Roll-to-roll processing is the manufacturing implementation framework of choice for any product with very low cost required per large areas of deposition. Rolls that are meters wide and miles long can be processed efficiently with very high throughput (and thus minimal capital cost) in equipment with a very small footprint.

A key advantage of roll-to-roll processing is that after the first few meters of initializing a new roll, the whole process hits a steady state which can then be maintained for the entire rest of the roll, resulting in very uniform deposition process parameters applied to essentially the entire (foil) substrate. This is much better than processing wafers or glass plates, which have to be moved in and out of each process station individually, introducing undesirable start-up and move-out process state variability (and cycle time cost).

Edge effects are also greatly minimized in roll processing (whereas processing glass plates or wafers requires much work and capital dealing with uniformity issues at the edges of the substrate).