This article is based in part on research from Large-Area and Printed Sensor Markets: 2009-2016

Over the past two decades, more accurate, convenient and earlier diagnoses have become a key strategy to reduce medical costs. This trend toward improved diagnostic technology will only grow in importance in the future as the first Baby Boomers turn seventy (in 2011) and as millions of people in less-developed nations begin to utilize more Western healthcare technology as their countries grow richer. In addition, healthcare experts have come to believe that diagnoses are most effectively delivered if they are made as close to the patient as possible. A quick read of a patient's condition at his or her bedside is preferred over a test sent to a lab that may take critical hours or days to interpret.

All this implies that the market for point-of-care and home diagnostic products will expand over the next few years. In our recently published report on printed and large-area sensors, NanoMarkets examined how low-cost printing technologies can help diagnostics respond to the trends outlined above. The path toward this goal of printed sensors has already been forged in the area of self-testing for diabetics, where printed test strips have helped bring accurate digital diagnostics to the tens of millions of diabetics throughout the world.

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This article is based in part on research from Building-Integrated Photovoltaics Markets 2009 and Beyond

The photovoltaics industry will need to remake itself in the post-recession era. The days of hyper-growth are gone for now and at NanoMarkets we believe that the industry will increasingly face a new set of challenges that two years ago would have been glossed over as "nothing much to worry about." Three looming problems that NanoMarkets' sees as particularly serious for the industry are: (1) commoditization, (2) building aesthetics, and (3) costs of PV to consumers.

Nonetheless, NanoMarkets' research into the potential of building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) also suggests that BIPV deployed as a marketing strategy might be a partial solution for solar panel makers to the problems listed above. As such, the three problems listed above might also be thought of as drivers for the BIPV market which, we believe, could reach as high as $6.1 billion by 2016.

BIPV and the Commoditization Problem

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This article is based in part on research from Silver Inks and Pastes: 2009 to 2016

The products that today account for most of the silver paste and inks consumed are not exactly the "hot" items of the electronics and electrical industry. Traditional capacitor and printed circuit board (PCB) markets grow at the same rate as the economy. Membrane switches are not as ubiquitous as they once were; we think they may see serious competition from touch screens in the future. Plasma displays continue to sell, but the PDP era will eventually pass and take with it the substantial silver paste orders, which certain major suppliers have counted on for a decade.

There are a few firms in the silver pastes business, Henkel and DuPont would be the obvious examples, that could probably make money in this space simply by milking the cash cow; that is, leveraging their established market positions, dialing back on marketing and relying on customers to come to them.

But having covered silver inks and pastes in our industry analyst reports for the last four years, NanoMarkets' analysts do not think we've reached the time yet for such desperate measures. In fact, we see a series of markets where we expect sales of silver inks and pastes to do quite well over the next few years. This article, which draws on NanoMarkets' ongoing research in this area, briefly profiles four of them.

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This article is based in part on research from Silver Inks and Pastes: 2009 to 2016

The products that today account for most of the silver paste and inks consumed are not exactly the "hot" items of the electronics and electrical industry. Traditional capacitor and printed circuit board (PCB) markets grow at the same rate as the economy. Membrane switches are not as ubiquitous as they once were; we think they may see serious competition from touch screens in the future. Plasma displays continue to sell, but the PDP era will eventually pass and take with it the substantial silver paste orders, which certain major suppliers have counted on for a decade.

There are a few firms in the silver pastes business, Henkel and DuPont would be the obvious examples, that could probably make money in this space simply by milking the cash cow; that is, leveraging their established market positions, dialing back on marketing and relying on customers to come to them.

But having covered silver inks and pastes in our industry analyst reports for the last four years, NanoMarkets' analysts do not think we've reached the time yet for such desperate measures. In fact, we see a series of markets where we expect sales of silver inks and pastes to do quite well over the next few years. This article, which draws on NanoMarkets' ongoing research in this area, briefly profiles four of them.

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This article is based in part on research from Indium Tin Oxide and Alternative Transparent Conductor Markets

Among the many problems that the display industry has experienced with ITO, the most serious is surely cost. The display industry has done well in the past decade as flat-panel displays (FPDs) have all but replaced CRTs and have penetrated markets in which displays were never found before. This growth has occurred in large part because of declining displays prices. For growth to continue in the display industry, a downward price curve for displays will still be needed.

Unfortunately, this is not completely consistent with likely price trends in the ITO business. ITO is an expensive material due to its containing indium; indium has been priced at $350 to $1,000 for the last several years. While the recession may have delayed the need to address the cost issue, it has not eliminated the problem. Once economic growth returns, ITO prices will rise again. While NanoMarkets thinks indium prices will never attain the levels prophesied in some of the more hysterical pre-recession forecasts, one famous one suggested indium could reach $10,000 per kilo, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to see them quadruple.

But even this more modest price rise could put a lot of pressure on the margins of FPD makers. With prices of displays coming down by (say) 10 percent per year and indium quadrupling in price, the percentage of ITO in the bill of materials (BOM) for a display could reach double digits. This would not be good news for FPD makers who have never generated huge profits in the first place.

NanoMarkets sees only three ways to alleviate this problem.

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