Electronic Products has announced the winners of its annual Product of the Year Awards. Now in its 48th year, EP editors looked at over 100 products across 13 component categories to select the best new components. These categories include analog/mixed-signal ICs, development kits, digital ICs, electromechanical, interconnects, IoT platforms, modules, optoelectronics, passives, power, RF/microwave, sensors, and test and measurement.
These award-winning products demonstrate a significant advancement in a technology or its application, an exceptionally innovative design, a substantial achievement in price/performance, improvements in design performance and/or the potential for new product designs and opportunities.
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Also in this issue, we look at some of the newest technologies that are poised to become the biggest industry disrupters in 2024 and beyond. These include generative AI, innovative use cases and applications for wearables, the metaverse with VR and AR technologies, delivering immersive experiences across industries and microLED displays.
Generative AI has the potential to change everything and how we interact with all kinds of devices from smartphones to vehicles. Contributing writer Stefano Lovati reports that many sectors are experiencing big changes because of generative AI. These sectors are wide-ranging, from semiconductor design and healthcare to content production and banking.
Lovati gives us a peek into understanding its capabilities and limitations and some of the impacts it is having on industries and research. This includes a discussion about the main causes of AI “hallucinations” and the best ways to mitigate hallucination risks, as it could have severe repercussions for practical implementations, such as in healthcare.
Another technology that will have a great impact on a multitude of industries is the metaverse. Lovati explains what the metaverse is and how it, along with AR/VR/XR technologies, is becoming essential for numerous industrial sectors. One example is providing significant advantages in design and manufacturing, where he cites several recent collaborations.
The metaverse leverages a range of technologies like AI, language processing, blockchain, digital assets (NFT), 5G/6G and Wi-Fi 6E to construct a virtual environment. It also has demanding requirements. While relying on high-performance computing, the metaverse also requires minimal delay, virtual computing, storage services and high-speed internet connectivity.
In the wearables world, you’d be hard-pressed to find an industry segment that doesn’t leverage this technology. Consumer wearables like fitness trackers and smartwatches have transformed how we look at health and fitness. In healthcare, continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), intelligent inhalers and remote patient-monitoring devices are changing the way healthcare professionals provide patient care, and in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, they are being used to enhance productivity and training.
IDTechEx’s senior technology analyst Tess Skyrme makes a good case for using CGMs for lifestyle management and wellness applications, comparing it to the Swiss Army Knife of wearables. The list of potential applications for CGMs is rapidly diversifying, she said, and is evolving from a diabetes management essential to an energy and lifestyle management gadget for professional athletes and biohackers.
While opportunities have been identified, is the mass-market appeal for CGMs over-hyped? Skyrme provides a reality check.
The first microLED displays are now available but at price tags that most of us cannot afford, such as Samsung’s 89-inch TV, which retails for more than $100,000. MicroLEDs have generated a lot of excitement over the past decade, said Eric H. Virey, principal analyst for the photonics, sensing and display division at Yole Intelligence, part of Yole Group. They retain all the benefits of OLEDs and have unique characteristics that should deliver improvements in most performance metrics, he said.
Virey said the first real consumer application is expected to be Apple’s smartwatch. Initially expected to launch in 2024, it will likely not hit the shelves until 2026.
The next two to three years will be critical for microLEDs, Virey said, with Apple’s smartwatch and Samsung’s TV projects as incubators for the entire industry.
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