Printable electronics industry ‘to reach $12.1 billion in 2011’

According to a newly released report from NanoMarkets, a leading industry analyst firm, the market for printable electronics (PE) will grow from $354 million in revenues in 2007 to $12.1 billion in the year 2011.

Highlights

•  NanoMarkets’ new report points to several positive developments that bode well for the overall PE business. Fuji Film’s acquisition of Dimatix and Weyerhaeuser's announced purchase of OrganicID clearly demonstrate that larger companies with substantial resources are entering the business. Other major companies, such as Intel and Siemens, have also invested in PE or developed partnerships with PE technology developers in order to generate revenue streams as the PE business is seen by more and more larger firms as their next $100 million plus annual business opportunity.  

•  Key product segments in the PE business include printable displays which are expected to generate $3.8 billion revenues in 2011, printable RFID which are expected to surpass $2.5 billion, signage which will create $1.25 billion, printable backplanes which will grow to $1.1 billion and printable photovoltaics which will do better than $1 billion in sales in the same time period. With almost a dozen viable application areas within the printable electronics universe there will be substantial revenues available to a variety of companies throughout the value chain says NanoMarkets’ new report. By 2013 the PE market could reach over $30 billion in total annual revenues. 

•  Materials used in printable electronics will grow from a market of $76 million in 2007 to over $2.78 billion in 2011. The report notes, in particular, that there is a growing interest in developing inks using small molecule OLED materials. If this proves practical it will open up the entire OLED display market – already worth hundreds of millions of dollars – to printing technology. 

•  Meanwhile over the past year, the equipment used for printing electronics has been able to produce higher resolutions, facilitating the production of low-cost RFID circuitry, mobile displays and multifunctional sensors.  In addition, the printable electronics community no longer sees registration as an insurmountable obstacle to building complex circuitry using printing.

About the report

In its new report, ‘Printable Electronics: From R&D to Revenues’, NanoMarkets continues its ongoing coverage of the printed electronics market that the firm initiated in early 2005. Last year NanoMarkets released two highly regarded reports that analyzed and forecasted printed electronics applications and materials market opportunities. In the new report the firm will provide additional technical and market based analysis of key applications and market opportunities but with an eye on materials, production technologies and applications including displays, RFID, sensors, memory, photovoltaics, batteries, OLEDs, signage and smart packaging. The report will present detailed unit and revenue forecasts of PE applications and will also examine various companies’ strategies as well as the key market drivers and trends affecting the industry. 

Companies covered in the report include: 3M, Acreo, Add-Vision, Aveso, BASF, Cabot, Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), Canon, Cypak, Dai Nippon Printing, Dow Corning, E-Ink, Fuji Xerox, Graphic Solutions, H.C. Starck, HP, Infineon, Information Mediary Corporation,  Innovalight,  Kent Display, Kodak, Konarka, Matsushita, Mead Westvaco, Merck OLED Materials, Novaled, Ntera, Osram Opto Semiconductors, Phiar, Philips Electronics, Philips GmbH Forschungslaboratorien, Philips Lighting, Pioneer, PolyIC, Quantum Paper, Ricoh, Seiko Epson, Seiko Epson, Sensient Image Technologies, Siemens, Sipix, T-Ink, Toppan Printing, Universal Display Corporation, VTT and Xerox.