Indigenous conductive ink manufacturing tech to cut import dependency: UIDAI CEO

New Delhi: The large-scale manufacturing of silver nanowires and the production of conductive ink in the country can reduce India’s conductive ink import for advanced electronic material applications, according to Bhuvnesh Kumar, CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Kumar highlighted transformative potential of indigenous nanosilver-based conductive ink technology in the field of semiconductor ecosystem, which has applications in flexible electronics, electronic packaging, displays, solar photovoltaics and RFID tags, etc.

In an event held at NIT Warangal, indigenous knowhow of silver nanowire-based conductive ink technology was transferred to two startups — Chematico Technologies Private Limited (incubated at IIT Ropar) and Vasanthbala Functional Materials Pvt Ltd, (incubated at NIT Warangal).

The transferred technology has been developed under the project funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and jointly implemented by professor Sarang Gumfekar, IIT Ropar and professor Shirish Sonawane, NIT Warangal.

While congratulating the startups, Kumar suggested for the large-scale manufacturing of silver nanowires and the production of conductive ink in the country.

The developed technology can reduce India’s conductive ink import for advanced electronic material applications, he stressed.

The global market for silver nanowire-based conductive ink and adhesive is projected to surpass $16.87 billion by 2032 due to a rapid increase in the electronics, semiconductor, solar photovoltaic, and RFID market.

The market growth can be attributed to key factors, including robust demand from end-use industries.

India imports ink worth no more than $15,72,000 every year. The US, China, the Netherlands, the UK and Taiwan are the major exporter countries.

Silver nanowire-based conductive ink is used commonly to repair or improve circuits on printed circuit boards.

The ink is used in flexible electronics (foldable devices/screens such as computer keyboards, windshield defroster), RFID tags, wearable devices, sensors, display technologies and solar panels, etc.

—IANS