GLEN ALLEN, VA /PRNewswire/ -- Markets for displays, signage, lighting, RFID tags, sensors, solar panels, batteries, and other products manufactured using printing technology will reach $30.1 billion by 2015, according to a new report from NanoMarkets.
The report "Printable Electronics Market Outlook: An Applications-Based Assessment," notes the progress the printed electronics industry has made in the past few years and goes on to project which printed electronics applications will generate the most revenues in the next seven years.
Key points from this report:
- Printed electronics products are now in full-scale production. E-paper displays and RFID antennas are being routinely printed, and such products are expected to generate $5.6 and $12.6 billion in revenues, respectively, by 2015. E-paper, in particular, has emerged as something of a killer application for printed electronics, demonstrating that printing technology can produce complex electronics products that can generate real revenue. NanoMarkets analysts also expect that as improved manufacturing equipment and materials become available further product opportunities will emerge.
- Printing also seems certain to have a major role in the manufacturing of next-generation photovoltaics, with novel CIGS (Copper, Indium, Gallium, and Selenium) and nanoparticle inks being used to create low-cost, high-efficiency solar panels on flexible substrates. Projected sales for printed solar panels will reach $2.5 billion by 2015. Printed electronics will also make a contribution to energy savings through printed OLED lighting, an emerging cost-effective approach to solid-state illumination. This type of lighting is expected to reach $1.7 billion in sales by 2015.
- Printing is no longer viewed as a wholesale fabrication technology. Instead, it is increasingly seen as an essential tool for manufacturing the new generation of flexible and large-area electronics products. As products move from the lab to the fab, manufacturers are combining fabrication technologies, printing certain layers while using more conventional, sputtering, deposition, and even optical lithography approaches on other layers.
About the Report
"Printable Electronics Market Outlook: An Applications-Based Assessment" analyzes and forecasts all the applications in which printable electronics are being used or are likely to be used in the next eight years. Based on NanoMarkets' ongoing research program in this rapidly growing area, it will be essential reading to materials and equipment firms, as well as technology developers and investors considering their future in the rapidly emerging printable electronics sector. It includes chapters on printed displays and signage, lighting, sensors, RFID, photovoltaics, and batteries. It describes which electronics applications are using printing effectively and how printing is generating both improved products and entirely new products. Detailed revenue forecasts are included for each of the applications covered, broken out by type of device and/or end-user segment. The report also discusses the challenges that firms are facing as they begin to manufacture and market the first commercial printed electronics products and provides profiles of how the most important firms shaping the market are seeing the years ahead.
About NanoMarkets
NanoMarkets tracks and analyzes emerging market opportunities in electronics created by developments in advanced materials. The firm has published numerous reports related to organic, thin-film, and printable electronics materials and applications and maintains a blog that comments on industry trends and events. NanoMarkets' research database is the industry's most extensive source of information on TOP electronics.