The global market for conductive inks, pastes and other materials is estimated by consultants at $2 billion, growing to nearly $4 billion by 2021. According to a report from MarketsandMarkets, the conductive ink segment is projected to reach $3.91 billion by 2021, driven by photovoltaics and the automotive market.

“The wide application in solar panels, automotive circuits, and electronic and electrical equipment is also expected to drive the global conductive inks market,” the report states.

The automotive sector is becoming a major growth opportunity for the conductive ink industry, according to Dr. Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, research director at IDTechEx, which placed the overall value of conductive inks and pastes at $2 billion annually.

“For years, suppliers have been serving the need for conductive pastes in window demisters, seat belt buttons, airbag deployers, and so on,” he said. “[M]ore recent[ly], the market has also expanded to include seat occupancy sensors and heaters. It is now expanding even further to include touch screens, in-mold electronics, transparent heaters, high temperature die attach materials, and others. This has made engagement with automotive OEMs/value chain a high priority imperative for most suppliers.”

John Hannafin, global product manager, Sun Chemical Advanced Materials, said his company continues to see opportunities develop for in-mold electronic applications for automotive.

“Applications for headlamp/tail lamp heaters, in-dash displays, and mechanical switch replacements are gaining traction,” he noted. “Sensors for hands-on/off steering and driver drowsiness improve safety and benefit from the novel materials and processes being developed for flexible hybrid electronics.”

According to Dr. Ajay Virkar, C3Nano co-founder and CTO, his company has “some activity” serving the automotive industry.

“There is a push to use new materials like ours to replace physical buttons and other components in the interior of cars which have touch-enabled buttons,” he said. “Our advantage over other ITO replacements (like CNTs or PEDOT ) is superior optical properties ([i.e.] transmission, color, and haze).

“We have also had projects related to transparent heaters,” Dr. Virkar continued. “This activity should increase in the future as cars become ‘smarter,’ more autonomous, and require more sensors.”

Another growth areas in this sector, according to Frank Wallace, technical director, NANOGAP, is illuminated cap switches incorporating his company’s silver nanofibers. “The automotive market has always led the way in new technology and printed electronics is no exception,” said Kerry Adams, market segment manager, DuPont.

“The opportunities created by formable, stretchable materials allowing 3D structural electronics for auto interiors is enormously appealing for designers,” Adams said. “Touch control, lighting, heating, and sensors can all now be seamlessly integrated into molded interior parts.”

“The automotive market is demanding larger, higher resolution visual displays, screens replacing physical gauges and larger touch screens,” added Steve Toyama, senior sales representative for Applied Ink Solutions.

Nicholas Skelton, Brewer Science’s marketing manager, said printed electronics are well positioned for automotive solutions.

“Manufacturers are looking for lower-cost integrated solutions that incorporate solid-state components for traditional button and switch technologies,” he continued. “For example, the switching mechanisms can be printed directly into molded panels, thereby reducing component count. An added benefit of printed electronics is integrating discrete components and wiring harnesses into a single printed solution. This not only decreases component cost and count but also reduces labor cost in the assembly process.”

PE in Healthcare

Healthcare, similar to the automotive industry, is one of the largest drivers for flexible electronics, according to Brewer Science’s Skelton. He notes that wearable devices and testing equipment are promising areas within the medical industry.

“Medical diagnostics and patient tracking appear to be leading the way,” Sun Chemical’s Hannafin said. “Noninvasive monitoring of glucose and some cardiac functions are creating a lot of demand. Of course, the Internet of Things and the commensurate infrastructure is already being built to support the anticipated demand. This infrastructure will also enable the consumer brand groups to support item-level tagging and smart surfaces which drive the consumer experience in the retail space.

“Medical device sensors will likely lead in terms of short-term growth followed closely by the consumer brand space,” he continued. “We are already seeing innovative new printed sensors in each of these markets already. Consumers are getting a taste for what’s possible and will drive further innovations. This will also lead to the supporting manufacturing and design infrastructure becoming aligned.”

Virkar said he was bound by confidentiality but was able to disclose that C3Nano has a “highly confidential project with a major company who is integrating our material into a very innovative medical device.

“I believe the health care market has much more opportunity for printed electronics applications,” said Dene Taylor of SPF-Inc. “From RFID enabled blood sugar monitors to temperature, pulse and BP sensors, printed electronics are being used more and more to monitor patients. The benefits of such sensors help to maintain better health and reduce the cost of health care, providing a strong economic incentive. Printed electronics not only offer a means for rapid prototyping of such devices but also offer a low cost, medium volume production capability for rapid scale up.”

ChemCubed has been testing its silver conductive inks and dielectric for digitally printed circuitry used in sensor and monitoring applications of medical device equipment across both dental and medical fields, according to chief marketing officer Christopher K. Booher.

“While most are electronic equipment or component related, there are increasing inquiries related to pharmaceutical applications to monitor internal levels in the bloodstream (e.g. glucose) or other external outputs of the skin (e.g. sweat),” he said.

Wallace said Nanogap’s silver nanofibers are being used for patch sensors for physiological monitoring in the healthcare and fitness industries, along with the military. Applied Ink Solutions has seen increased demand for silver/silver chloride inks and coatings for biosensors, per Toyama.

