Opportunities for Nanocrystalline Silicon and Silicon Inks in Electronics: 2007-2014

SUMMARY

As printed electronics emerges as a force to be reckoned with, its future will be dependent on high-performance semiconductor inks. At present, most of the focus is on organic inks but these present serious mobility, stability and cost challenges. As a result, a few companies are on the verge of commercializing silicon inks based on nanocrystalline silicon or on other silicon compounds. At the same time, the semiconductor industry is looking for new materials as they increasingly face scaling issues. It also investigating the potential for nanocrystalline silicon, especially in the memory area. With so much understood about the electronic properties and manufacturing of silicon devices, silicon-based materials have a natural advantage in all electronics markets. Firms that are now looking at these materials include Freescale, Innovalight, Micron, Samsung and Seiko Epson, to name but a few There is also important work on silicon inks and nanomaterials being done in the lab, especially in Asia

This is the first report of its kind that analyzes and forecasts the market potential for silicon inks and nanocrystalline materials in electronics applications. The report examines, what firms are doing in this space today and how these important new silicon materials are likely to evolve commercially in the future. The report also includes a detailed discussion of how and when these materials will be used in applications such as photovoltaics, lighting, RFIDs, display backplanes and computer memory. It also discusses the technical issues around making nanocrystalline materials and inks and how these materials are likely fair in the marketplace in competition with other semiconductor materials.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary

• E.1 Emerging Applications for Silicon Inks and Nanocrystalline Silicon
• E.2 New Strategies and New Silicon
• E.3 The End of Moore's Law: How Nanosilicon Can Help the Semiconductor Industry Scale
  • E.3.1 The End of Moore's Law
  • E.3.2 Nanocrystal Memories
  • E.3.3 Optical Interconnects and Silicon Lasers
  • E.3.4 Optical Networking and Optical Memories
• E.4 Electronics Markets Behaving Badly: Nanosilicon, Flexible Electronics and Silicon Photonics
  • E.4.1 The Graying of Personal Electronics
  • E.4.2 Pervasive Computing and Flexible Large Area Electronics as Next Wave
  • E.4.3 The Future of Silicon-Based Flexible Electronics: RFID and Backplanes
  • E.4.4 Can Printed Silicon Provide a Third Road for TFTs?
• E.5 Nano-Silicon, Inks and Greentech
  • E.5.1 Photovoltaics
  • E.5.2 Lighting
• E.6 Summary of Eight-year Projections of Printed Silicon/Nanocrystalline Silicon Electronics

Chapter One: Introduction

• 1.1 Background to this Report
  • 1.1.1 Memories, Chips and Silicon
• 1.2 Objectives and Scope of this Report
• 1.3 Methodology and Information Sources for Report
• 1.4 Plan of this report

Chapter Two: Emerging Technology and Manufacturing Processes

• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.1.1 A Very Short Digression on Quantum Dots
• 2.2 Manufacture of and with Silicon Nanocrystals
  • 2.2.1 Plasma Approaches
  • 2.2.2 Vapor Deposition
• 2.3 Silicon Inks
  • 2.3.1 Jetting Silicon
• 2.4 Substrates for Silicon Crystal Electronics and Photonics
  • 2.4.1 Glass
  • 2.4.2 Plastic
  • 2.4.3 Paper and Board
  • 2.4.4 Stainless Steel Foil
  • 2.4.5 Stretchable Silicon: A New Kind of substrate

Chapter Three: Applications for Nanocrystalline and Printed Silicon

• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 Computer Memories
  • 3.2.1 Evolution of Computer Memory Technology
  • 3.2.2 Nanocrystalline Silicon Floating Gate Memory Technology
  • 3.2.3 Silicon Nanocrystal Optical Memory
  • 3.2.4 Freescale
  • 3.2.5 Intel
  • 3.2.6 Atmel
  • 3.2.7 Samsung
  • 3.2.8 Infineon
  • 3.2.9 Competition for Nanocrystalline Silicon Memories
• 3.3 Thin-film Transistors
  • 3.3.1 A Very Brief History of TFTs
  • 3.3.2 Enter OTFTs
  • 3.3.3 Can Printed Silicon Provide a Third Road for TFTs?
  • 3.3.4 Printed Silicon in Display Backplanes
  • 3.3.5 Printed Silicon in RFID
• 3.4 Photovoltaics
  • 3.4.1 The Photovoltaics Market: A Brief Overview
  • 3.4.2 Nanocrystalline Silicon in PV
  • 3.4.3 Innovalight and Printed Silicon Photovoltaics
• 3.5 Lighting Systems
• 3.6 Silicon Photonics and Interconnection
  • 3.6.1 The Interconnection Issue
  • 3.6.2 Enter Silicon Photonics
  • 3.6.3 Silicon Nanocrystals and Silicon Lasers
• 3.7 Future Products

Chapter Four: Eight-Year Forecasts of Printed and Nanocrystalline Silicon Markets

• 4.1 Scope and Philosophy of Forecasts
• 4.2 Forecasting Methodology
• 4.3 Nanocrystalline Floating Gate Memories
• 4.4 Printed Nanocrystalline Silicon TFTs: Backplanes, RFID and Other Applications
  • 4.4.1 Backplane Markets
  • 4.4.2 RFID Markets
  • 4.4.3 Other Markets
• 4.5 Printable Silicon PV
• 4.6 Silicon Photonics
• 4.7 Summary of Nanocrystalline/Printed Silicon Markets
• 4.8 Materials Markets for Printed and Nanocrystalline Electronics/Photonics

Acronyms and Abbreviations Used in this Report

About the Author

Tables

• Exhibit E-1: Summary of Market Opportunities for Nanocrystalline Silicon and Silicon Inks
• Exhibit E-2: Applications Areas for Printed Inorganic Electronics: The Semprius View
• Exhibit E-3: Printed/Nanocrystalline Silicon Electronics Markets ($ Millions)
• Exhibit 3-1: Key Characteristics of Nanomemory Technologies
• Exhibit 3-2: List of Materials Used for PV
• Exhibit 4-1: Nanocrystalline Memory Markets: 2008-2015 ($ Millions)
• Exhibit 4-2: Forecasts of Printed Silicon Backplanes Markets: 2008-2015
• Exhibit 4-3: Forecasts of Printed Silicon RFID Markets: 2008-2015
• Exhibit 4-4: Printed Silicon TFT Markets ($ Millions)
• Exhibit 4-5: Worldwide Production of Nanocrystalline/Printed Silicon Thin-Film Photovoltaics
• Exhibit 4-6: Breakout of Nanocrystalline/Printed Silicon Thin-Film Photovoltaics Revenue by Application ($ Million)
• Exhibit 4-7: Nanocrystalline/Printed Based Silicon Photonics Markets ($ Millions)
• Exhibit 4-8: Printed/Nanocrystalline Silicon Electronics Markets ($ Millions)
• Exhibit 4-9: Printed/Nanocrystalline Silicon Electronics Markets ($ Millions)