Inorganic and Composite Printed Electronics 2008-2018

Abstract

The future $300 billion market for printed electronics is emerging via thin film electronics. The contribution of organic materials to this is greatly publicised and it has attracted over one thousand participants already. However, the best devices being developed usually rely on inorganic or combined inorganic/organic technology that is little publicised. The more select groups developing these inorganic materials and devices have a great future.

It is often argued that the inorganic options are interim, because the progress is coming to an end whereas organics are "future proof". Nothing could be further from the truth. For conductors with vastly better conductance and cost, for the best printed batteries, for quantum dot devices and for transistor semiconductors with ten times the mobility, look to the new inorganics. That is the emerging world of new nanoparticle metal and alloy inks that are magnitudes superior in cost, conductivity and stability, such as the flexible zinc oxide based transistor semiconductors working at ten times the frequency and with best stability and life, along with many other inorganic materials. Read the world' s only report that pulls all this together in readable form.

The report considers inorganic printed and thin film electronics for displays, lighting, semiconductors, sensors, conductors, photovoltaics, batteries and memory giving detailed company profiles not available elsewhere. The coverage is global - with companies from East Asia to Europe to America covered in this report. The full contents list is shown at the bottom of this page.

The application of the technology in relation to other types such as organic electronics and silicon chips is given, with detailed information clearly summarised in over 135 tables and figures, such as those below. The table shows the likely impact of inorganic printed and potentially printed technology to 2018 by giving the dominant chemistry by device and device element. Dark green shows where inorganic technology is extremely important for the active (non-linear) components such as semiconductors. Light green shows important contributions from hybrid inorganic-organic technology. Red shows where organic technology has the greatest potential over inorganic.

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

1. INTRODUCTION

• 1.1. Printed electronics - reasons why
• 1.2. Impact of printed electronics on conventional electronics
• 1.3. Progress so far
  • 1.3.1. The age of silicon
  • 1.3.2. The dream of organic electronics
  • 1.3.3. The example of smart clothing
  • 1.3.4. Slow progress with organic conductors
  • 1.3.5. New inorganic materials and composites are often better
  • 1.3.6. Trade-off between inorganic and organic solutions
• 1.4. The new inorganic printed and thin film devices
  • 1.4.1. Rapidly widening choice of elements - deja vu
  • 1.4.2. Example - printed lighting
  • 1.4.3. Example - printed photodetectors

2. INORGANIC TRANSISTORS

• 2.1. Inorganic compound semiconductors for transistors- the history
  • 2.1.1. Learning how to print inorganic compound transistors
  • 2.1.2. Zinc oxide based transistor semiconductors
  • 2.1.3. Amorphous InGaZnO
  • 2.1.4. Gallium arsenide semiconductors for transistors
  • 2.1.5. Transfer printing silicon and gallium arsenide on film
  • 2.1.6. Silicon nanoparticle ink
• 2.2. Inorganic dielectrics for transistors
  • 2.2.1. Solution processed barium titanate nanocomposite
  • 2.2.2. Alternative inorganic dielectrics HafSOx etc
  • 2.2.3. Hybrid inorganic dielectrics - zirconia
  • 2.2.4. Hafnium oxide - latest work
  • 2.2.5. Aluminium, lanthanum and other oxides
• 2.3. Hewlett Packard prints aSi backplanes reel to reel
• 2.4. Inorganic transistors on paper
• 2.5. Progress Towards p-type Metal Oxide Semiconductors

3. INORGANIC PHOTOVOLTAICS

• 3.1. Performance criteria and limitations of silicon photovoltaics
• 3.2. Comparison of photovoltaic technologies
• 3.3. Non-silicon inorganic options
  • 3.3.1. Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS)
  • 3.3.2. Gallium arsenide
  • 3.3.3. Gallium arsenide - germanium
  • 3.3.4. Cadmium telluride and cadmium selenide
  • 3.3.5. Porous zinc oxide
  • 3.3.6. Polymer-quantum dot devices CdSe, CdSe/ZnS, PbS, PbSe
  • 3.3.7. Other inorganic semiconductors for PV
• 3.4. Inorganic-organic and carbon-organic formulations
  • 3.4.1. Titanium dioxide Dye Sensitised Solar Cells DSSC
  • 3.4.2. Fullerene enhanced polymers
• 3.5. Advances in 2008