Commercialization of flexible and printed electronics

According to C3Nano’s Virkar, devices incorporating Activegrid are either in the market now or will be in Q1 2019.

We have also been in serial production for producing low resistance transparent conducting films (TCFs) that serve the large area (smart white-board, large display) industry,” he added.

“I believe the health care market has much more opportunity for printed electronics applications,” said Dene Taylor of SPF-Inc. “From RFID enabled blood sugar monitors to temperature, pulse and BP sensors, printed electronics are being used more and more to monitor patients. The benefits of such sensors help to maintain better health and reduce the cost of health care, providing a strong economic incentive. Printed electronics not only offer a means for rapid prototyping of such devices but also offer a low cost, medium volume production capability for rapid scale up.”

ChemCubed is seeing the commercialization of new products in the flexible and electronics field on an “indirect basis,” per Booher.

“We work with development engineers of electronics companies across several markets that are exploring advance manufacturing concepts to improve components in performance, reliability and size/weight optimization,” he said.

Nanogap is supplying a number of ink formulators who are working on undisclosed applications, Wallace noted, adding that he’s observed printed lighting and medical sensors being commercialized, along with activity in touch sensors and smart surfaces outside of the display industry.

“There is growing interest in adding electronics to everyday items, such as wearables, smart packaging and smart labels ,” Hannafin said. “This has created demand to develop materials which provide flexibility and can be processed at high speeds using non-traditional printing methods, such as flexographic printing.

“There is also a lot of curiosity towards electronic packaging and smart labels, and brand owners are increasingly expressing interest,” he continued. “The US and European markets appear to be ahead of the curve and it is likely that production volumes will grow as the traditional packaging converter base starts developing more manufacturing capabilities for electronics at lower costs. The market also needs to determine which functions are to be implemented.”

Two types of customers

Stan Farnsworth, NovaCentrix’s chief marketing officer, said his company sees two types of ink customers, most of whom are in the early stages of product or scientific development.

“These customers are ordering smaller quantities – hundreds of grams – and typically have a lot of questions about how to use the inks, and maybe even need help to identify other system components such as printing methods and partners, and drying/curing methods and partners,” he remarked. “Because of the relationships we have built in the community, we are willing and able to bring in a partner to support one of our customers if we don’t have the right product or capability available for their needs.

The second type is less common, the chief marketing officer noted: “Those who are farther into a product development effort and may be in full-scale pilot prove-out or even production.

“These customers order kg-quantities of ink on perhaps a regular calendarized basis,” Farnsworth continued. “We tend to not have as much daily interaction with them as for the most part their processes have already been proved out.

“Since the product we provide is very consistent and high quality, the support needed is low,” he added. “More likely, we will be asked to support those customers when they go through some kind of process or supplier change, such as using a new type of substrate, needing to accelerate their production throughput, or perhaps revamping the product altogether and changing the functionality. In these cases, we work closely with their product and operations teams to be sure we are making any necessary adjustments in the formulations of the inks we provide for them.

“Success in these cases requires much more than a quality ink product. It requires working closely with perhaps several stakeholders to cooperatively advance the customer’s needs and products.”

Other markets

There are other avenues for printed and flexible electronics besides the automotive and medical industries. Sun Chemical’s parent company, DIC Corporation, recently announced the development of a soft, portable building environment sensor.

“This area presents a unique application which can benefit from the low-cost, flexible printed electronics materials and processes to develop a solution which offers real value to building owners and occupants,” Hannafin noted.

Sun Chemical is seeing more inquiries for smart packaging , Hannafin observed.

“Newer innovations, including smart surfaces, are hoping to create intimacy and engagement at the consumer level to improve the buying experience,” Hannafin said.

“Nanomaterials such as nanosilver could enable significant advancements in a broad range of applications, including photovoltaic and semiconductor packaging. Other innovations are on the drawing the board. It is clear that this space will drive more and more personal connections.”

There is significant interest in a low-cost distributed RFID label printing capability,” said Dan Harrison of IIMAK. “The vision is that when such a low-cost capability is assembled, it will drive the rapid proliferation of RFID into applications not currently imagined. Such a transformation occurred many years back when high quality, low-cost bar code printers revolutionized the auto-identification industry.”

C3Nano’s primary focus is touch sensors, but Dr. Virkar said it doesn’t stop there.

“There is a general trend to combine multiple functions into one layer/substrate to reduce device thickness and cost,” he noted. “I see this as a major advantage of our material and an enabler for new device architectures.”

For ChemCubed, there is continued and growing interest from suppliers and contractors in military/defense and the aerospace, energy (solar/batteries) and wearables sectors, as well as any markets exploring advanced manufacturing processes and the integration of electronic and mechanical features together, according to Booher.

Industrial and environmental monitoring are two areas Skelton sees promise in.

“Industrial monitoring is driven by the need for warehouses to map their facilities for different types of changes within the environments, i.e., temperature and moisture for mobile and stationary applications,” he said. “Within environmental monitoring, there is still a growing interest in water monitors for wells, streams, lakes, and rivers to solve major concerns for everyday drinking water around the world.”