Magnetics Business & Technology - Summer 2017 - 20

INDUSTRY NEWS
sion in accessory motors, sensing devices, actuators, loudspeakers,
meters, alternators, etc. Automotive production has witnessed a
steady rise in the past five years from 80 million units in 2011
to around 91 million units in 2015 owing to increasing GDP and
enhanced lifestyle of people throughout the world. Growing application of light weight and strong products in the personal cars
and other commercial vehicles production will influence the permanent magnet market positively.
Development of low cost manufacturing processes is also likely to
propel the permanent magnet market up to 2024. Investments for
innovative production lines and development of new materials such
as nitride compounds or SmFeN based products influenced by the
Concerted European Action on Magnets (CEAM) will have a positive influence throughout the forecast span. R&D on miniature sized
products using rare-earth based products will steer the growth.
High price of rare earth metals used for production, such as neodymium, dysprosium and samarium, may restrain the permanent
magnet market growth. With almost all the rare-earth mines located in China, the import cost shoots up in the European and North
American countries. Strict government norms regarding the harms
caused by rare-earth metals mining may also hinder the growth.
Neodymium alloy or NdFeB based products will be a noteworthy product segment in terms of revenue. In volumetric terms, the
ferrite products will garner significant share. NdFeB products will
witness growth due to increasing demand for light weight and powerful products with good aesthetic features. NdFeB magnets are
anticipated to grow with CAGR over 10 percent up to 2024.
The products find multiple applications in the automotive sector,

R&D Continued from Page 13
A key goal of the program is to demonstrate topological excitations smaller than 10 nanometers at room temperature for
memory applications. Currently there is preliminary research data
showing that it is possible to create skyrmions (a particular type
of topological excitation) of this size but only at very low temperatures, Ale said. The smallest sizes achieved to date at room
temperature are 10s of nanometers, one to two orders of magnitude larger than the new program's
goal. However, sizes less than 10 nm are
theoretically possible if the right materials can be found.
"If you can move these skyrmions
very fast with low currents, then you
also have the possibility of implementing logic," Ale said. "You're now not
only getting into the memory business,
you're also getting into the processor
business, because then you can implement a completely different paradigm
for all the typical digital logic gates. If
we can achieve sizes smaller than 10
nanometers at room temperature, we want to determine how
controllable they are for memory and logic, their sizes, and their
dynamics, this whole design space has to be explored. If we demonstrate that these things can move as fast as we think they can,
then we could have logic that can go beyond 1 Terahertz, which is
the limit right now."
The program will also explore different materials in the quest
for the right properties, as well as other topologically protected

Magnetics Business & Technology * Summer 2017

making it an important application segment with close to half of the
net share. Automotive applications generated revenue above $10
billion in 2015. On account of mushrooming wind energy demand
and developments of other renewable energy sources, energy generation application will be a rapidly growing application segment
with CAGR more than 10 percent up to 2024.
China has more than 95 percent of the world rare earth reserve,
making Asia Pacific a key manufacturer of rare earth based products with several small and medium level companies. APAC permanent magnet market will also have a remarkable growth, owing to
its high production capacity of automobiles, electronic products,
as well as wind energy. Asia Pacific has close to 50 percent of the
total share.
The positive trend for the rare earths industry has continued into
mid-2017 with rising Chinese domestic prices, according to Roskill
Information Services, for many rare earth products and increasing
output from non-Chinese producers Lynas and India Rare Earths.
Roskill's revised automotive forecast predicts robust growth in the
electric vehicle (EV) market over the next decade suggesting greater potential demand growth for neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB)
magnets. These developments are welcomed by both existing and
potential rare earth producers, which have previously suffered from
a long period of falling prices and quiet demand from traditional
end uses.

states for applications to quantum bits, for example.
"Magnetic materials are not the only type of material that can
sustain topological excitations," Ale said. "There are oxides that
can sustain this type of excitation but with charge rather than
magnetic moments, so the program is open to other approaches.
If there is a possibility of creating skyrmions smaller and with less
energetic requirements in an oxide, that could be more interesting than magnetics. And although our focus is on memory storage
and logic, if the community has novel ideas for other applications,
we're listening."
If the research shows topological
excitations can achieve the expected
gains in memory, processing speed,
and power savings, it could eventually
have tremendous application to military systems. Manned and unmanned
aircraft could fly with much less battery weight on board, allowing them
to fly longer and farther, and troops
would have fewer batteries to carry on
missions, lightening their load, Ale said.
The Topological Excitations in Electronics program seeks expertise in
materials science (to address the goal of achieving <10 nm TEs
at room temperature); physics (to address possible interactions
leading to topological excitations of interest as well as suitable
metrology to investigate them), chemistry (to address suitable materials combinations), engineering (to develop proof of concept
structures to establish applications of topological excitations for
memory and logic), enabling multi-function materials, integrated
design optimization, and efficient power use.

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