Assessing the Conductive Ink Market

Conductive inks are a simple and unglamorous layer but they will constitute a hefty $2.86 billion market in 2012. As forecasted by IDTechEx, in our new report “Conductive Ink Markets 2012-2018” (www.IDTechEx.com/inks), the market will rise to $3.36 billion in 2018, with $735 million captured by new silver and copper nanostructure inks.

These values make conductive inks the most successful segment of all printed electronics, surpassing the likes of printable OLEDs, photovoltaics, displays, etc. This is because conductive inks find use in a great variety of end applications, including RFID, photovoltaics, sensors, vehicles, smart packages, flexible display and lighting and touch screens. This enormous diversity reflects the simple fact that all electronic devices require multiple layers of interconnects.

This multiplicity of market requirements has resulted in the introduction of many types of inks, each offering their own set of characteristics and uniques, and therefore targeting different market segments. Innovation in the field of nanotechnology has largely enabled this high level of product differentiation. Indeed, the market today contains graphene, carbon nanotubes, and silver and copper nanostructure (nanoparticle and nanowire) inks, all of which have one or two dimensions in the nanoscale. The table below compares overall attributes of several inks types and indicates possible target markets. Here, we have included only the silver- and copper-based products. The report itself however covers silver-coated copper, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and PDOT:PSS.

A comparison of several conductive inks. Source: IDTechEx  www.IDTechEx.com/inks