April 2012

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Metal Oxide Thin-Film Transistors as a Key Enabler for AMOLED Displays

If AMOLEDs cannot be deployed for large-area applications, then, by definition, AMOLEDs cannot replace LCDs as a dominant display technology.  Worse, if AMOLEDs are restricted to small mobile displays then economies of scale for both OLED material manufacture and the production of AMOLEDs themselves cannot kick in, again thwarting high hopes for AMOLED technology. NanoMarkets believes that the technology that will cut through this Gordian knot are backplanes that are based on metal oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs).  Such TFTs will also be sold into the conventional LCD sector and will generate more revenues from LCD applications than for AMOLED applications.  But in the AMOLED sector, they will be more essential and will prove a key enabling technology for AMOLEDs.

January 2012

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Opportunities in Smart Lighting

The “smart lighting” concept means different things to different people, but distilling its essence, what seems to be intended is lighting with an additional layer of intelligence that provides enhanced functionality; creating opportunities over and above the simple provision of light where it is needed.  Smart lighting systems today, generally consist of sensors located at light fixtures, which are networked back to a central controller. They distinguish themselves in the marketplace by the nature of the sensor, how the networking is provided and the degree to which they provide management information. For the immediate future, smart lighting opportunities are strongly focused on improving energy efficiency, but NanoMarkets believes that the addressable markets for smart lighting will expand to include environments where the benefits being sold will include improved aesthetics, comfort and even improved health.

Applications Driving Growth in Conductive Coatings

Much of the conductive coatings business involves mature applications manufactured using equally mature materials.  In these mature materials markets, there are few real opportunities as such.  At best, these sectors are “cash cows.”  The good news, however, is that a few key applications are open to new materials and new suppliers.

The Importance of Electrodes for Lithium Battery Performance Improvement

Lithium-ion batteries are a technology poised to see a large growth in revenue in the next five years because of their potential in applications such as electric vehicles (EVs), consumer electronic devices and Smart Grid applications. That there is a clamoring in the market for a drastic improvement in lithium-ion battery technology is obvious to see:

December 2011

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Smart Windows Markets Emerge

After many years of being no more than a niche, the smart windows market now seems as if it is about to generate major revenues for companies that are actively involved.  Drivers include:

• Growing consumer awareness of energy conservation, green building, fuel efficient transportation, and the desire for novelty and convenience.

• Larger addressable markets as the result of emerging middle class populations in Asia (India, China) and Latin America (Brazil).

Meanwhile, new smart windows technologies are emerging that enable energy conservation through smart windows and hence are providing several growth opportunities for various companies in the smart window value chain.

The Role of NanoMetals and their Future in Electronics and Energy

At the nanoscale materials of all kinds—including metals—are higher performing.  In the case of nanometals, the performance characteristics of most importance tend to be thermal and electrical conductivity; although physical strength may factor in. Combining all these advantages together seems likely to be highly advantageous and NanoMarkets believes that the marketplace is beginning to reflect this fact; nanometals are a growing sector of the nanomaterials business.

November 2011

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Thoughts on Transparent Electronics

There is nothing intrinsically new about transparent electronic materials.  Glass and (more recently) transparent plastic have been used as substrates for displays, solar panels and large-area sensors for years.  In addition, a range of transparent conducting materials—notably indium tin oxide (ITO)—has been developed for use in transparent electrodes.  And, of course, optoelectronic materials—of which there are many—must be transparent to some degree.

Until quite recently the statements above were at best a set of interesting, but unconnected, observations.  Over the past decade new transparent electronic semiconductor materials—primarily metallic oxides—have appeared and there are now increasing signs that a complete transparent materials set may emerge in the electronics sector. These materials, NanoMarkets believes, will serve as an important enabling factor for new products in the display, smart windows, lighting, solar panel and large-area sensor markets; perhaps other sectors too.

Ongoing Importance of Silver Inks and Pastes to Industrial Electronics Markets

Silver has always been an expensive metal and probably always will be.  But the most obvious change in the silver inks/pastes market since our last report is the seemingly persistent high price of silver, with no relief in sight.  Silver commodity prices have been pushed upward because of the uncertain global economic environment in which investors have shifted increasingly toward “hard” assets. Silver ETFs have accumulated large stores of silver in order to handle the increased demand for precious metal investments.

At the time of writing, silver prices have somewhat stabilized, but they have done so at a level nearly twice that of just two years ago (in inflation-adjusted dollars).  And there are no good reasons that the situation will change very much over the next five years or so.

Transparent Conductors and Touch Screens

In this article NanoMarkets examines the current thinking on market opportunities for transparent conductors in touch screen markets. 

October 2011

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The Value of Flexible Glass

The value that would be created by a flexible glass material has long been recognized.  Supposedly the Roman Emperor Tiberius was presented with a drinking bowl made of flexible glass.  The Emperor threw the bowl on the floor and it dented rather than shattered.  But not much seems to have been heard of flexible glass since.  NanoMarkets research has uncovered that over the past few decades the term “flexible glass” has come to be used in a metaphorical sense, to describe a series of materials that were made from resins and plastics and that otherwise had glass-like properties.  Unfortunately these flexible pseudo-glasses could seldom compete with actual glass in terms of transparency or in its barrier qualities.

However, since the early 21st Century a handful of leading glass companies have been developing genuinely flexible glasses that are the heirs to Tiberius’ bowl.  The firms involved in this work include AGC (more commonly referred to as Asahi Glass), Nippon Electric Glass (NEG), Tokyo Electron Glass (TEG) and Schott Glass.  However, the firm that is most closely associated with flexible glass is Corning, which certainly has the greatest mindshare in this space and has done the most business development work to promote the concept of flexible device.

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