4. BATTERIES

• 4.1. Applications of laminar batteries
• 4.2. Technology and developers
  • 4.2.1. Battery overview
  • 4.2.2. CEA Liten
  • 4.2.3. Rocket Electric, Bexel, Samsung, LG Chemicals and micro SKC batteries for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks
  • 4.2.4. Power Paper
  • 4.2.5. Solicore, USA
  • 4.2.6. SCI, USA
  • 4.2.7. Infinite Power Solutions, USA
  • 4.2.8. Cymbet USA
  • 4.2.9. Blue Spark Technologies USA
  • 4.2.10. Enfucell
  • 4.2.11. Progress with lithium batteries in 2008
  • 4.2.12. Printed battery research
• 4.3. Smart skin patches

5. INORGANIC CONDUCTORS AND SENSORS

• 5.1. Silver, indium tin oxide and general comparisons.
• 5.2. Conductor deposition technologies
• 5.3. Conductive Inks
• 5.4. Printed conductors for RFID tag antennas
• 5.5. Printing wide area sensors and their memory: Polyscene, Polyapply, 3Plast, PriMeBits, Motorola
• 5.6. Phase Change Memory
• 5.7. Printing metamaterials
• 5.8. Company profiles
  • 5.8.1. ASK
  • 5.8.2. Poly-Flex
  • 5.8.3. Avery Dennison
  • 5.8.4. Parelec
  • 5.8.5. Sun Chemical (Coates Circuit Products)
  • 5.8.6. Mark Andy
  • 5.8.7. UPM Raflatac (formerly UPM Rafsec)
  • 5.8.8. Stork Prints
• 5.9. Electroless plating and electroplating technologies
  • 5.9.1. Qinetiq Metal Printing (QMP)
  • 5.9.2. Conductive Inkjet Technology
  • 5.9.3. Omron
  • 5.9.4. Meco
  • 5.9.5. Additive Process Technologies Ltd
  • 5.9.6. Ertek
  • 5.9.7. Patterning Technologies Limited (PTL)
  • 5.9.8. RCD Technology Corporation
• 5.10. Polymer - metal suspensions
• 5.11. Comparison of options
• 5.12. Dry Phase Patterning (DPP)
• 5.13. Inorganic biomedical sensors
  • 5.13.1. Disposable blocked artery sensors
  • 5.13.2. Disposable asthma analysis

6. NANOTUBES AND NANOWIRES

• 6.1. Nanotubes
• 6.2. Nanorods in photovoltaics
• 6.3. Zinc oxide nanorod semiconductors
• 6.4. Zinc oxide nano-lasers
• 6.5. Indium oxide nanowires
• 6.6. Zinc oxide nanorod piezo power

7. INORGANIC AND HYBRID DISPLAYS AND LIGHTING

• 7.1. AC Electroluminescent
  • 7.1.1. Electroluminescent and other printed displays
  • 7.1.2. CASE STUDY: elumin8
  • 7.1.3. Rapid Improvements in AC Electroluminescent Displays
• 7.2. Thermochromic
  • 7.2.1. Heat generation and sensitivity
  • 7.2.2. CASE STUDY: Duracell battery testers
• 7.3. Electrophoretic
  • 7.3.1. Colour electrophoretics
• 7.4. Inorganic LED lighting and hybrid OLED
• 7.5. Quantum dot lighting and displays

8. COMPANY PROFILES

• 8.1. Motorola
• 8.2. Hewlett Packard
• 8.3. Unidym
• 8.4. NanoMas Technologies
• 8.5. Miasole
• 8.6. Konarka
• 8.7. Spectrolab
• 8.8. G24i
• 8.9. Soligie

9. TIMELINES, SIZING OF OPPORTUNITIES AND MARKET FORECASTS

• 9.1. Market forecasts 2008-2028
• 9.2. Materials
• 9.3. Devices
  • 9.3.1. Photovoltaics
  • 9.3.2. Batteries, displays, etc

APPENDIX 1: IDTECHEX PUBLICATIONS

APPENDIX 2: WHO IS WINNING WITH OLED LIGHTING?

