The NanoMarkets report, Printed Electronics: A Manufacturing Technology Analysis and Capacity Forecast, provides the first complete analysis of the commercial environment and manufacturing capacity for printable electronics manufacturing. It includes an assessment of the printing equipment used in this space and of the strategies of the manufacturers and integrators supplying the technology. The report profiles 11 leading firms currently producing PE products, describing their current and future manufacturing plans, the kinds of equipment they are using and how they are creating the first printable electronics “fabs,” to meet their expectations of the market. The report also includes a forecast from 2007 to 2013 of printing equipment shipments broken out by type of equipment and whether the equipment is used in an R&D or full-scale production facility.

The report also provides detailed capacity projections for the emerging printable electronics industry through 2013 broken out by applications including displays (OLEDs, e-paper, electrochromic), backplanes, RFID (tags and antennas), sensors, photovoltaics, computer memory and others and and printing type including ink-jet printing and all varieties of traditional printing (screen, flexo, gravure, etc. Among the numerous firms discussed in this report are Add-Vision, CDT, Delta Optolectronics, FUJIFILM Dimatix, GSI, HP, iTi, Kinsel, Konarka, Litrex, Leonhard Kurz, Mark Andy, MAN Roland, Matsushita, MED, NanoIdent, Nanosolar Osram, Motorola, OrganicID, Osram, Philips, PolyIC, Polymer Vision, PowerFilm Solar, Power Paper, Rolt, Saharai, Samsung, Seiko Epson, Siemens, SiPix, Solicore, Soligie, Thin Film Electronics, Toppan Printing, Toshiba, Tyco Universal Display, Xennia, Xerox, and Xaar.

PE manufacturing infrastructure is beginning to ramp up as several companies have announced new plants coming on line or investments in companies building production capacity. This expansion is critical to the industry’s growth potential.

NanoMarkets expects printing to make major inroads into applications that now use vacuum deposition and photolithography. This will be especially noticeable in the OLED display and RFID sectors.

As demand for PE grows, there will be a switch to high-volume traditional printing methods such as flexography, offset and gravure. By 2013, as much as 70 percent of capacity will be accounted for by these traditional processes, compared to around 50 percent today.

Even though the PE industry is moving towards full-scale production, there will be a rapidly growing need for smaller R&D machines in addition to the big presses. By 2013, these machines – predominantly inkjet – will ship at an annual rate of around 4,500 per year compared to a few hundred now. Buyers will include research institutes and the growing number of educational establishments that include printable electronics courses in their curriculum.
more at http://www.nanomarkets.com