TriQuint chief touts automotive radar
Automotive radar is set to drive most of the growth in the millimeter-wave GaAs MMIC market over the next few years.
That s according to two TriQuint executives speaking at the Compound Semiconductor Mantech conference, taking place in Florida, US, this week.
Opening the event s plenary session, TriQuint CEO Ralph Quinsey said that deployment of GaAs-based collision-avoidance radar operating at 77GHz will likely be driven by government regulations on car safety.
He added that future systems will use 77GHz technology for both long- and short-range radar. 24GHz radar is currently used in short-range applications.
According to TriQuint s director of broadband technology, Dan Green, automotive applications made up 16% of the $267 million millimeter-wave GaAs MMIC market in 2003.
This proportion is set to increase as automotive radar becomes cheaper and is deployed in vehicles other than in the high-end models where it is currrently used.
Although the timing of automotive radar being introduced in the mainstream is difficult to predict, said Green, the technology will dominate future growth in millimeter-wave applications.
He said that the commercial (non-military) millimeter-wave market for GaAs MMICs is expected to grow from $163 million last year to $400 million in 2007 as deployment of automotive radar kicks in.
"Auto radar will be the next high-volume application for mllimeter-wave GaAs MMICs," Green told delegates.
He expects deployment of 4.5 million such units by 2007.
However, Green cautioned that designers still need to overcome some challenges. These include reducing the cost of the technology, as well as packaging and testing issues.