APPENDIX 3: REPLACING PRINTED SILVER WITH COPPER

APPENDIX 4: GLOSSARY

TABLES

• 1.1. Comparison of thin film silicon and organic thin films as transistor semiconductors.
• 1.2. Likely impact of inorganic printed and potentially printed technology to 2017
• 2.1. Comparison of printed polymer ink used in pilot production of organic transistors vs two thin film inorganic semiconductors for transistors vs nanosilicon ink
• 2.2. Some of the organisations developing zinc oxide transistors
• 2.3. Some properties of new thin film dielectrics
• 2.4. Benefits and challenges of R2R electronics fabrication were seen as follows:
• 2.5. Printing choices
• 3.1. Efficiency vs deliverable output power
• 3.2. Efficiencies for thin film solar cells
• 3.3. Technology comparison between inorganic and other photovoltaic cells on plastic film
• 3.4. Summary of some of the important performance criteria for photovoltaics by type
• 3.5. Some recent results for inorganic and organic-fullerine photovoltaic cells
• 3.6. Companies pursuing industrial production of CIGS photovoltaics
• 3.7. Quantum Dots Available
• 3.8. Typical quantum dot materials from Evident and their likely application.
• 3.9. Thin film market share module cost by technology
• 4.1. Some examples of marketing thrust for laminar batteries
• 4.2. Shapes of battery for small RFID tags advantages and disadvantages
• 4.3. Examples of suppliers of coin type batteries by country
• 4.4. The spectrum of choice of technologies for batteries in smart packaging
• 4.5. Reel to reel printing of TBT batteries.
• 4.6. Examples of potential sources of flexible thin film batteries
• 4.7. Examples of universities and research centres developing laminar batteries
• 4.8. Examples of drugs and cosmetics applied by company using iontophoresis
• 5.1. Main applications of conductive inks and some major suppliers today
• 5.2. Different options for printing electronics, level of success and examples of companies
• 5.3. Comparison of metal etch (e.g. copper and aluminium) conductor choices
• 5.4. Electroless metal plate - Additive print process with weakly conductive ink (e.g. plastics or carbon) followed by wet metal plating
• 5.5. Electro metal plate - Additive print process with weakly conductive ink (e.g. plastics or carbon) followed by dry metal plating
• 5.6. Printable metallic conductors cure at LT e.g. silver based ink
• 5.7. Parameters for metal ink choices
• 5.8. Market share among suppliers for metal (mainly silver) PTF inks
• 5.9. Examples of companies progressing printed RFID antennas etc
• 5.10. Some companies progressing ink jettable conductors
• 5.11. A typical process cost comparison for RFID antennas
• 5.12. Possibilities for various new printed conductors.
• 6.1. Charge carrier mobility of carbon nanotubes compared with alternatives
• 9.1. The market for inorganic versus organic electronics defined by chemistry of key element
• 9.2. Percentage share as a whole of the market
• 9.3. Printed electronics materials and other elements of device income 2008-2028 in billions of dollars
• 9.4. Market for printed and potentially printed electronic devices 2008-2028 in billions of dollars
• 9.5. Statistics for electronic labels and their potential locations

