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, 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.

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. 

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.