report
3.5.1 Market description

The properties of nanostructured magnetic materials and devices are extraordinarily different from those of conventional magnetic systems. Esoteric technical terms such as exchange coupling, giant magnetoresistance, single-domain behaviour, superparamagnetism, and tunnelling magnetoresistance all describe some of the unique characteristics and behaviours obtainable from nanomagnetic particles, films and bulk materials.

It turns out that the properties of nanomagnetic systems enable a variety of actual and potential commercial uses, from data storage technology and non-volatile memory to industrial sensors and cancer treatment.

According to a study from BCC the market, the global market for nanomagnetic materials and devices used for biotechnology, industrial products, and information storage accounted for $4.3 billion in 2004. It is estimated that the market will reach $12 billion in 2009. The AAGR was calculated to 22.6%. The core element of the market was the information storage application segment and it will also dominate in 2009. The market share information storage applications of accounts over 90% of today's market. The biotechnology segment is predicted to reach $310 million in 2009. Growth in bio-separations and magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents followed by nanomagnetic biosensors and nanoparticles will be responsible for the rise within this market segment. The AAGR is calculated to 14.4% from 2004 to 2009. The industrial sector with soft magnetic nanocrystalline transformer cores as its backbone is estimated to reach $167 million in 2009^[39] with an AAGR of 12.4%.

Although nanomagnetics has not received the attention as have e.g. the segments nanobiotechnology or nanoelectronics the potential market impact is anticipated to be astonishingly large^[40].

Fig. 8 shows the development of revenues for nanomagnetic materials from 2003 to 2009 for chosen fields of segmentation.

Fig. 8: Revenues for nanomagnetic materials according to fields of segmentation