This report focuses on the requirements and achievements to date on the topic of flexible transparent conductors, where high transparency and high conductivity are required. Worldwide research and design efforts are presented, both from research institutes and companies that are developing the necessary materials and processes. Several technical solutions available are compared, and forecasts are given for the next 10 years.
The importance of Transparent Conductive Films (TCF)
Increasingly more and more flexible devices are required, from flexible displays for e-readers, OLEDs and other types to flexible photovoltaics and beyond. These devices require a conductor to close the layers of active materials, but that conductor needs to be transparent in applications such as displays and photovoltaics to allow light through. Today, transparent conductive oxides are widely used for rigid devices but these will become more expensive due to rare materials used, and are inadequate for most flexible electronics applications where they can easily crack under little strain. Alternatives are sought.

The main materials available for this purpose are:
Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs)
Organic materials, such as the most common PEDOT:PSS
Carbon nanotubes (CNT) and graphene

Each have trade-offs between conductivity, transmittance, and flexibility. Each can be patterned in different ways. While sputtering will remain an important and high-volume technology for coating of rigid substrates like glass, solution-based processes including printing and the use of organic and nanoparticle materials have already gained a lot of traction and are expected to dominate the market for the flexible applications within a few years. Significant new developments are being made with both the materials used and how they can be deposited. This report addresses the performance of the different options and profiles organizations around the world that are developing better solutions.
The biggest opportunity
In 2020, the biggest opportunity is for flexible OLEDs and flexible photovoltaics - however, both lack appropriate, low cost flexible barriers today, which delays the market penetration.

While ESD (electro static discharge) applications have moderate requirements concerning the properties of TCFs, demands in devices such as OLEDs are more complex. The main reason is that in that case, not only the standard properties as conductivity, transmittance and flexibility are important, but the interactions with other layers play an important role, namely charge carrier injection. In addition, for large area devices, homogeneity is more critical, especially when it comes to display and lighting applications. The human eye is more sensitive to changes in brightness than to changes in colour, and brightness of an light emitting device depends on the electrical conditions - voltage in the case of inorganic electroluminescence, current flow in the case of electrochromic and light-emitting semiconductors.
Market forecasts 2010-2020
IDTechEx find that the market for TCFs will be $0.24 million in 2010 - mainly used in research and development and used in small quantities for commercial devices. By 2017 TCFs will become a billion dollar market for printed and potentially printed electronics, reaching $3.39 billion in 2020, mainly due to photovoltaics and OLED displays. The report gives forecasts by component for ten years.
Who should buy this report
For those that seek to address opportunities in this field, learn the latest progress from around the world, the challenges and market potential, this report is a must. Activities of 35 organizations from across the globe are covered.

