Gallium Nitride Captures Meaningful Market Share Of RF High-Power Semiconductors For Wireless Infrastructures

Spending on RF high-power semiconductors for the wireless infrastructure markets flattened out this year, despite the fact that the overall market hit well over $1.5B in 2015. While certain market and sub-market segments are showing moderate growth, it is Gallium Nitride (GaN) that is capturing meaningful market share of RF high-power semiconductors, especially in wireless infrastructure.

“GaN is increasing its market share in 2016, and we believe it will be a significant force by 2021,” says Lance Wilson, Research Director at ABI Research. “This now mainstream technology bridges the gap between two older technologies, exhibiting the high-frequency performance of Gallium Arsenide and power handling capabilities of Silicon LDMOS.”

Outside of wireless infrastructures in the RF high-power semiconductor business, defense-oriented market segments show the strongest performance. Despite the poor press for defense-oriented electronic hardware, the actual performance in 2015 was better than originally thought for some sub-segments. In total, Wilson believes these defense-oriented segments will be a significant market and one to keep an eye on moving forward.

These findings are from ABI Research’s RF Power Semiconductors. This report is part of the company’s Semiconductors sector, which includes research, data, and analyst insights.