PUBLISHER: Zhar Research | PRODUCT CODE: 1563424
PUBLISHER: Zhar Research | PRODUCT CODE: 1563424
6G Communications Thermal Materials for Infrastructure and Client Devices: Opportunities, Markets, Technology 2025-2045
Summary
Your opportunity in thermal materials and structures for 6G Communications will become over $6 billion yearly if it succeeds. So says the new Zhar Research report, "6G Communications Thermal Materials for Infrastructure and Client Devices: Opportunities, Markets, Technology 2025-2045".
The primary purpose of this report is to aid you to make and use the largest growth opportunity. That is solid-state materials and systems for the rapidly-growing thermal materials market as it adds large 6G demand but other 6G options are covered as well.
The focus is on unbiassed facts-based analysis revealing, quantifying and timing the 6G commercial opportunities arising. To this end, it mainly embraces reduction of temperature, holding of a chosen temperature and prevention of heating because heating alone becomes unimportant.
Your next big opportunities
Learn the most promising materials, devices, systems and market sectors. Find gaps in the market. Understand your emerging competition, potential acquisitions, challenges and market sectors. See all that on the necessary 20-year view.
Thermal issues once again escalate
Each new generation of wireless communications has generated more heat, and 6G is no exception. 6G thermal requirements will be almost entirely about cooling. They become so demanding that, increasingly, new technologies become essential. Enjoy some premium pricing, if you can keep up with the radical changes ahead.
Perfect storm of cooling challenges means new opportunity
For example, 6G base stations may generate twice as much heat and add photovoltaic panels that also need cooling. Feebler beams at the required higher frequencies will provide the promised leap in data handling. They will need enhancement of the propagation path by widely-deployed active reconfigurable intelligent surfaces RIS, with photovoltaics, all needing cooling. Extra market. Once again, client devices get smaller and do much more so their thermal management must be reinvented. 6G infrastructure and devices must cope with global warming and emerging markets such as India being in hotter places. You get the perfect storm of cooling challenges.
Essential technologies unfamiliar in telecommunications
Increasingly, this can only be met by technologies not yet fit for 6G markets, such as passive cooling into the atmospheric window and powered caloric (ferroic state) cooling. Which planned ionogels and metamaterials might assist? Which organic hosts containing which inorganic particulates conferring thermal conduction and why?
Exceptionally thorough analysis
The commercially-oriented 485-page report, "6G Communications Thermal Materials for Infrastructure and Client Devices: Opportunities, Markets, Technology 2025-2045" has 10 chapters, 11 SWOT appraisals, 33 new infograms, 36 forecast lines. Very importantly, the flood of impactful research advances in 2024 are deeply examined. See author commentary and comparisons throughout revealing negatives and positives.
Ten chapters
The Executive Summary and Conclusions is sufficient in itself. Its 47 pages present key SWOT appraisals, pie charts, comparison tables and 2024 company and research progress to meet the latest, changing views of what is needed for 6G. See roadmaps and 36 forecast lines 2025-2045.
The Introduction (37 pages) puts it in context, explaining how the need for cooling now becomes much larger and often different in nature, with examples to 2045. See infograms of how 6G Communications from 2030 brings new cooling requirements including severe new microchip cooling requirements. See new maturity curves for everything from thermal graphene to electrocaloric cooling for 2025, 2035 and 2045. Understand the trend to smart materials but also see examples of competition for solid state cooling announced in 2024. What is your opportunity for replacing which undesirable materials?
Chapter 3. "Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC)" (98 pages) clarifies latest advances with this combination of radiative cooling into the atmospheric window and reflection of heat. Not used in 5G, potentially it can assist in cooling 6G buildings, large base station batteries, the hot side of 6G thermoelectric coolers, maybe active RIS. Ten companies commercialising it are analysed, none yet focussing on 6G.
Chapter 4. "Self-adaptive, switchable, tuned, Janus and Anti-Stokes solid state cooling" (29 pages) widens this to embrace such things as solid state cooling from both sides and smart versions providing opportunities for your expertise in vanadium oxides and liquid crystals.
