'Thin films & coatings' Roadmap - Nano Mahidol

As in other nanotechnology areas, the bi-directional communication between
industrial and research communities is far less than optimal. Several factors are to be
considered:
• Available literature is either too commercial (focused on markets’ potential with
few references to technological barriers/challenges) or too scientific (illegible for
non R&D-intensive industries).
• There’s a huge amount of terms for referring to very similar processes and/or
materials. As in other nanotechnology fields, the lack of an agreed on terminology
is hindering a transparent discussion between industry and research.
• Above all, a comparison between different processes is almost inexistent.
Scenarios for further development of thin films
In general, thin films’ process development does not differ very much from
developments in other areas of nanomaterials research. As it happens with the
production of nanoporous materials or nanoparticles, the use of sophisticated
processes (e.g. CVD or PVD) implies a low throughput and expensive equipment.
In many cases new technologies development is driven by the need to fulfil specific
applications’ requirements. Although these developments might be helpful for
competitiveness in a certain area, there are often very limited opportunities for
technology transfer to other sectors. Therefore, the risk of not succeeding is
substantially higher.
The fact that the number of technologies being investigated is steadily increasing
raised the following question: how many thin film technologies would reach the
industrialisation phase
According to the most of the experts many technologies will reach the
industrialisation phase. However, a significant number of experts (30%) consider that
only 1 or 2 will reach this phase and probably become technology platforms around
which new developments could be pursued.
42 Roadmap report on
Thin films and coatings