Jun 1 2007
According to a new report from Innovative Research and Products (iRAP) titled “Flexible Thin Film Batteries – A Global Technology, Industry and Market Analysis (ETP-104),” flexible thin film battery market is an attractive and fast growing market characterized by very high production volumes. To sustain its growth, manufacturers have pursued to make them extremely reliable and low in cost.
Thin-film lithium and lithium-ion batteries are ideally suited for a variety of applications where small-power sources are needed. They can be manufactured in a variety of shapes and sizes as required by customers. By using the available space within a device, the battery can provide the required power while occupying otherwise wasted space and adding negligible mass.
Report Highlights
Four major applications are discussed in this report, which will create most of the market for thin-film products over the next five years. These are SmartCards, RFID tags, implantable medical devices, and microelectronic devices, flexible displays and E-papers.
The range of possible applications for these batteries derives from their important advantages as compared to conventional battery technologies. They can be made in virtually any shape and size to meet the requirements of each application. The batteries are rechargeable, which means their size need be no larger than is required to satisfy the energy requirements on a single cycle, thus reducing cost and weight, which in itself may give birth to new applications. The report focuses on thin-film batteries (thicknesses below 0.6 mm) that can be used in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), microrobots and microsensors, and can also be printed on integrated circuits (ICs) like any other electronic components.
Production will be low-cost and high-volume. These batteries can be manufactured in any size, shape, voltage, or power capacity needed. Thin-film batteries (TFB) are positioned to become the next generation of lithium batteries for portable electronic applications. Major applications include smart cards and smart tags, single-use health and medical devices, and multimedia enhancements for entertainment items, novelties and packaging.
The iRAP study focuses on thin-film batteries and products, providing market data about the size and growth of the thin-film battery applications segments and new developments, including a detailed patent analysis, company profiles and industry trends. The report provides a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the market in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Korea and the rest of the world (ROW) for thin-film batteries and potential future business opportunities.
The objectives include thorough coverage of the underlying economic issues driving the thin-film battery business as well as assessments of new, advanced thin-film batteries. Also covered are legislative pressures for more safety and environmental protection, as well as users’ expectations for economical thin-film batteries.
Report Conclusions
Major findings of this report are:
- The thin-film batteries market is an attractive and still-growing multimillion-dollar market characterized by very high production volumes of thin-film batteries that must be extremely reliable and low in cost.
- In 2006, the global market for flexible thin-film batteries has reached $41 million and will increase to $230 million by 2011 with an annual average growth rate of 41.1%.
- From 2006 to 2011, medical implantables will show the highest annual average growth rate (AAGR) reaching 58.4%, followed by mircoelectronic devices, flexible papers, cosmetics and E-papers at an AAGR of 46.1%, SmartCards with 37.9% and RFID tags with 35%.
- Regionally, North America captured about 61% of the market in 2006, followed by Japan at 19% and Europe at 17%.
- More than 20 companies and institutions worldwide are active in the field of thin-film batteries.