All of them are bringing prototypes."

At the showcase, which is sponsored by global semiconductor maker Qualcomm, ten early-stage companies will share prototypes and demonstrations of products. In addition, Qualcomm will announce and demonstrate its printed electronics-enabled golf performance sensor.

Some of the most exciting include new ways of thinking about electronic components. For example, some new technologies allow circuits to be printed or drawn using special ink, which allows for the creation of larger surface areas and more affordable price points. Others are stretchable or transparent. "For a long time components and devices have been same in form factor," Das said. "We are exploring new form factors so people aren't going into just flexible and rollable electronics but stretchable and conformal." Other hot categories included energy harvesting, 3D printing and wearable electronics.

Click on the image below to see a slideshow of these new companies and technologies.

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