FIGURES

• 1.1. SuperPanoramic cockpit with closable opaque layer - a concept of the US Air Force.
• 1.2. US Warfighter' s back pack must reduce in weight. Wrist displays, printed antennas, batteries, electronics and power generation will be part of this.
• 1.3. Toppan Forms vision of a smart Tokyo Transportation network
• 1.4. Smart home
• 1.5. Future shop
• 1.6. Future office
• 1.7. The smart airport will simplify air travel
• 1.8. The different impact of the new printed electronics on various existing electric and electronic markets.
• 1.9. Organic electronics - the dream
• 1.10. Concept of a power jacket
• 1.11. Silicon solar tents - heavy, semi rigid and expensive, but a start
• 1.12. Organic FET compared with silicon FET
• 1.13. Attributes and problems of inorganic, hybrid and organic thin film electronics form a spectrum.
• 1.14. Elements employed in the silicon chip business where blue refers to before the 1990s, green for since the 1990s and red for beyond 2005.
• 1.15. Projections for flexible printed and thin film lighting 2007-2025
• 1.16. Printed nanosilver cathodes and anodes in the Nanoident photodetector arrays
• 1.17. Nanoident photodetector array
• 1.18. Nanoident combined display and photosensor array
• 2.1. Transparent inorganic transistor
• 2.2. Example of ZnO based transistor circuit.
• 2.3. Using a nanolaminate as an e-platform
• 2.4. TEM images of solution processed nanolaminates
• 2.5. Cross-sectional schematic view of an amorphous oxide TFT
• 2.6. Transparent and flexible active matrix backplanes fabricated on PEN films
• 2.7. Semprius transfer printing
• 2.8. Performance of Kovio' s ink versus others by mobility
• 2.9. Road map
• 2.10. Motorola high permittivity printable OFET dielectric using a barium titanate organic nanocomposite
• 2.11. Hybrid organic-inorganic transistor and right dual dielectric transistor
• 2.12. Web as clean room
• 2.13. The basic imprint lithography process
• 2.14. Zinc oxide transistors printed on to paper
• 2.15. SEM image of p-type ZnO nanowires.
• 3.1. Wafer vs thin film photovoltaics
• 3.2. Summary of the applicational requirements for the large potential markets
• 3.3. Progress in improving the efficiency of the different types of photovoltaic cell 1975-2005.
• 3.4. CIGS photovoltaic cell configuration
• 3.5. Physical Vapor Deposition System for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 layers
• 3.6. Flexible CIGS module on plastic film
• 3.7. CIGS-CGS absorber layer
• 3.8. Roll to roll production of CIGS on metal or polyimide film
• 3.9. An example of flexible, lightweight CdTe photovoltaics on polymer film
• 3.10. Mass production of flexible thin film electronic devices using the three generations of technology.
• 3.11. A typical DSSC construction
• 3.12. Printed polymer DSSCs as constructed by Solaronix
• 3.13. Solid DSSC from CEA Liten
• 3.14. Typical Solaronix DSSC assembly process.
• 3.15. Examples of DSSCs
• 3.16. Fullerene-pentacene photovoltaic device
• 3.17. Advantages of Pulse Thermal Processing (PTP)
• 4.1. Inorganic micro-battery development by CEA Liten, illustrating the various chemistries
• 4.2. CEA Liten Li-Ion battery development
• 4.3. The Power Paper battery
• 4.4. The Infinite Power battery is very small
• 4.5. Infinite Power batteries ready for use
• 4.6. Cymbet lithium thin film flexible battery
• 4.7. Relative performance claimed by Cymbet for its flexible batteries
• 4.8. Carbon zinc thin film battery from Blue Spark Technologies, formerly Thin Battery Technologies.
• 4.9. Examples of smart skin patches.
• 4.10. The four generations of delivery skin patches
• 4.11. The Estee Lauder smart cosmetic patch with printed inorganic battery and electrodes launched in 2006 a three pack costing $50 and an eight pack costing $100.
• 4.12. The ultimate dream for smart skin patches for drugs - closed loop automated treatment.
• 4.13. Evolution of smart skin patches
• 5.1. Silver-based ink as printed and after curing
• 5.2. Conductance in ohms per square for the different printable conductive materials compared with bulk metal
• 5.3. Loading for spherical conductive fillers
• 5.4. Commercial takeoff of different printing technologies for RFID antennas
• 5.5. Choice of printing technology for RFID antennas today
• 5.6. How negative refractive index works
• 5.7. How to make a working printed metamaterial
• 5.8. Example of fabricated antennas
• 5.9. Meco' s Flex Antenna Plating (FAP) machine
• 5.10. APT' s FFD prototype can operate faster than 20 meters per minute.
• 5.11. Dry Phase Patterned inductor
• 6.1. Properties and morphology of single walled carbon nanotubes
• 6.2. Zinc oxide nanowires generating power
• 7.1. An example of an elumin8 electroluminescent display
• 7.2. A promotional display used at DeBeers
• 7.3. A concept inorganic electroluminescent display that is created by the energy of the sun on a window
• 7.4. The six inorganic layers of an ac electroluminescent display screen printed by elumin8 the phosphor is Cu doped ZnS from DuPont
• 7.5. elumin8 billboard display with changing images
• 7.6. Pelikon TV remote control and moving image in Fossil watch using ac electroluminescent display using eight inorganic layers
• 7.7. AC electroluminescent apparel
• 7.8. Pelikon products have progressed as follows
• 7.9. Future timelines from Pelikon
• 7.10. Experimental game printed on beer pack by VTT Technology of Finland
• 7.11. Duracell battery testing chipless label - front and reverse view
• 7.12. An experimental flexible electrophoretic display
• 7.13. Principle of operation of electrophoretic displays
• 7.14. Sony electrophoretic e-book using thin film amorphous silicon backplane driver transistor array on glass
• 7.15. Motorola mobile phone with electrophoretic display
• 7.16. Electronic paper from Fujitsu
• 8.1. Unidym' s target markets for transparent conducting nanotube films
• 8.2. NanoMas technology
• 8.3. Konarka thin film solar cell arrays
• 8.4. G24i has a new UK factory printing titanium oxide photovoltaics
• 8.5. G24i' s advanced solar technology vs traditional polycrystalline
• 8.6. Soligie smart skin patch
• 9.1. Printed electronics materials and other elements of device income 2008-2018
• 9.2. Market for printed and potentially printed electronic devices by chemistry of key element 2008-2018 in billions of dollars
• 9.3. Konarka estimates of opening markets for flexible photovoltaics
• 9.4. Photovoltaic market growth in megawatts by country 2004-2010
• 9.5. Organic semiconductor projection by IBM
• 9.6. Technical challenges for the next ten year to improvement of FDICD capabilities
• 9.7. Facts about media
• 9.8. SM Products Road Map
• 9.9. Flexible LCD, OLED and electrophoretic display roadmap by Plastic Logic