Analysis of Printed Electronics Forecasts in 2008
IDTechEx expect the spend on printed and thin film electronics beyond conventional silicon to be $1.58 Billion this year. The majority of this is for OLED display panels ($0.69 Billion) which is the value of the panel and not the final device. Virtually all of this is not printed and on glass.
Second largest by value is photovoltaics (PV) beyond conventional crystalline and amorphous silicon, accounting for $0.4 Billion. This is not organic PV however, which is still some time away from commercialization, but inorganic technologies such as CIGS and CdTe devices. For example, First Solar has an order book exceeding $2 Billion for CdTe PV devices which they will be delivering over several years.
Third largest is not a specific product, but a value for inks for $0.21 Billion, which are used for multiple different applications such as interconnects for switches, membrane keyboards, windscreen heaters. We give the ink value only here rather than the value of the product because the products are so diverse in scope.
Then we have the market for sensors, at $0.11 Billion, which are printed sensors used for glucose meters—approximately 2.2 billion are sold each year. $50 Million will be spend on electroluminescent displays and $48 Million on electrophoretic displays (the value of the front plane of the display itself rather than the end device).
On the other hand, we see the market for logic and memory beyond conventional silicon to be just $10 Million this year - and virtually all of that is samples and some services with some commercial sales beginning towards the end of the year from Kovio, PolyIC and PolymerVision, for example.
Printed and conformal/flexible small in 2008
Of all the technologies covered in the $1.58 Billion market, only 27.8% of the components will be predominately printed in 2008, rising to 79.6% in 2018. Similarly, in 2008 only 15.7% of the components are on a non rigid substrate (such as sensors and EL displays), rising to 74% in 2018. The greatest opportunity is for devices which can be printed and are flexible.
