Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets has just
released a new report tiled, “Printed Gold: Gold Inks and Pastes
Market – 2011” that examines the markets for gold inks and pastes in
the electronics and solar industries. The report discusses both the
gold pastes used in traditional applications such as wire bonding and
brazing and a new breed of inks based gold nanoparticles.
These
next-generation inks are expected to find uses in MEMS, data storage
and computer memory, “green” electronics, photovoltaics (PV) and
sensors. NanoMarkets estimates that the total volume of gold consumed
by gold inks and pastes for electronics and PV applications will reach
13.7 tonnes by 2016.
This report provides eight-year projections (both volume and value) of
all major applications in which gold inks and pastes are, or will be,
used. These projections also include a breakout by the kind of
printing process used: jetting, screen or flexo/grave. Among the
firms discussed in this report are: Bellman-Melcor, Bosch, Brazetec,
DuPont, Ercon, ESL Electroscience, Hitachi, IBM, Indium Corporation,
Johnson Matthey, Krohn, Samsung and Umicore. The report also includes
an analysis of research taking place at Berkeley, ETH, Rensselaer,
UCLA, University of Melbourne, University of Tokyo, VTT and other
major research centers.
Additional details about this report are at http://www.nanomarkets.net.
Key Findings:
Although the gold pastes market is mature, NanoMarkets sees an
opportunity for “nanopastes,” which would serve traditional thick-film
markets but could provide significantly lower processing costs.
However, according to NanoMarkets the main new business opportunities
for the materials considered in this report will come mainly from
novel applications using “nanoinks”
One of these opportunities may come from printing a thin layer of gold
nanoparticles on optical disks, such as CDs and DVDs, which could
greatly increase the amount of information being stored. Gold
nanorods, in particular, have been noted as a material that can help
provide new technology strategies for optical information storage.
A printed layer of gold nanoparticles may also help to boost the
efficiency of solar panels and, in this context, NanoMarkets notes
that, in general, printing has taken on a growing role in PV in recent
years. Also, the report says that the market for gold inks and pastes
will be driven not just by the rise of alternative energy sources but
also by environmental regulation. For example, the report says that
gold pastes will benefit commercially from the regulatory requirements
for lead-free electronics that have gone into force in both Europe and
the U.S. In addition, there are increasing concerns by regulators
with regard to nanosilver and printed nanogold may serve as a good
substitute in some applications.
Yet another opportunity that NanoMarkets sees for printed gold is in
sensors. Gold is already a common material in sensors, although today
it mostly plated. But printing is becoming more established as a
fabrication tool for making sensors – especially for large area
sensors -- so there will be a fit for printed gold opportunities in
the future.