Thin Film Materials and its Applications

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A thin film is a layer consisting of materials with thickness ranging from a nanometer to several micrometers. Thin films are mainly used in optical coating and semiconductor devices.

The very close application of thin film coating is found in the mirrors which we used in our house. As we can see that a piece of glass is coated with the thin metal from backside to form a reflective surface. Similarly, two way mirrors are produced by using a very thin coating of <50 nanometers in thickness.

Optical coating can be improved in its functionalities by using many layers of thin film coating, each having different thickness and refractive index.

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Ferromagnetic and ferroelectric thin films are used to produce computer memory chips. Other applications of thin film include pharma sector, thin-film batteries, and dye-sensitized solar cells. Thin film is referred as a process manufacturing and also as an element of thermal print head.

Ceramic Thin Films:

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Ceramic films are high in hardness and are chemically inert. These properties are useful in protection of materials against corrosion, oxidation and wearing. Ceramic thin films are widely used in many applications. Also, it is used as a coating on cutting tools. This helps to the coating tools to increase its life by many years.

Research is going on a new type of thin film inorganic oxide materials called as amorphous heavy-metal multicomponent oxides. This new type is used to produce transparent transistors which are stable, inexpensive and eco friendly.

Thin-film photovoltaic cells

Thin films require less production cost due to reduced raw materials. Also, capital cost, transportation cost and energy cost is less in case of thin films. This helps thin films to be used to reduce cost of photovoltaic systems. It is mostly used in the latest generations of photovoltaic cell.

Thin-film batteries

Thin films are used very creatively to produce batteries with specialized applications. Here solid state lithium polymers are used. Batteries of any shape and size can be produced which are placed directly onto chips. Flexible batteries can be made by printing thin films onto plastics, paper or thin metal foil.

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Governments across the world are aware about adoption of environment friendly technologies. Countries like the U.S., U.K., India and Germany are offering fiscal incentives and schemes to encourage use of renewable energy. Due to increasing awareness about climate change and global warming, solar energy industry becomes of prime importance.  To supplement this, thin film energy offers solutions which are inexpensive, effective, and reliable and eco friendly. 

The way at which miniaturization is offered so easily by the thin film materials becomes one of the important factor to increase utilization of micro components for MEMS industry.

Thin Film Materials vs. Conventional Film materials

When we consider the efficiency offered by the two types, conventional or crystalline PV cells are much better than thin film materials. Crystalline PV cells have efficiency of around 24% while that of the thin film ranges between 7-20%. This is one of the restraining factors for this market.

Thin film market is growing at a healthy CAGR and is expected to grow up to $10,250 million by 2018. Europe has the most no. of end users for this market which makes it to dominate the global market for thin film materials. North America and Asia follows the suit after Europe.  

Advantages:

Flexibility and ability to work under low light

Market Overview:

Mainly, three types of thin film materials can be identified as amorphous silica (a-Si), Cadmium telluride (CdTe) and Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS).

The factors identified as the major demand drivers for growth of thin film material market are listed below:

•  Advancement in technology
• High demand from current & emerging applications
• Increased demand for efficiency & miniaturization
• Govt. policies & Subsidies.

The restraining factors for this market are low conversion efficiency and huge investment required in R&D operations.

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The thin film material market is anticipated to increase at a healthy rate annually, to reach $10,250 million, by 2018. It is primarily used in MEMS, photovoltaic solar cells, semiconductor, electrical, and optical coating. The photovoltaic solar cells industry is growing rapidly, while the MEMS industry is experiencing steady growth.

The global market for thin film materials is spread across the globe from Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific to the Middle East and Africa.  Countries like U.S. Germany, France, Italy, China, India and Japan are the major market.

Applications:

• Thin film technology is used in diverse fields of applications such as
•  packaging (aluminum coated film),
• electronics (semiconductors, insulators, ICs),
• manufacturing of optics (reflective & anti-reflective glasses) and
• Contemporary arts,
• It is also used in some similar processes like purification of copper by electroplating

The major end-user industries for thin film market are:

• photovoltaic solar cells,
• microelectromechnical systems (MEMS),
• semiconductor,
• electrical (circuit boards) and
• Optical coating.

The major players in thin film market are

1. Anwell Solar (Hong Kong)
2. Ascent Solar (U.S.)
3.  Avancis GmbH & Co. (Germany),
4.  Cicor Group (Switzerland),
5.  First Soalr (U.S.),
6. Hanergy (China),
7.  Kaneka (Japan),
8.  Masdar PV(Germany),
9. Moser Baer(India),
10. Solar Frontier (Japan),
11. Suntech Power Co. Ltd. (China), and
12. Trony Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (China)

It is very essential to implement most effective growth strategy in the dynamic market environment so analyzing various marketing trends will help to gain competitive edge.

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