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
2. INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPARENT CONDUCTING FILMS (TCF)
3. APPLICATIONS AND REQUIRED PROPERTIES OF TCFS
3.1. Electromagnetic shielding and Electrostatic coating
3.2. Displays & Lighting
3.2.1. LC Displays
3.2.2. EL Lamps and Displays
3.2.3. OLED Lighting and displays
3.2.4. Touch Screen Displays
3.3. Photovoltaics
3.3.1. Crystalline Silicon
3.3.2. Thin film and Organic PV
3.4. Security Applications
4. MAIN CRITERIA OF TCFS
4.1.2. Transparency
4.1.3. Conductivity
4.1.4. Flexibility
4.1.5. Cost
4.1.6. Other parameters
5. MATERIALS USED FOR TCFS
5.1.1. Doped oxide metals
5.1.2. ITO Challenges: Cost and availability
5.1.3. Organic Conductors
5.1.4. Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene
6. MANUFACTURING OF TCFS
6.1. TCOs
6.1.1. Vacuum processes
6.1.2. Wet processes
6.1.3. Patterning of TCO layers
6.1.4. Recent developments: Printable ITO
6.2. Organic Materials
6.3. CNT and Graphene
7. COMPANIES
7.1. Agfa Orgacon
7.2. Cambrios Technologies Corp.
7.3. Canatu Ltd.
7.4. Cheil Industries
7.5. Chisso Corp.
7.6. Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd (DNP)
7.7. Dontech Inc.
7.8. Eikos - Production of Carbon Nanotube Invisicon Ink
7.9. Evaporated Coatings Inc.
7.10. Evonik
7.11. Fujifilm Ltd
7.12. Gunze Ltd
7.13. H.C. Starck Clevios
7.14. HelioSphera
7.15. Join Well Technology Company Ltd.
7.16. KPT Shanghai Keyan Phosphor Technology Co. Ltd.
7.17. LEE TAT INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT LTD.
7.18. LG Chem
7.19. Mianyang Prochema Plastics Co., Ltd.
7.20. Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc.
7.21. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
7.22. Nicanti
7.23. Nitto Denko
7.24. Oike & CO., Ltd.
7.25. Panipol Ltd
7.26. Regroupement québécois sur les matériaux de pointe (RQMP)
7.27. Sheldahl
7.28. Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Inc.
7.29. Teijin Kasei America, Inc.
7.30. Top Nanosys
7.31. Toray
7.32. Toyobo
7.33. Unidym
7.34. University of Michigan
7.35. VisionTek Systems Ltd.
8. FORECASTS FOR TCF FOR FLEXIBLE ELECTRONICS 2010-2020
8.1. The potential significance of organic and printed inorganic electronics
8.2. Forecasts for flexible electronics 2010-2020
8.3. TCFs market size
9. REFERENCES
APPENDIX 1: IDTECHEX PUBLICATIONS AND CONSULTANCY
TABLES
1.1. TCO Layer Market Forecasts 2010-2020 US$ bn
4.1. TCF requirements for different applications
4.2. Table: Main criteria to assess for TCFs
4.3. Table: Comparison of TCF material of H.C. Starck and ITO films
8.1. Leading market drivers 2020
8.2. Market value (US$ billion) of flexible/conformal electronics 2010-2020
8.3. Total market value of flexible vs. rigid electronics 2010-2020 US$ billion
8.4. TCO Layer Market Forecasts 2010-2020
FIGURES
1.1. Flexible OLED fabricated using IMREs high barrier substrate and encapsulation technique
1.2. Flexible Solar Cell developed by Fraunhofer IPMS
1.3. TCO Layer Market Forecasts 2010-2020 US$ bn
2.1. Conductivity of several materials.
3.1. Structure of a TFT-LCD
3.2. PolyDisplay's see through display
3.3. EL display for a car dashboard
3.4. Cross section of an EL display
3.5. Two types of OLED construction
3.6. Constructions of Inorganic PV cells
3.7. Materials investigated for Organic Photovoltaics
3.8. Flexible electronics
4.1. Relationship between resistance and transparency
4.2. Flex testing of ITO on foil
5.1. Cost of ITO and global ITO production
5.2. Global Indium Production in 2007
5.3. PEDOT:PSS conductivity development
5.4. Structure of single-walled carbon nanotubes
5.5. The chiral vector is represented by a pair of indices (n, m). T denotes the tube axis, and a1 and a2 are the unit vectors of graphene in real space.
6.1. Comparison of OLED performance. The top electrode made of printed ITO
7.1. Directly produced prepatterned films
7.2. CNT Ink Production Process
7.3. Target application areas of Eikos
7.4. Gunze's flexible display, presented early 2009
7.5. H.C. Stark
7.6. The owners of Nicanti
7.7. Nicanti Printaf project
7.8. TCF from Nitto Denko
7.9. TCF solutions from Panipol
7.10. VisionTek Systems TCF materials
8.1. Leading market drivers 2020
8.2. Market value (US$ billion) of flexible/conformal electronics 2009-2020
8.3. Total market value of flexible vs. rigid electronics 2010-2020 US$ billion
8.4. TCO Layer Market Forecasts 2010-2020 US$ billion