The Latest Tech Trends
10 Key Trends In The Tech Industry
From memories to augmented reality, passing through the IoT, what will happen in the various technological sectors in what hopefully will be a year of economic recovery?
1 | Memories
The three main suppliers of Dram – Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron- will continue their transition to 1Znm and 1alpha nm process technologies and will also formally introduce the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) era. Samsung will be at the forefront in 2021. These same suppliers will gradually replace existing technologies to optimize costs and improve production efficiency. Nand flash vendors, on the other hand, after pushing memory stacking technology beyond 100 levels in 2020, will aim to exceed 150 in 2021 and improve single die capacity from 256/512 Gb to 512 Gb / 1. TB. High-density Nand Flash products can then be adopted by consumers with cost-optimized chips. As for SSDs, the PCIe Gen 4 interface will begin to gain a greater market share thanks to its integration into PS5, Xbox Series X / S and motherboards with the new Intel microarchitecture. The new interface is essential to meet the enormous demand for data transfer from high-end PCs, servers and data centers.
2 | Mobile Networks
In the mobile environment, the spotlight is on 5G. The guidelines for its implementation, released by Gsma in June 2020, deepen the technical details useful to network operators who, in 2021, should implement large-scale stand alone (SA) 5G architectures. In addition to providing high-speed, high-bandwidth connections, 5G SA architectures will allow operators to tailor their networks to user applications and adapt to workloads that require extremely low latency. However, while the rollout of 5G is still underway, NTT DoCoMo, in Japan, and SK Telecom, in Korea, are already focusing on the implementation of 6G, a standard that allows other emerging applications such as VR, AR, 8K and resolutions. superior, realistic holographic communications etc.
3 | Internet of Things
The integration of Artificial Intelligence will be the main added value to the IoT in 2021. Innovations in tools such as Deep Learning and Machine Vision will lead to an update of IoT software and hardware applications and from the Internet of Things we will move to Intelligence of Things, as Artificial Intelligence-enabled devices approach full autonomy. Taking into account industry dynamics, economic stimuli and remote access demand, IoT is expected to see large-scale adoption in some of the major verticals: Smart Manufacturing and Smart Healthcare.
4 | Augmented Reality Viewers
In 2021 the smartphone will begin to act as an IT platform connected to the viewers for Augmented Reality; in this way the viewers themselves can be less heavy and less expensive. In particular, with the expansion of 5G, the integration of 5G smartphones and glasses for AR will allow the latter not only to run Augmented Reality apps more smoothly, but also to satisfy advanced audiovisual entertainment features. Therefore, smartphone brands and mobile network operators are expected to venture into the AR viewer market in 2021.
5 | Driver Monitoring
The integration of AI systems in vehicles is going beyond entertainment and assistance features and becoming an indispensable element for the safety of vehicles and people. Dms (Driver Monitoring Systems) have become an absolute necessity in the development of Autonomous Driving Systems, because they perform multiple functions at the same time: real-time detection / notification, assessment of driver capacity and acquisition of driving control when needed. In the near future, vehicles with integrated DMs are expected to go into mass production.
6 | Foldable Displays
The first foldable phones started being produced in 2019. To date, the sales performance of these smartphones has not been exciting, mainly because they are still relatively expensive products, but in the coming years, phone brands will continue to focus on this. segment, because panel manufacturers, in turn, are expanding their ability to make flexible Amoleds. The foldable functionality has also seen increasing penetration into devices such as notebooks. With Intel and Microsoft leading the way, various manufacturers have each released their own dual-display notebook offering, while foldable display notebooks are likely to hit the market next year.
7 | Mini Led and QD-Oled
Competition between display technologies for the high-end audio-video market is expected to increase in 2021. In particular, the Mini Led backlight will spread, which allows LCD televisions to have more precise control over the backlighting areas and, therefore, a better display contrast than that of current traditional televisions. Led by Samsung, Mini Led backlit LCD TVs are competitive against their white OLED counterparts, while still offering similar specs and performance. However, Samsung Display is also betting on its new QD OLED technology, superior to white OLED in terms of color saturation, as a technological point of differentiation from its competitors and will try to set it as a new reference standard in TV specifications.
8 | Packaging of Chips and AiP Modules
Despite the impact of the pandemic, advanced packaging technologies have not suffered any setbacks in 2020 and the interest of semiconductor companies such as Tsmc, Intel, Ase and Amkor grows in them. Tsmc and Intel have released their new packaging architectures for Chip, Branded 3D Fabric and Hybrid Bonding, respectively, moving towards fourth generation CoWoS and Co-EMIB technologies. In 2021, the two foundries will seek to benefit from the demand for high-end 2.5D and 3D chips. As for AiP module packaging, after Qualcomm released its first QTM products in 2018, MediaTek and Apple subsequently partnered with outsourcing companies, including Ase and Amkor, aiming for advances in packaging research and development for the flip chip technology.
9 | The Chips Towards Verticalization
With the rapid development of IoT, 5G, AI, cloud and edge computing, chip makers have moved from making single products to proposing solutions, thus creating ecosystems of chips. The continuous vertical integration of these players has given rise to an oligopolistic industry, with high localized competition. Chip makers who have not been able to position themselves in time to market needs will likely find themselves at risk of over-reliance on one industry.
10 | Micro Led Display
In recent years we have seen the release of large Micro Led displays by Samsung, LG, Sony and Lumens. Samsung is expected to be the first in the industry to release its active matrix Micro Led TVs, thus consolidating the year 2021 as the first year of Micro Led integration in televisions. The active matrix addresses the pixels making use of the display’s Tft glass backplane, and because the IC design of the active matrix is relatively simple, the amount of routing required is relatively low. However, integrated circuits with active matrix drivers require Pwm functionality and Mosfet switches to stabilize the electric current that drives the Micro Led displays: this implies a new and expensive research and development process. Therefore, for Micro Led manufacturers