Printed Electronics - Answering the Big Questions

The main market driver in 2017 will be the need for flexible and conformal, lightweight electronics in applications from billboards to smart packaging, smart skin patches and interior lighting for cars. Next will come performance of these circuits, particularly their low cost compared with ones based on silicon chips. (The printed versions will incur one hundredth of the manufacturing cost and they will even have many different components co-deposited not separately connected, saving even more and improving reliability). Then come other aspects such as being environmental, non-poisonous and avoiding rare metals. The relative weighting is shown below.