Yole, a leading market research and analysis company, released the annual RF GaN technology & market report. According to the report, the total GaN RF market will increase from US $740 million in 2020 to more than US $2 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 12%. All year long, Yole’s analysts investigated this domain to get a deep understanding of the technology evolution, the potential application and business impact. The GaN RF report proposes an updated packaged device and bare die market segmentation as well as an extensive analysis of 5G wireless infrastructure and competitive analysis of GaN versus other existing technologies.
The Report: GaN RF market: Applications, Players, Technology, and Substrates 2020 answers these questions:
- What is the status of GaN penetration in mainstream applications and what are the technical challenges?
- What are the market drivers?
- How will it evolve the competitive landscape, especially with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak?
- What is the GaN’s positioning compared to LDMOS, in the 5G revolution?
- Yole’s analysts provide you a snapshot of the RF GaN industry.
In telecom infrastructure, the aftermath of U.S. sanctions related to Huawei slowed the GaN-based RRH market in 2019 and pushed OEMs to restructure their supply chain for the coming years. Nevertheless, GaN deployment remained the same for the longterm. In AAS (Advanced Antenna Systems), the increase in bandwidth will favour increasing GaN implementation. Also, small cells and backhaul connections will see an impressive deployment of GaN in the coming years. In military applications, governments will improve their national security by replacing TWT -based systems with Solid State GaN Solutions. Defense will remain one of the GaN RF market’s main drivers.
According to Ahmed Ben Slimane, PhD. Technology & Market Analyst at Yole, radar is the main driver in military applications, mainly due to the increase of T/R modules in new GaN based AESA systems and stringent requirements for lightweight devices for airborne systems. The total GaN RF military market will surpass US $1.1 billion in 2025, at a 22% CAGR.
So far GaN has not been used in Handsets. However, GaN’s high performance and small form factor could attract OEMs to use this technology. The adoption of GaN PAs will depend on the evolution of GaN technology over the next five years - maturity, supply chain, and cost, as well as OEM strategies. What future does a GaN PA hold in the handset market? This point is deeply analysed in Yole’s GaN RF report with a detailed understanding of GaN implementation in different market segments. It also includes an extensive overview of 5G’s impact on the wireless infrastructure and RF Front Ends (FEs), along with the GaN-based military market. Furthermore, Yole shares its view of the market’s current dynamics and future evolution.
It is not possible to deliver a comprehensive and relevant picture of the RF GaN industry without taking into account the US – China conflict and COVID-19 outbreak. Indeed, both events have started deeply modifying the landscape of the semiconductor industry. Questions like, 'What is the status of the RF GaN market?' or 'What is exactly the impact and how will the industry evolve?' need to be addressed.
Yole’s compound semiconductor team investigated the market evolution and had lot of debates with leading GaN RF companies. Its aim was to identify and analyse the changes and get a clear picture of the situation. This analysis is also part of the 2020 RF GaN report. China is the largest market for antenna systems and will remain so for the next several years. Due to US sanctions related to Huawei, the OEM’s supply chain has been restructured. As a consequence, Yole’s analysts identify positive impact on Asian IDMs and foundries, as well as European players. For example, the European foundry UMS doubled its GaN RF business in 2019, owing mainly to BTS market. The US-China trade war also makes it more urgent for Huawei and ZTE to have domestic suppliers.
According to the industry feedback, despite the virus outbreak, leading Chinese telecom operators’ 5G construction goals remain unchanged and development continues. Thus, the virus outbreak is likely to have minor consequences for GaN deployment in 2020. And we could also expect a market adjustment starting from H2-2020 in China as well as the rest of the world.
The GaN based military market, which is the second major segment will likely follow the same trend. Yole’s team only expects minor changes in long term as defence market is "on demand”. However, in short-term, some disruptions in the supply chain may slow the global military market.
Click here to view/download the GaN RF Market Report.
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