The conductive inks and paste business will generate a demand of 1800 tonnes, reports Dr. Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, head of consulting, IDTechEx Research, that will grow to 2200 by 2026. This business has come alive again thanks to developments in several technologies.

One notable industry is 3D printing and 3D printed electronics. 3D printed electronics can become a platform technology for creating arbitrarily shaped and custom smart and electronic objects. The interest is rising as evidenced by the recent increase in the numbers of approaches, machines, ink supplier and prototypes. There are, however, some technical challenges: the printed embedded lines must provide high conductivity even at low (<80C) annealing temperature.

Aerosol deposition for 3D antenna is gaining traction. This technique enables antennas to be directly deposited on 3D surfaces, thus helping save space. In addition, it accommodates a change in design by a change in software. It now competes with LDS even on cost. Ghaffarzadeh anticipates that aerosol will establish itself as a major process for creating antennas in consumer electronic devices, thus creating a market opportunity for silver nanoparticle inks.

In another industry, everything in photovoltaics is changing. At paste level, the initial group of suppliers that dominated the market are losing their leading position to those who were once low-cost and low-quality. This trend will continue in the short term, while in the long term we anticipate that this will become a Chinese business entirely. At the powder level, recent factory interruptions have convinced the end users to force through a more diversified supplier base despite the dominant supplier having a distinct quality advantage.

For more see the IDTechEx Research report ‘Conductive Inks 2016-2026: Forecasts, Technologies, Players’.