MicroNanoSystems
Signs of light various kinds. TCOs are an obvious direction to
OLED and electroluminescent (EL) lighting take since they guarantee a cost reduction; no
generally use ITO as the transparent electrode. other TCO is anywhere near as expensive as
Cost would be the only reason to replace ITO in ITO. As a result, a number of alternative TCOs
EL lighting used in cost sensitive areas such as have found niche markets and in the case of
dashboard lighting and low end signage. But EL solar panels, the opportunity is growing at a
is a mature technology that most people believe significant rate.
will gradually be replaced by sold state lighting Until the end of 2008, alternative TCOs did
technologies. not have many advocates, however, a group of
The opportunities are much greater, Japanese firms has now formed an alliance to
however, in the area of OLED lighting, expected promote zinc oxide (ZnO) as an alternative. The
to yield higher performance devices and alliance may not lead to huge revenues for ZnO.
become a part of the general lighting market. Also among TCOs there are developments in
OLED lighting is just emerging as a technology improving etch processes for fluorine doped tin
and it is not firmly entrenched. OLEDs can suffer oxide (FTO). FTO performs similarly to ITO in
aesthetic shortcomings due to ITO’s fairly low the plasma display panel (PDP) application, but
conductivity. Large OLED panels show a is not widely used because it is difficult to etch
brightness gradient as voltage. This non accurately. If a new etch process from AGC Flat
uniformity of brightness can be addressed by Glass improves accuracy sufficiently then FTO
adding a metal electrode grid. may make some inroads to the PDP market.
ITO continued supremacy Organic conductive coatings
Analysis suggests that even by 2016, ITO will still Organic transparent conductors offer three
26
have about 90 percent of the high end major advantages over ITO: they are inherently
transparent conductor market. (The market is so flexible, they can be easily printed, and cost only
www
large, that the 10 percent is worth chasing.) The a fraction of the cost of ITO. That means that
.eur applications where NanoMarkets expects ITO to opportunities exist as some larger players,
oasiasemiconductor
retain dominance would include rigid FPDs and including H.C. Starck and Agfa can attest. It is
high performance capacitive touch screens. important to note that these firms are already
Other applications will not continue to use selling the basic conductive coating for other
ITO in large proportion. Applications that applications, and seek new markets to sell a
require flexibility or cost sensitive will displace (slightly altered) version of an existing product.
ITO quicker than others. It is reasonable to The substitution of ITO with organic
.com
expect that the substitute will depend on the transparent conductors has not taken off as
application. For instance, rigid applications that rapidly as expected. The fact that organic
are concerned with cost reduction will switch to transparent conductors could never match ITO in
square4
Issue V 2009
less costly TCOs as they are similar to ITO in terms of transparency and conductivity has been
application and processing, sometimes using the widely understood. What seems more of an
same equipment, and flexible open question is the resilience of this kind of
displays are more likely to “plastic ITO” when exposed to light in general
switch to a material touted and UV light in particular.
for its flexibility, such as
PEDOT or CNT films. Nanomaterials
NanoMarkets still believes that the big
Alternatives opportunity for a wholesale replacement of ITO
to ITO would come from the nanomaterials sector,
Switching to a new which could mean some kind of carbon
material introduces nanotube preparation or a completely inorganic
risk. No alternative to nanomaterial. Nanomaterials share advantages
ITO comes with the same of flexibility, printability, and (usually) cost with
level of understanding. The organics, and also have a lot of undiscovered
usual alternatives that are touted for potential as they begin to be utilised.
ITO are other transparent conducting The immaturity of nanomaterials carries risks
oxides, polymers, and nanomaterials of that are associated with new materials and
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