Revenue from RF GaN-enabled devices grew by nearly 22 percent in 2018, according to a new Strategy Analytics Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) report.
'RF GaN Market Forecast: 2018 - 2023' forecasts that this growth will accelerate and RF GaN revenue will surpass $1.7 billion in 2023. The drivers for this explosive growth will be continuing 4G and emerging 5G base station deployments, along with a variety of defence applications.
“Base stations represent the largest source of GaN revenue,” noted Eric Higham director of the ASA service and the Advanced Defence Systems (ADS) service. “Trade tensions between the US and China remains a wildcard, but Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations and Wolfspeed will remain the dominant GaN suppliers for base station applications.”
He went on to say “the defence market, primarily radar and communications applications, is seeing strong growth from new systems and major platform upgrades. This is also providing fuel for the GaN growth engine and should bode well for companies like Qorvo and Wolfspeed.