Chapter 5. "Phase change and particularly caloric cooling" (69 pages) introduces all phase change cooling options showing why some are useless for 6G. Evaporative cooling is covered in Chapter 8 because this chapter focuses mainly on a newcomer - powered change of ferroic state called caloric cooling.
Dr. Peter Harrop, CEO of Zhar Research advises, "Although not used for 5G, caloric cooling is likely to be very important for 6G as those involved seek to use it to at least partially replace vapor compression cooling, cooling 6G buildings and, at the smaller scale, thermoelectric cooler hot sides. It may even improve on thermoelectric cooling of those planned 6G 1kW chips by being theoretically twice as efficient but nothing is certain."
Why are magnetocaloric, twistocaloric, barocaloric and wet versions appraised as unattractive for 6G and why are electrocaloric and elastocaloric versions candidates for 6G? See the author's new parameter forecasts. It ends by addressing multicaloric options, part of the megatrend to multifunctional smart materials.
Chapter 6 "Enabling technology: Metamaterial and other advanced photonic cooling: emerging materials and devices" takes 16 pages to explain how these can constitute both direct 6G thermal management options and act as an aid to other forms of cooling, prevention of heating and even providing electricity.
Chapter 7 is "Future thermoelectric cooling and thermoelectric harvesting as a user of and power provider for other solid-state cooling" takes a full 51 pages, because, no, it is not a fully matured niche product going nowhere. It is essential for precise, fast major cooling of the expected hotter 6G chips. Additionally, wide area versions are intensely studied now. Understand 20 key advances in 2024.
Chapter 8, " Future evaporative, melting and flow cooling including heat pipes, thermal hydrogels for 6G smartphones, other 6G client devices, 6G infrastructure" takes 27 pages, critically appraising the materials you need to offer and their latest improvement.
Chapter 9. "Thermal Interface Materials and other emerging materials for 6G conductive cooling challenges" mostly concerns existing 5G thermal technologies being incrementally improved for 6G. Its 53 pages include covering the needs of 6G smartphones, for example. 10 research advances in 2024 are presented, relevant to 6G transistors up to 6G buildings. Learn activities of over 20 companies involved. What can be done about transistors to amplify 5G and future 6G signals that are struggling to handle thermal load, causing a bottleneck in development? Why are certain 5G TIM less useful for 6G? What is the place of thermal porous carbon foam, graphene, pyrolytic graphite, phase change materials and much-researched diamond TIM in 6G?
Chapter 10 "Advanced heat shielding, thermal insulation and ionogels for 6G" shows where silica aerogels and other options are headed and how the emerging ionogels may contribute to 6G, this being more speculative.
The new report, "6G Communications Thermal Materials for Infrastructure and Client Devices: Opportunities, Markets, Technology 2025-2045" therefore details both the incremental improvements and the radically new needs and potential solutions. It is a roadmap to creating a one-billion-dollar business out of the large thermal materials and systems market that will arrive if 6G succeeds.
CAPTION: Thermally conducting polymer composites: prevalence of recent research advances in their particulates by formulation. Source, Zhar Research report, "6G Communications Thermal Materials for Infrastructure and Client Devices: Opportunities, Markets, Technology 2025-2045".
