Abstract
Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) is the most widely used transparent conductor in the
display industry and has also found important uses in photovoltaics, lighting
and various kinds of optical and conductive coatings. However, the choice of
ITO is not usually made comfortably. ITO is a relatively expensive material
and it has mechanical limitations in certain applications. The reason why it
is so popular is primarily because there are few other materials that have
such an optimal combination of transparency and conductivity. As a result,
there is an accelerating effort by both materials firms and research groups
that can meet or beat the performance of ITO as a transparent conductor, but
at lower costs and with more physical resilience than ITO can offer.
During 2008, NanoMarkets published a report on the future of the ITO market,
which was one of our best received reports to date. This report continues in
this tradition and focuses on important new developments that have occurred
over the past year.
There have been significant changes in end user markets since NanoMarkets
previous ITO report was published. The worries about the ITO market being hit
by Indium priced at $10,000 per kilo have dispersed as commodity prices have
fallen. The display industry into which so much ITO is sold is suffering as
the result of the financial meltdown and two of the remaining growth sectors
within displays - flexible displays and touch screen displays - just happen to
be areas where ITO use faces some of its biggest challenges. Meanwhile, OLED
lighting and thin-film photovoltaics, two other technologies that have seen
considerable commercial progress in the past year, should be natural
opportunities for ITO, but in many cases applications developers in these
areas are actively looking for alternatives to ITO.
With all this in mind, this report gives an up-to-date analysis of how the
alternatives to "ITO classic" are succeeding in the marketplace. We survey the
current role of other transparent conductive oxides, with special attention
being given to zinc oxide a material that is rapidly rising to prominence for
electronics applications. We also review the role that conductive polymers are
and will have as an ITO replacement. And in this report we give much fuller
account of the future role of nanomaterials and exotic composites as ITO
substitutes. We believe that this is especially important because
nano-engineered materials hold out the best prospects for a transparent
conductor that can surpass ITO, not just in terms of its physical
characteristics and price, but also in terms of transparency and conductivity.
In examining these newer materials we pay special attention in this report to
current and expected performance, taking into consideration the high level of
development work going on in this field. We also analyze the impact for ITO
and its substitutes in the latest thin-film manufacturing techniques, given
special attention to low-thermal and solution processing approaches such as
printing and sol-gel.
This report also discusses strategic marketing issues and it includes both
short and longer term forecasts of the various types of ITO materials and ITO
alternatives. The report also profiles the latest activities of leading
companies and labs working in this field. The study will be of vital interest
to firms in the ITO industry itself, as well as firms with new or existing
materials that can serve as ITO replacements. Indeed, any business that
manufactures, uses or invests in transparent conductors will find much to
interest them in this report.
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