Nanomaterials: A High-Tech Bright Spot in 2009

Despite a sluggish forecast for the overall high-tech industry in 2009, nanomaterials consumption for electronics applications will grow 40% in 2009.

Nanomaterials utilization in semiconductor applications will have a 62.6% share of the $800 million market in 2009, primarily because of utilization of designer molecules for DUV photoresists and for slurries for chemical mechanical planarization from companies such as Rohm and Haas (NYSE: ROH). Nanotubes and nanowires will enter the semiconductor market after 2010 and begin to gain share.

The primary application for nanomaterials in the solar sector will be for CIGS-based (copper indium gallium selenide) cells, where nanoparticle ink can simply be printed onto a roll of conductive substrate material. The process is many times cheaper and faster than conventional semiconductor processing methods.

However, the semiconductor sector will lose market share to sensors and RFID, and by 2015 its share will have dropped to 58.1% of the nearly $7 billion market for nanomaterials.

The nanomaterial market will grow at a compound annual rate of more than 40% between 2008 and 2015.