RF GaAs Device Revenue Surpasses $7.5B

Strategy Analytics reports revenue for RF GaAs devices increased by slightly less than 1 percent in 2016. An anticipated drop in cellular revenue nearly offset gains in other market segments, but GaAs device revenue still managed to surpass $7.5 billion for the first time.

‘RF GaAs Device Forecast and Outlook: 2016 – 2021’ from Strategy Analytics’ Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) service, forecasts that gigabit LTE and emerging 5G applications will drive GaAs device revenue past $9 billion in 2021.

“The RF GaAs device market is so dependent on cellular terminals that declining growth rates in smartphone sales has put the brakes on total revenue growth,” commented Eric Higham, director of the Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) service.

“The good news for the industry is that growing adoption of gigabit LTE networks and devices, coupled with emerging 5G opportunities will restart the GaAs growth engine.”

“We are seeing new platforms and major program upgrades starting to ramp toward production and these developments will maintain the growth of GaAs device revenue in the defence sector,” noted Asif Anwar, director of the Advanced Defence Systems (ADS) service.