Wireless Markets Will Drive GaAs Device Growth

Strategy Analytics has published a five year outlook for the Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) microelectronics industry. The report predicts that GaAs device revenues will grow by 36% over 2005 to 2010, breaking the US$3 billion barrier in 2006. Overall market growth will continue to be derived from wireless markets, with cellular handsets as the primary driver, over the next five years.

Cellular handset shipments that continue to grow will be characterized by multi-mode and multi-band operational requirements. The added complexity of multi-mode and multi-band handsets will increase GaAs device penetration in handsets, offsetting ASP erosion.

"It's not just a case of increasing handset shipments which helps to increase GaAs device demand from the handset market over the next five years," observed Asif Anwar, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies service. "2006 and beyond will see the market shift towards EDGE/GPRS-based and WCDMA/EDGE multi-mode, multi-band architectures. This will actually increase the number of HBT and pHEMT die going into increasingly complex RF front-end module solutions."

"Demand from other applications will augment GaAs device revenues as well," noted Stephen Entwistle, Vice President of the Strategic Technologies Practice at Strategy Analytics. "We foresee increased demand from a whole host of end markets in which GaAs is the enabling technology."

Posted to the site on 10th April 2006