Silver-Based Transparent Conductors Market to Surpass $540 million by 2016

Published: September 07, 2011    Category: Advanced Materials Electronics and Devices OLED Lighting

Glen Allen, Virginia:   Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets has just released a new report on the markets for silver-based transparent conducting materials.  NanoMarkets sees revenues from the sale of silver-based transparent conductors reaching more than $540 million by 2016.  Details about this report, Markets for Silver-based Transparent Conductors -- 2011 report are at www.nanomarkets.net.

This report analyzes the demand for the silver-based inks and films that are beginning to find their way into touch-screen displays and which, according to NanoMarkets, may also be used in conventional flat panel displays (FPD).  Other applications where the report predicts silver-based transparent conducting materials will be used include OLED and e-paper displays, OLED lighting, thin-film and organic photovoltaics, anti-statics and EMI/RFI shielding.  

The report provides eight-year projections (both volume and value) of all of the application areas listed above.  It also identifies what the implications are for other kinds of transparent conductor including carbon nanotubes, transparent conducting oxides and conductive polymers as well as the dominant ITO.  Among the firms discussed in this report are: 3M, Agfa, Cambrios, Carestream, Cima NanoTech, Dow Chemical, Fujifilm, Ferro, Kodak, PolyIC, Saint-Gobain, Sigma Technologies, Sumitomo, Suzhou NanoGrid and Toray.

Key Findings from this report: 

The touch-screen displays business may be a good starting place for silver-based transparent conductor businesses, and this is the market that most of the firms selling “transparent silver” are aiming their marketing strategies at.  But NanoMarkets believes that the longer-term revenue potential for touch screens will be limited.  The new report indicates that touch-screen sensors will generate only $65.4 million in silver-based transparent conductor sales by 2016.

According to NanoMarkets, the only way for the materials discussed in this report to take off commercially in a big way will be if the firms that supply them overcome the resistance of the major FPD firms to making the switch from ITO.  Encouragingly, this new report indicates that we are seeing the first signs of this happening.  But it also warns that if significant barriers to entry persist in the display industry, silver-based transparent conductors will never amount to more than a niche business.

However, if the conventional display industry does open up to silver-based transparent conductors, the market is likely to need these materials delivered in new forms.  In the same way that large display manufacturers now do their own ITO sputtering, display firms of the future will want to print their own transparent silver conductors.  This will means that today’s tiny share of the silver transparent conductor market held by inks will increase rapidly at the expense of the films that currently dominate.  NanoMarkets also expects to see a growing market for silver-based transparent conductors on glass substrates.

About NanoMarkets:

NanoMarkets tracks and analyzes emerging market opportunities created by developments in advanced materials. It provides regular and comprehensive industry analysis of the nanomaterials, transparent conductors and other materials used in the display and photovoltaics industries.  It also provides ongoing coverage of all the firms supplying silver-based transparent conductors.  NanoMarkets is also recognized worldwide as a leading source of expertise for materials used in the PV industry.

Visit http://www.nanomarkets.net for a full listing of NanoMarkets' reports and other services.

Contact:

Robert Nolan
NanoMarkets
(804) 270-4370
rob@nanomarkets.net

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