The past year has seen important developments in the transparent conductors
arena. While 2009 was a year of risk aversion for the users of ITO and one of
delay and reassessment for the makers of alternative transparent conductors,
in 2010 the specter of rising indium prices has given the makers of alternative
transparent conductors a more focused target on industries that are both in
the early stages of emergence and preparing to face performance and cost pressures
in the near future. Transparent
Conductor Markets 2010: ITO and the Alternatives report thoroughly analyzes
the opportunities for these alternative transparent conductors as well as those
for ITO to retain and even grow its share in some segments. In particular, Transparent
Conductor Markets 2010: ITO and the Alternatives report looks at the future
for ITO in the many applications in which final product prices are expected
to decline, while ITO costs are expected to increase. How big a share of the
BOM can ITO eat , before OEMs start turning to alternatives.
Newer, emerging technologies like OLED lighting and OPV are recognizing that
they must adopt new transparent conducting materials—and soon—not
only to keep costs in control but also to boost performance and to enhance the
flexibility that sets these technologies apart from those they compete with.
In addition, the long-standing dissatisfaction of the touch-screen industry
with ITO is again taking center stage as touch-screen technologies diverge into
high-end and low-end varieties. The low-end touch-screens—mainly analog-resistive
ones—continue to face durability issues with the repeated flexing of brittle
ITO while cost issues are escalating as ITO returns to higher price points.
Meanwhile, at the high-end of the touch-screen market the focus is turning toward
improving optical and electrical performance, especially if doing so can provide
pathways to lower cost as well. And newer transparent conductors are not limited
to the electrodes in displays and touch-screens; they are also beginning to
displace other materials for electromagnetic shielding and electrostatic charge
dissipation.
This is not to say that ITO is on the way out everywhere. Indeed, in ITO’s
largest market by far—conventional flat-panel displays, especially LCDs—process
conservatism and performance sensitivity will cause ITO to remain the dominant
transparent conductor in this huge market, and in the overall transparent conductor
market, throughout the eight-year scope of Transparent
Conductor Markets 2010: ITO and the Alternatives report.
With these considerations in mind, Transparent
Conductor Markets 2010: ITO and the Alternatives report provides a new opportunity
analysis against the backdrop of the transparent conductor market landscape:
ITO, the clear leader in both the largest market—displays—and in
applications that are not yet commercial; other transparent conducting oxides
(TCOs) that provide cost relief but little else; transparent organic conductors
that are having a heyday in antistatic and other lower-performance applications;
and the expanding field of nanomaterials including carbon nanotubes, graphene,
metal nanowires and nanoparticles, and composite materials combining one or
more of these materials, sometimes with others like ITO or organics. Transparent
Conductor Markets 2010: ITO and the Alternatives report also explores the
alternative approaches to ITO deposition, mainly the on-again, off-again efforts
toward commercializing ITO inks.
Transparent
Conductor Markets 2010: ITO and the Alternatives report is required reading
for all suppliers of ITO and alternative transparent conductors as well as for
firms using transparent conductors—especially if considering a change
to a different material or process—and investors in the transparent conductor
companies, materials, and technologies. Transparent
Conductor Markets 2010: ITO and the Alternatives report discusses strategic
marketing issues and provide forecasts of the market penetration of each of
the transparent conductor classes, as well as discussing the latest activities
of the leading and most promising companies working in this field.