Feb 24 2009
According to a new report from NanoMarkets, LC an industry analyst firm based, devices and materials based on zinc oxide (ZnO) are expected to create major new opportunities for the electronics industry over the next few years ranging from enhanced antistatic coatings to high-value-added products such as solid-state lighting and display backplanes. The report predicts that revenues from the leading ZnO-related electronics applications will reach about $860 million ($US) in 2012, rising to $2.3 billion in 2016. The new NanoMarkets study stresses that despite the economic recession, ZnO electronics will generate new business revenues, because it addresses real world problems in a cost effective way.
Additional details about the report can be found on the firm's website at www.nanomarkets.net.
Key findings of the report:
- ZnO applications in electronics today are dominated by mature applications with well over 90 percent of revenues coming from conductive and optical coatings, varistors and older gas sensor technology. However, NanoMarkets predicts that by 2016, new applications for ZnO will make up well over 60 percent. These applications will include PV electrodes, Zn-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs,) backplanes for OLED and other displays, and novel kinds of gas, UV and biosensors.
- NanoMarkets sees the development of ZnO semiconductor devices as providing the largest opportunity for ZnO electronics over the next few years. ZnO LEDs are expected to radically lower the cost of LEDs for general illumination applications and projected to reach around $250 million in sales by 2013. ZnO TFT backplanes for OLED are projected as a key future enabler of the OLED displays, since they can outperform organic and a-Si TFTs and cost less than polysilicon TFTs. Even if the current intensive search for p-type ZnO semiconductors fails to bear fruit, opportunities will remain for hybrid devices that combine ZnO with other materials such as gallium nitride.
- ZnO electronics also holds out the promise of fully transparent displays and windows that turn into lighting panels at night. And although NanoMarkets is skeptical about some of the more fanciful expectations for "transparent" electronics, the new report discusses how transparent LEDs could have an immediate revenue generating impact on the display industry.
About the Report:
NanoMarkets' report, "Markets for Zinc Oxide in Electronics" analyzes and quantifies opportunities for ZnO devices and coatings in the electronics industries. Coverage includes the latest R&D and commercialization efforts in the areas of EMI/RFI, UV and antistatic coatings as well as the full range of ZnO-based devices including varistors and power electronics devices, piezoelectric sensors, solid-state UV sources, ZnO LEDs and ZnO TFTs, ZnO electrodes for PV, etc. The report also analyzes the prospects for ZnO nanostructures in electronics and the role of ZnO in spintronics and it profiles some of the leading players in this space at the present time including firms such as Canon, Casio, Cermet, Idemitsu, LG Electronics, Nanovation, Samsung, Sharp, Tokyo Denpa, Toppan Printing, ZnOrdic and ZN Technology. As with all NanoMarkets reports, this study includes an eight-year forecast, with a break out by ZnO application.