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Ceramics are inorganic, nonmetallic materials that are consolidated at high temperatures, usually starting as powder particles and ending as solid, usable forms. Ceramics may be amorphous glasses, single-phase or multiphase polycrystalline materials, or single crystals, but their properties depend on the atomic structures produced. A typical ceramic contains complex crystal structures and may involve both covalent and ionic bonding.
This report focuses on advanced ceramics, which have physical, electronic, mechanical, or other properties superior to those of traditional ceramics. Most advanced ceramics have been developed over the past fifty years. As defined in this report, advanced ceramics exclude traditional commodity ceramics such as bricks, tile, whiteware (e.g., china, sanitary and food-service products), refractories, abrasives, glassware (e.g., flat, container, lighting, and electronic products), and porcelain enamel (e.g., appliance and sanitary whitegoods).
The value of the total market for advanced ceramics in the United States, Western Europe and Japan in 2000 was approximately $20.2 billion. New and expanding applications for ceramic materials are creating growth opportunities in virtually all industrial sectors of the world economy. This market is forecast to grow at an average rate of approximately 4% per year over the 2000-2005 period.
Currently, the major use of advanced ceramics is in electronic applications. The markets for ceramic-based electronic devices account for some 66% of advanced ceramics consumption. However, while these applications will continue to grow, especially multilayer capacitors and piezoceramics, many are technically mature, and the materials used are priced as commodities. The most important ceramic materials for electronics applications are pure and mixed oxides, including alumina, zirconia, silica, ferrospinels (ferrites) and doped (modified) barium titanates and lead zirconates/titanates. Major electronic uses include substrates and packaging, capacitors, transformers, inductors, piezoelectric devices and chemical physical sensors.
The estimated world market for electronic advanced ceramic finished parts in 2000 was approximately $13.3 billion. The manufacture of integrated circuit (IC) packages and capacitors is responsible for roughly two-thirds of the total electronic ceramics market, with Japan dominant in these applications. Many markets for electronic ceramic products, while relatively large, no longer generate the double-digit growth observed a decade or more ago.
The use of ceramics in structural applications accounts for less than 19% of consumption. Structural ceramics are defined as stress-bearing components or ceramic coatings for stressed parts. The resistance of ceramics to corrosion, wear and high temperature makes these products suitable for many applications in industrial equipment. The drive for greater energy efficiency has stimulated research into the use of advanced structural ceramics.
By 2005 the world market for structural ceramics will be about $4.5 billion, with good growth in established markets (wear parts, bearings, seals, process equipment and coatings applied to structural components). The structural ceramics of most interest in these markets include various forms of aluminum oxide (Al2O3), zirconia (ZrO2), silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon nitride (Si3N4).
Advanced ceramic powders and additives are the raw materials from which advanced structural and electronic ceramic components are made. Traditionally, powders are inorganic materials that form the bulk of the final ceramic part; additives are organic materials which make the powder easier to treat in various processing operations, but do not remain in the final part. However, these definitions are becoming less accurate as sophisticated chemical technology is brought to bear on advanced ceramics.
Advanced ceramic powders represent a world market of over $2.7 billion, with a moderate growth rate of 2% predicted through 2005. Oxide powders account for over 85% of this market by value and 95% by volume, but generally represent more mature segments than nonoxide powders such as silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminum nitride and titanium diboride. There are some segments of the oxide powder market that will also show above-average growth, including high-performance alumina and zirconia powders for structural applications such as bioceramics, and several mixed-oxide systems, including glass ceramics and low-CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion) ceramics. Additives will grow slightly faster than the powder market as higher-performance additives are introduced and as additive-intensive processing methods, such as extrusion and injection molding, gain popularity.
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