Table of Contents
1. Executive summary and conclusions
- 1.1. Purpose of this report and assumptions
- 1.2. Methodology of this analysis
- 1.3. SWOT appraisal of 6G Communications thermal material opportunities
- 1.4. Some reasons for the escalating need for cooling
- 1.5. Cooling toolkit, trend to multifunctionality with best solid-state cooling tools shown red
- 1.6. The nature of solid-state cooling and why it is now a priority for 6G and generally
- 1.7. Primary conclusions: 6G thermal requirements
- 1.8. Primary conclusions: Materials for making cold in 6G infrastructure and client devices
- 1.8.1. General situation
- 1.8.2. Leading candidate materials and structures compared
- 1.8.3. Leading materials in number of latest research advances on solid state cooling
- 1.8.4. Research pipeline of solid-state cooling by topic vs technology readiness level
- 1.8.5. Typical best reported temperature drop achieved by technology 2000-2045 extrapolated
- 1.8.6. SWOT appraisal of Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling PDRC and pie chart of leading materials
- 1.8.7. SWOT appraisal of electrocaloric cooling and pie chart of leading materials
- 1.8.8. SWOT appraisal of elastocaloric cooling and leading materials
- 1.8.10. SWOT appraisal of thermoelectric cooling and pie chart of leading materials
- 1.9. Primary conclusions: Materials for removing heat by conduction and convection
- 1.10. Roadmaps of 6G materials and hardware and separately cooling 2025-2045
- 1.11. Market forecasts 2025-2045
- 1.11.1. Thermal management material and structure for 6G infrastructure and client devices $ billion 2025-2045
- 1.11.2. Dielectric and thermal materials for 6G value market % by location 2029-2045
- 1.11.3. 5G vs 6G thermal interface material market $ billion 2024-2045
- 1.12. Background forecasts 2025-2045
- 1.12.1. Cooling module global market by seven technologies $ billion 2025-2045
- 1.12.2. Terrestrial radiative cooling performance in commercial products W/sq. m 2025-2045
- 1.12.3. Market for 6G vs 5G base stations units millions yearly 2024-2045
- 1.12.4. Market for 6G base stations market value $bn if successful 2025-2045
- 1.12.5. 6G RIS value market $ billion: active and three semi-passive categories 2029-2045
- 1.12.6. 6G fully passive transparent metamaterial reflect-array market $ billion 2029-2045
- 1.12.7. Smartphone billion units sold globally 2023-2045 if 6G is successful
- 1.12.8. Air conditioner value market $ billion 2025-2045 and by region
- 1.12.9. Global market for HVAC, refrigerators, freezers, other cooling $ billion 2025-2045
- 1.12.10. Refrigerator and freezer value market $ billion 2025-2045
- 1.12.11. Stationary battery market $ billion and cooling needs 2025-2045
2. Introduction
- 2.1. Overview
- 2.1.1. Why 6G brings a much bigger opportunity for thermal management and it is mainly cooling
- 2.1.2. 6G cooling challenge in context of evolution of other cooling increasingly becoming laminar and solid state
- 2.1.3. Need for cooling in general becomes much larger and often different in nature; the 6G smartphone example
- 2.1.4. Some of the reasons for much greater need for thermal materials in 6G
- 2.1.5. How cooling technology will trend to smart materials 2025-2045
- 2.2. Location of the primary 6G thermal management opportunities
- 2.2.1. Situation with primary 6G infrastructure and client devices
- 2.2.2. Example RIS for massive MIMO base station: Tsinghua University, Emerson
- 2.3. Cooling, heat barrier and advanced thermally supportive technologies for 6G covered in this report
- 2.4. Examples
- 2.4.1. Severe new microchip cooling requirements arriving
- 2.4.2. Cooling 6G electronic components and smartphones
- 2.4.3. Cooling 6G base stations including their energy harvesting and storage
- 2.4.4. Cooling solar panels and photovoltaic cladding for 6G infrastructure
- 2.4.5. Large battery thermal management for 6G infrastructure
- 2.4.6. Examples of advances in 2024
- 2.5. Twelve solid-state cooling operating principles compared by 10 capabilities
- 2.6. Attention vs maturity of cooling and thermal control technologies 3 curves 2025, 2035, 2045
- 2.7. Comparison of traditional and emerging refrigeration technologies
- 2.8. Undesirable materials widely used and proposed: this is an opportunity for you
3. Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC)
- 3.1. Overview
- 3.2. PDRC basics
- 3.3. Radiative cooling materials by structure and formulation with research analysis
- 3.4. Potential benefits and applications
- 3.4.1. Overall opportunity and progress
- 3.4.2. Transparent PDRC for facades, solar panels and windows including 8 advances in 2024
- 3.4.3. Wearable PDRC, textile and fabric with 7 advances in 2024 and SWOT
- 3.4.4. PDRC cold side boosting power of thermoelectric generators
- 3.4.5. Color without compromise including advances in 2024
- 3.4.6. Aerogel and porous material approaches
- 3.4.7. Environmental and inexpensive PDRC materials development
- 3.5. Other important advances in 2024 and 2023
- 3.5.1. 24 important advances in 2024
- 3.5.2. Advances in 2023
- 3.6. Companies commercialising PDRC
- 3.6.1. 3M USA
- 3.6.2. BASF Germany
- 3.6.3. i2Cool USA
- 3.6.4. LifeLabs USA
- 3.6.5. Plasmonics USA
- 3.6.6. Radicool Japan, Malaysia etc.
