Organic electronics ready for boom years, says analyst

The market value of organic devices such as TFT dispalys, transistors and non-volatile memory will grow to nearly $1bn in revenues by 2018, according to NanoMarkets.

Over the same time period, the value of the market for printed electronics devices enabled by these organic components will reach $4.6bn.

Analyst firm NanoMarkets announces the release of its latest report on the emerging organic/printed logic and memory market, titled “Markets for OTFTs, OFETs and Organic Memory – 2012.” 

A decade ago, organic TFTs, FETs and memories were seen to have great promise, but the technology failed to live up to early hype. Materials performance was low and manufacturing proved more difficult, and more costly, than originally expected.

"Today there are signs that things may be turning around. There is renewed interest and commercialisation activity in this sector, and we believe that the industry is poised to take off in the 2014-2015 timeframe," said NanoMarkets.
This will be supported by new materials and processes, collaboration between suppliers and the launch of new products that will add credibility to the whole sector.
"But commercial success will only happen if suppliers can help to close the remaining technology – and cost – gaps that could hold back the realization of low-cost/high volume fabrication," said NanoMarkets.
Applications covered by the report include smart packaging, brand protection, security, smartcards, distribution tagging and RFID, interactive media, disposable electronics, and (flexible) display backplanes.

Material categories discussed include organic and/or polymeric semiconductors, ferroelectric materials, dielectrics, and electrodes.
Key players mentioned in the report include Acreo, BASF, Bemis, Fujifilm Dimatix, Hewlett Packard, Heraeus, Holst Centre, InkTec, JAPERA, LG, Merck/EMD, OE-A, Optomec, PARC, PEA, Polyera, PolyIC, Qolpac, Samsung, Solvay, Sony, Thin Film Electronics, Toppan Printing, and others.