GaAs Device Market Posts Record Revenues in 2013
Competitive technologies will put the brakes on growth and contribute to a decline by 2018
The recently released Strategy Analytics Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) Forecast and Outlook report, "GaAs Industry Forecast: 2013- 2018" forecasts further growth in the GaAs device market in 2014, before competitive technologies and trends act to reduce the growth rates.
According to the report, the wireless communications segment continues to be the largest user of GaAs devices. Strong demand in this segment helped propel GaAs device revenues up by 11 percent in 2013 to reach $5904.2 million.
However, silicon and GaN will continue to capture market share from GaAs putting the brakes on the growth rate of GaAs device revenue and contributing to an expected decline by 2018.
Eric Higham, service director, Advanced Semiconductor Applications commented: "The GaAs device market has proven incredibly resilient in the face of threats and manufacturers have been rewarded with nearly 10 years of uninterrupted revenue growth. However, increasing market share for CMOS PAs, GaN and multi-mode and multi-band GaAs PAs will signal a new challenge to revenue growth in the future."
Asif Anwar, director in the Strategic Technologies Practice added: "The call to action has gone out to all the participants in the GaAs supply chain to provide innovation that will enable GaAs devices to fend off these challenges and continue the trend of revenue growth."
GaAs MMIC devices, supplied by device OEMs like Skyworks, RFMD/TriQuint, Avago, ADI/Hittite, MACOM, Anadgics, and so on currently make up nearly 98 percent of all GaAs device revenues, according to the report.