- 3.6.7. SkyCool Systems USA
- 3.6.8. SolCold Israel
- 3.6.9. Spinoff from University of Massachusetts Amherst USA
- 3.6.10. SRI USA
- 3.7. PDRC SWOT report
4. Self-adaptive, switchable, tuned, Janus and Anti-Stokes solid state cooling
- 4.1. Overview of the bigger picture with SWOT
- 4.2. Maturity curve of radiative cooling technologies
- 4.3. Self-adaptive and switchable radiative cooling
- 4.3.1. The vanadium phase change approaches in 2024
- 4.3.2. Alternative using liquid crystal
- 4.4. Tuned radiative cooling using both sides: Janus emitter JET advances in 2024, 2023 and SWOT
- 4.5. Anti-Stokes fluorescence cooling with SWOT appraisal
5. Phase change and particularly caloric cooling
- 5.1. Structural and ferroic phase change cooling modes and materials
- 5.2. Solid-state phase-change cooling potentially competing with other forms in named applications
- 5.3. The physical principles adjoining caloric cooling
- 5.4. Operating principles for caloric cooling
- 5.5. Caloric compared to thermoelectric cooling and winning caloric technologies identified
- 5.6. Some proposals for work to advance the use of caloric cooling
- 5.7. Electrocaloric cooling
- 5.7.1. Overview and SWOT appraisal
- 5.7.2. Operating principles, device construction, successful materials and form factors
- 5.7.3. Electrocaloric material popularity in latest research with explanation
- 5.7.4. Giant electrocaloric effect
- 5.7.5. Electrocaloric cooling: issues to address
- 5.7.6. Six important advances and a review in 2024
- 5.7.7. 17 other advances in 2023
- 5.7.8. Notable earlier electrocaloric research
- 5.8. Magnetocaloric cooling with SWOT appraisal
- 5.9. Mechanocaloric cooling (elastocaloric, barocaloric, twistocaloric) cooling
- 5.9.1. Elastocaloric cooling overview: operating principle, system design, applications, SWOT
- 5.9.2. 19 elastocaloric advances in 2024
- 5.9.3. Barocaloric cooling
- 5.10. Multicaloric cooling
6. Enabling technology: Metamaterial and other advanced photonic cooling: emerging materials and devices
- 6.1. Metamaterials
- 6.1.1. Metamaterial and metasurface basics
- 6.1.2. The meta-atom, patterning and functional options
- 6.1.3. SWOT assessment for metamaterials and metasurfaces generally
- 6.1.4. Metamaterial energy harvesting may power metamaterial active cooling
- 6.1.5. Thermal metamaterial with 11 advances in 2024
- 6.4. Advanced photonic cooling and prevention of heating
7. Future thermoelectric cooling and thermoelectric harvesting as a user of and power provider for other solid-state cooling
- 7.1. Basics
- 7.1.1. Operation, examples
- 7.1.2. Thermoelectric cooling and temperature control applications 2025 and 2045
- 7.1.3. SWOT appraisal of thermoelectric cooling, temperature control and harvesting
- 7.2. Thermoelectric materials
- 7.2.1. Requirements
- 7.2.2. Useful and misleading metrics
- 7.2.3. Quest for better zT performance which is often the wrong approach
- 7.2.4. Some alternatives to bismuth telluride being considered
- 7.2.5. Non-toxic and less toxic thermoelectric materials, some lower cost
- 7.2.6. Ferron and spin driven thermoelectrics
- 7.3. Wide area and flexible thermoelectric cooling is a gap in the market for you to address
- 7.3.1. The need and general approaches
- 7.3.2. Advances in flexible and wide area thermoelectric cooling in 2024 and 2023
- 7.3.3. Wide area or flexible TEG research 40 examples from 2024 that may lead to similar TEC
- 7.4. Radiation cooling of buildings: multifunctional with thermoelectric harvesting in 2024
- 7.5. The heat removal problem of TEC and TEG - evolving solutions
