Printed Electronics will surely bring new market applications with large potential, but it will be a long road ahead
A highly dynamic market
The printed electronics (pe) market will have a 58% CAGR growth over 2010-2016 with peLighting accounting for the major part of the market. But the printed electronics industry will need more “killer applications” (as there is not one today) and “manufacture-able prototypes” to have a real kick-start of the different markets.
There are however numerous companies involved in pe developments. The number of companies has been estimated to be~ 1,100-1,400. Asian companies tend to be huge compared to North America and Europe and are centered on OLED displays while North America is heavily focused on peSolar with massive VC investments and then lesser amounts going to peLMS (Logic, Memory & Sensors) as well. In Europe, UK and Germany are leading the way.
Printed Electronics manufacturing technologies are not selected yet
Printed electronics is radically different from the semiconductor fields. It consists of four main “technology building blocks”, each of them having its own market dynamics:
1.Inks and chemicals - organic and inorganic (make up the transistors and wires)
2.Substrates
3.Printing techniques
4.Thin-film transistors (TFT) & other device structures
The industry is still highly fragmented and needs to coalesce around 1-2 manufacturing techniques in each application or the efficiencies of scale in the industry will not lower prices for equipment and material supply channels to make many applications economical.
Printed Electronics is also the integration of very diverse technologies from very different areas. Today, there is no clear supply chain as exists for the CMOS industry. Many manufacturing techniques can be used for different applications (printed electronics transistors can be printed by various means: Inkjet, Gravure, Roll-to-roll, Flexography, Nano-imprint, Screen printing, Spin coating …). Much manufacturing equipment is custom designed for each company’s products and testing, industry standards, interoperability, lifetime issues, environmental issues yet to be determined. Our report aims at giving insights about which technologies will be suited to which application.
Most vendors are left to their own to develop the infrastructure, materials, manufacturing equipment, and test equipment, etc. We have identified a total amount of US $1.35B raised by 21 companies worldwide (Dow Jones Venture Source). But today, only 1% of the raised amount has led to profitability.
A complex field!
Today, the printed electronics market is still in its infancy with a lot of expectations but more often a lot of confusion as well. This market is highly fragmented and a big problem in trying to analyze the “printed electronics” market potential is separating out the components that make printed electronics unique and different.
Thus definitions are not precise and have many interpretations and overlaps. Moreover, the confusion often lies in the specific terms: organic, printed, flexible, and electronic.
Our report covers only “electronic” type applications and technologies involving some kind of electron-hole semiconductor effect. Moreover, manufacturing must include a type of printing technology in the product construction; materials may be organic or inorganic or both in nature and on flexible or rigid substrates (we exclude any kind of vacuum or vapor deposition processing technology as these are not generally considered “printing” methods). So this report does not address printed batteries, printed super capacitors, printed wires, semiconductors (CMOS silicon) and thin Film Photovoltaics or OLED s displays using vacuum processing (CIGS, DSSC).
Key features of the report
This report aims at giving an introduction to the printed electronics markets, technologies and players. Because this field is moving fast, we aim at highlighting what the technical (equipment, chemicals), supply chain and market hurdles are.
We also include a financial analysis that shows the latest VC funds and alliances in this field.
The report includes:
- What is printed electronics?
- An overview of the 4 major applications:
- peDisplays
- peLighting
- peSolar
- peLMS (Logic, Memory & Sensors)
- What the challenges are on the supply chain side
- What the challenges are on the applications side
- What the challenges are on the technologies side
- Printed electronics forecast by applications 2010-2015
- Why should semiconductor executives care in PE?
- Industry structure & companies involved in printed electronics
- Manufacturing challenges
- Printing techniques overview
Who should buy this report ?
- Systems makers
- Understand the potential of the printed electronics market
- Understand the technical challenges
- Devices makers
- Identify and evaluate printed electronics markets with market size & growth
- Analyze the threats and opportunities
- Monitor and benchmark your competitor’s advancements
- Chemical & tools companies
- Identify the technical hurdles for printed electronics
- Analyze the threats and opportunities
- Financial & Strategic investors
- Understand the main market dynamics and main technology trends
- Get the list of the key players
Please note: this is delivered as a PowerPoint presentation.
