Silver Conductive Inks Market Projected to Triple in 8 Years

Businesses have become interested in the silver conductive inks market again, as through the year 2015, the market is expected to triple reaching $2.4 billion, according to a NanoMarkets report, "Silver Inks and Pastes for Printable Electronics: 2008-2015."

During this period of time, the largest opportunity for silver inks demand "will be found in the RFID space where revenues from silver inks for RFID antennas alone will exceed $880 million by 2015. Based on the current excitement surrounding alternative energy, NanoMarkets expect the use of silver inks for solar panel contacts to grow to almost $250 million by 2015."

The obvious challenge in "the future of silver's use in electronics is undoubtedly its high cost. This is one reason that the traditional semiconductor industry has never seriously considered using silver for interconnects. Silver ink sales in the printable electronics business are also hurt by high prices. And with the price of silver almost doubling over the past year, this has really become an issue."

With silver prices seemingly on the way down, it's possible if it continues on that way it won't be much of an issue in about a year. That an assumption, and we really won't know until that happens. With gold expected to reach $1,000 again by the end of 2008, silver could ride on its coattails again.

If that happens, it could be a problem for projected silver demand.

Even so, the report projects that nanosilver inks will make up close to 21 percent of total ink sales in 2012. Most that will be because of the high conductivity of the metal, as well as it being able to be cured at low temperatures; an important part of the increasing role played by "thermally sensitive flexible substrates."