- 7.6. 20 advances in thermoelectric cooling and harvesting involving cooling and a review in 2024
- 7.7. Advances in 2023
- 7.8. 82 Manufactures of Peltier thermoelectric modules and products
8. Future evaporative, melting and flow cooling including heat pipes, thermal hydrogels for 6G smartphones, other 6G client devices, 6G infrastructure
- 8.1. Overview: 6G smartphone vapor cooling and hydrogel cooling for 6G
- 8.2. Background to phase change cooling
- 8.3. Heat pipes and vapor chambers
- 8.3.1. Definitions and relevance to 6G infrastructure and client devices
- 8.3.2. Focus of vapor chamber research relevant to 6G success
- 8.3.3. Research on relevant heat pipes, vapor chambers and allied: 39 advances in 2024
- 8.3.4. Thermal storage heat pipes: nano-enhanced phase change material (NEPCM) for device thermal management
- 8.4. Hydrogels for 6G Communications
- 8.4.1. Thermal hydrogels: context, ambitions and limitations
- 8.4.2. Hydrogels cooling suitable for 6G microelectronics and solar panels: Five advances in 2024
- 8.4.3. Thermogalvanic hydrogel for synchronous evaporative cooling
- 8.4.4. Hydrogels in architectural cooling that can involve 6G functions: advances in 2024
- 8.4.5. Aerogel and hydrogel together for cooling
- 8.4.6. Other emerging cooling hydrogels for 6G microchips, power electronics, data centers, large batteries, cell towers and buildings
9. Thermal Interface Materials and other emerging materials and devices for conductive cooling
- 9.1. Overview: thermal adhesives to thermally conductive concrete
- 9.1.1. TIM, heat spreaders from micro to heavy industrial
- 9.1.2. Thermal conduction cooling geometries for electronics and electric vehicles
- 9.1.3. Trending: annealed pyrolytic graphite APG for semiconductor cooling: Boyd
- 9.1.4. Thermally conductive graphite polyamide concrete
- 9.2. Important considerations when solving thermal challenges with conductive materials
- 9.2.1. Bonding or non-bonding
- 9.2.2. Varying heat
- 9.2.3. Electrically conductive or not
- 9.2.4. Placement
- 9.2.5. Environmental attack
- 9.2.6. Choosing a thermal structure
- 9.2.7. Research on embedded cooling
- 9.3. Thermal Interface Material TIM
- 9.3.1. General
- 9.3.2. Seven current options compared against nine parameters
- 9.3.3. Thermal pastes compared
- 9.3.4. TIM and other examples today: Henkel, Momentive, ShinEtsu, Sekisui, Fujitsu, Suzhou Dasen
- 9.3.5. 37 examples of TIM manufacturers
- 9.3.6. Thermal interface material trends as needs change: graphene, liquid metals etc.
- 9.3.7. Lessons from recent patents
- 9.4. Polymer choices: silicones or carbon-based
- 9.4.1. Comparison
- 9.4.2. Silicone parameters, ShinEtsu, patents
- 9.4.3. SWOT appraisal for silicone thermal conduction materials
- 9.5. Thermally conductive carbon-based polymers: targetted features and applications
- 9.5.1. Overview
- 9.5.2. Examples of companies making thermally conductive additives
- 9.5.3. Carbon-based polymers: host materials and particulates prioritised in research
10. Advanced heat shielding, thermal insulation and ionogels for 6G
- 10.1. Overview
- 10.2. Inorganic, organic and composite thermal insulation for 6G
- 10.3. Heat shield film and multipurpose thermally insulating windows
- 10.4. Thermal insulation for heat spreaders and other passive cooling
- 10.4.1. W.L.Gore enhancing graphite heat spreader performance
- 10.4.2. Protecting smartphones from heat
- 10.4.3. 20 companies involved in silica aerogel thermal insulation of devices
- 10.5. Ionogels for 6G applications including electrically conductive thermal insulation
- 10.5.1. Basics
- 10.5.2. Eight ionogel advances in 2024
