System Plus Consulting and Yole Développement (Yole) have published a report that provides a detailed outlook of the RF front-end industry. They carried out this analysis by tearing down more than 50 phones to provide insight on technology data for RF front-end modules and components used in various smartphones. This report, titled RF Front-End Module Comparison 2020 – Volume 1, provides information on at least twenty FEM and several components found in the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, Samsung Galaxy Note10+, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G and 17 other smartphones from 2019.
According to the analysis done by System Plus, Vendors such has Qorvo, Murata Qualcomm, Infineon Technologies, NXP and Wisol are the main players in this segment with Qorvo being the leader followed by Murata and Qualcomm. The Front end components consists of Antenna Tuners, Discrete Filers, LNAs, LNA/Switch modules etc.
The RF front-end industry is very competitive, Yole a market research company from France has been investigating this sector for some time to track technologies and market shares. Leveraging System Plus Consulting’s teardown analysis, Yole has provided a detailed market report which also takes in to account the impact of 5G on the RF Front-End Module Market. Their report forecasts an 8% CAGR between 2018 and 2025 for the RF front-end market which will grown from $15 Billion in 2018 to $25.8 Billion in 2025.
Market leaders Samsung and Apple, along with smaller OEMs like Sony, LG, Google, and ZTE, are moving towards integration with complex RF modules from Broadcom, Skyworks, Qorvo, Qualcomm, and Murata. “Integrated” players prefer to focus on the user experience with innovative features like “Face ID”, wireless charging, AI camera, gesture recognition, and the human-machine interface, thus leaving most of the RF front-end’s complexities to the RF module makers.
The RF front-end leaders still share 81% of the market, with Murata leading ahead of Skyworks and Broadcom. Qualcomm, which is already strong in LNAs, is catching up along with Qorvo, thanks to the aggregation of TDK Epcos’ filter business. Established companies like Infineon Technologies, Sony, Taiyo Yuden, NXP, and Wisol also possess a market slice.
These companies generally have manufacturing capabilities for supplying LNA, switches, tuners, and filters, which gives OEMs an alternative to the RF front-end market leaders. Moreover, a variety of fabless companies are emerging, especially in China. Unisoc RDA, Airoha, Richwave, Smarter Micro, Huntersun, and Maxscend are several examples of players scoring more and more design wins amongst the Chinese OEM brands. Obviously, foundries and design houses support this business model for compound semiconductors, silicon, and even acoustic wave filter. For each player in the RF front-end, a market share breakdown by component is included in Yole’s report, along with a company outlook describing each player’s development strategy for 5G and beyond.
Click here to read RF Front-End Module Comparison 2020 – Volume 1.
Click here to read 5G’s Impact on RF Front-End Module and Connectivity for Cell phones.
