The New Thin-Film Electronics: Large-Area Electronics and Beyond

Thin films have been around for many years, but have gotten a new lease on life as the result of current interest in nanotechnology, which promises a slew of new thin film materials. While thin films have a variety of applications, many of them have interesting electronic and magnetic properties, which seem to promise significant commercial opportunities in the electronics, aerospace, defense, semiconductor and several other industries. Uses of thin-films that are exciting considerable attention right now include applications "large area electronics," next-generation processors and memories, and in conductive coatings for aircraft, etc. These new developments offers considerable potential for firms in the specialty chemical, materials, electronics, defense, semiconductors and printing industries and should also be of interest to investors seeking to make money from this in important direction for new materials development.

This report is designed to quantify the opportunities, providing detailed forecasts of thin film electronics broken out by material type and application area. It will also provide a qualitative forecast of the deposition, printing and other production technologies required to create thin-film products and will review the latest R&D and the marketing strategies of firms already active in this sector.

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

• Latest developments in thin film technology
• New materials and production methodologies
• Emerging challenges in thin film electronics
• Applications and markets
• Firms to watch
• Summary of opportunities for thin-film electronics
• Summary of forecasts

Chapter One: Introduction

• Background to report: Why is thin film technology creating new opportunities and why now?
• A classification of TF electronics opportunities
• Objectives of this report
• Scope of this report
• Methodology of this report
• Plan of this report

Chapter Two: Technology Developments and Assessments

• Introduction
• Changing production modalities:
  • Atomic layer deposition
  • Inkjet printing
  • Self-assembly
• New thin film materials
• How new thin-film production modalities and materials will create new products

Chapter Three: New Applications and Markets for Thin-Film Electronics

• Introduction
• Large area electronics:
  • Displays
  • Photovoltaics
  • Lighting
  • Sensor arrays
  • Imaging
  • Other
• Next-generation semiconductors:
  • Scaling with TF
  • 3D chips and TF-enabled chips in a post-Moores Law World
  • Sensors
• Memory and Storage:
  • Memory chips
  • Disk drives
• Batteries
• Aerospace applications

Chapter Four: Eight-Year Forecasts

• Forecasting methodology
• Pricing issues
• Scenarios for the development of TF materials and production modes
• Forecast of thin-film enabled electronics by application:
  • Large area electronics by application type and materials
  • Next-generation semiconductors by type of device
  • Memory and storage applications by type of device and material
• Thin-film batteries
• Aerospace applications