Content area
Full text
Limiting our picks to a set number doesn't do the topic justice, but these innovati or are already changing ' mind-sets, apps and markets
TECH TRENDS
SOMETIME BETWEEN finishing off the turkey leftovers and prepping our New Year's toasts, EE Times? editors sat down to identify 20 hot technologies we will be tracking during 2012.
Granted, given the pace of technological change, limiting our list to 20 topics doesn't really do the subject justice. Technology does not exist in a vacuum; individual innovations are interconnected conceptually - and sometimes physically - through the efforts and actions of engineers, consumers, companies and markets.
What's more, the significance of a technology can sometimes boil down to a well-turned phrase that captures the essence of an evolving technology sector, such as the way "system-on-chip" replaced "application-specific integrated circuit" a decade ago. For instance, is today's "Internet of things" the same as or different from machine-to-machine communications? Whichever catchphrase we choose, the question is whether the technology will enable products and markets to flourish.
This year, when downturns and natural disasters disrupted the industry, we were reminded that there have always been areas within electronics that have grown rapidly even when overall market growth has been limited.
And those hot sectors are fueled by hot technologies like these.
1. MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS. MEMS is really six or seven subdomains, many of which have high market growth rates. Categories to watch include environmental sensors, including pressure and humidity sensors; silicon microphones; inertial sensors, including accelerometers and gyroscopes; inkjets and microfluidics; micro actuators, such as micromirror devices and displays; RF MEMS devices; micro-optoelectromechanical systems; and bioelectronic probes and substrates.
2. WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS. The combination of sensor, microcontroller, energy source and wireless transceiver could yet transform, and in some cases create, a range of applications.
3. THE INTERNET OF THINGS. Once trillions of objects have IP addresses to help them serve billions of people, life on our planet will never be the same.
4. PLASTIC ELECTRONICS. Organic materials for electronics hold out the possibility of low-cost and biodegradable circuits. For now, the performance is low - but the possibilities are already being exploited in RFID and near-field communications.