RF GaN Technology Market Report

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announces the availability of a new report entitled “RF GaN Technology & Market Analysis: Applications, Players, Devices & Substrates 2010-2020″.   According to this report, the RF GaN-based devices could reach more than 18% of the overall RF device market by 2020. Today, the need for high-power, high-frequency transistors is increasing steadily, commensurate with the huge demand for wireless telecommunications. More power, more frequency bands, better linearity and improved efficiency are still driving RF semiconductor devices’ current development, since the market needs devices able to handle all of these specifications at a reasonable price.

Recent mergers and acquisitions are a concern for the overall RF market and Si-LDMOS, GaAs and GaN-based devices. The overall RF market doesn’t seem big enough for so many players; as a result, companies are trying to gain scale in order to increase profitability, which has stagnated. We expect that commercial wireless telecom, CATV and defense applications will be the main applications affected.

Although significant improvements have been achieved in RF GaN-based devices (performance and yields),  there’s still a barrier preventing GaN-on-SiC from entering mainstream applications (i.e. in wireless telecom base stations or CATV). In sub-3.5 GHz range applications, GaN-on-SiC is not cost-effective enough vs. Si-LDMOS, resulting in low market penetration rates. Macom and IQE believe they will enter mass production using 6″ and 8″ GaN-on-Si substrates in two years. IQE will offer Macom a significant mass production level due to its existing production for other applications. Our analysis shows that GaN-on-Si could be implemented in 2 – 5 years within telecom base stations, Milcomm & CATV. In this optimistic scenario, RF GaN-based devices could see an increased penetration rate and reach more than 20 % of the overall RF device market by 2020.

This report is providing all the analysis on the applications, technical challenges and strategic initiatives related to the implementation of RF GaN for volume production.

 

FROM DEFENSE TO MAINSTREAM APPLICATIONS – RF GAN TECHNOLOGY CONTINUES TO BE ADOPTED FOR COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Over the last several years, the silicon LDMOS coverage of high-power RF amplification applications in the 2GHz+ frequency range has decreased from 92% to 76%; the remaining 24% market share is mainly addressed by technologies such as GaAs pHEMT or HEMTs GaN. This equilibrium continues to be turned around by GaN HEMTs implementation. GaN HEMTs in wireless telecommunications is a higher-power and higher-frequency transistors alternative. From a system point of view, GaN is cost-competitive in applications over 3.5GHz. GaN devices continue to challenge silicon’s dominant position in an industrial playground in which a Power Amplifier (PA) market size of $1600M+ is forecasted for 2020.

Today, several companies (i.e. CREE, Triquint/RFMD, Sumitomo, RFHIC, MACOM/Nitronex, Mitsubishi, NXP, Microsemi) have GaN device portfolios covering a wide range of applications. GaN has progressed significantly over the last five years; several thousand devices have been developed and implemented in applications such as radar, CATV, space applications with satellite communication, counter-IED jammers, CATV modules, 3G/4G base-stations, WIMAX/LTE PAs and general purpose applications.

In our nominal case, RF GaN-based devices could reach more than 18% of the overall RF device market by 2020 (i.e. a 9 % CAGR from 2013-2020). More details per application, type of devices, business models, etc. can be found in the report.

 

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site.  View the report: RF GaN Technology & Market Analysis: Applications, Players, Devices & Substrates 2010-2020.

RF GaN Technology Market Report