Jul 16 2004
Driven in large part by expanding markets for WLANs, cellular, Bluetooth, RFIDs, and other large-volume applications, the worldwide GaAs IC market increased 32.6% in 2003 to $2.86 billion, and will grow another 36.8% in 2004 to $3.90 billion, according to the report The GaAs IC Markets, recently published by The Information Network, a New Tripoli, PA-based market research company.
RF Micro Devices was the leader of the merchant marketplace with a 15.3% share, ahead of Skyworks, Fujitsu, and NEC.
"Cellular phones are driving the market," notes Dr. Robert N. Castellano, President of The Information Network. "Power Amplifers for cellular handsets accounted for 95% of handset PA revenues in 2003.”
In addition to cell phones and basestations, sales of GaAs ICs in the WLAN market grew by about 140% in 2003 to $643 million, representing 22.5% of the total GaAs IC market.
Markets for SiGe ICs will grow from $197 million in 2001 to $2.15 billion in 2006. This steep ramp-up will be driven by the use of SiGe in optical communications and wireless handsets. SiGe will compete with GaAs in the receiver portion of a wireless handset, while GaAs will dominate in the RF front-end transmitter portion of the handset. The cellular market represented 45% of the total SiGe market in 2003.
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