Abstract
The sensor market will take off rapidly in the next decade, driven by the
needs for better diagnostics for an aging population, environmental
monitoring, national security and military markets and -- in the not too
distant future -- small scale robotics. These are diverse applications
areas, but one factor that they will have in common will be the need for
sensors that are distributed over large-area, flexible substrates. In many
cases, these large-area sensors will be created -- in all or part -- with
printing technology.
NanoMarkets believes that while some of the most exciting opportunities in
this sector lie in the future, there are already ways to tap into this
emerging market that can leverage existing technologies, materials,
manufacturing approaches and marketing channels into new business revenues.
The objective of this report is to identify just where these opportunities are.
Beginning with an analysis of the potential from existing printed sensor
products such as sensors with printed electrodes and diagnostic test strips
and assays, this new NanoMarkets report provides a roadmap and revenue
forecast that will point out where and how the money will be made on the way
to fully functional large-area sensor systems.
This report will also show how new developments in printed electronics,
substrate materials and sensor materials will enable this new kind of sensing
system. It will g on to discuss the commercial implications of current
sensor trends from singlet devices such as gas sensors and pressure sensors to
complex layered subsystems such as smart noses, smart skins and labs on a chip
and how these new kinds of sensors represent a station on the way to true
wide-area sensors.
The report will provide a guide to where and when the demand will emerge for
wide area and printed sensors in the all key application sectors including
military, medical and genomics/proteomics, national security, pervasive
computing, robotics, transportation, smart packaging, smart buildings and
environmental monitoring, and consumer electronics. Finally, the report will
discuss the latest R&D developments in this field as well as the strategies of
the firms that are commercializing this new technology and where they are
looking for first revenues.
This report will be invaluable to sensor firms, manufacturers of smart
materials and nanomaterials, printed electronics companies, applications
developers, as well as electronics and medical device firms more generally.
Methodology of this Report
As with all NanoMarkets' reports, our assessment of the business prospects for
printable and large-area sensors is based on analysis of the underlying needs
for the features and capabilities that such products can potentially offer. We
therefore believe it is vital to understand where the actual demand will come
from and what type of capabilities the market is looking for.
To determine where printed and large-area sensors are headed commercially we
based this report on both primary and secondary research. The primary research
came from NanoMarkets' ongoing interview program in which we conduct regular
interviews with key executives throughout the entire thin-film, organic and
printable electronics value chain - including manufacturers of equipment and
materials and of devices and subsystems themselves.
The secondary research for this report drew on the World Wide Web, commercial
databases, trade press articles, SEC filings and other corporate literature to
fill out what is going on in this sector. NanoMarkets' researchers have also
been frequent attendees and speakers at important trade shows and conferences.
In this report, we match the demand-side analysis with an assessment of what
is going on in the area of printed and large-area sensor commercialization at
major technology developers and - where it seems relevant - at the
universities. This enables us to develop a view on what the opportunities in
this space are going to be and what the appropriate business models are. The
forecast approach taken in this report is explained in more detail in Chapter
Four.
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