GLEN ALLEN, VA – According to a recent NanoMarkets report, the market for silver conductive inks will almost triple over the next eight years, reaching $2.4 billion by 2015.

According to the report, demand for silver inks from traditional applications such as PCBs will remain stable, but and increasing opportunity for silver ink manufacturers will be found in RFID applications where revenues from silver inks used for RFID antennas will reportedly exceed $880 million by 2015. NanoMarkets also stated that it expects the use of silver inks for solar panel usage grow to near $250 million by 2015.

The report states that the "biggest challenge to the future of silver's use in electronics is undoubtedly its high cost. Silver ink sales in the printable electronics business are… hurt by high prices. And with the price of silver almost doubling over the past year, this has really become an issue."

However, NanoMarkets also noted that silver prices seem to be starting to come down, and so claims that prices may become less of an issue in the next several years.

According to the study, the future of both conventional inks and pastes, along with the new nanosilver inks, look positive, with printed electronics mentioned as an opportunity for conductive silver inks.

Nanosilver inks will reportedly reach almost 21% of sales by 2015, driven by their high conductivity and ability cure at low temperatures. The latter will be especially important in the growing use of thermally sensitive flexible substrates, according to the report.

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