Although silicon technology (notably CMOS) is steadily advancing into some of the territory previously occupied by compound semiconductors there are many microwave and millimeter-wave systems for which the required performance levels can only be met by CS MMICs. This report provides market data on MMICs fabricated using GaAs, GaN, InP, SiC and SiGe into the following systems applications: adaptive cruise control (ACC); defense (AESAs, EW); industrial, scientific and medical (ISM); Ka-band VSATs, Ku-band VSATs, microwave radio, millimeter-wave radio (E-band, etc.).
Power amplifier MMICs and “non-power” MMICs are considered separately for all segmentations. Annual total market data are indicated for years 2011, 2012 and each forecast year to 2017. Regions covered are Europe, North America and “rest of the world”. Total global markets were about $1.27B in 2011 increasing to $1.65B in 2017 but with fluctuations in intermediate years. Markets for GaAs-based MMICs remain strong, albeit increasingly suffering from the GaN competition. Markets for most types of CS MMICs are well entrenched in AESAs, SATCOM (VSATs) and microwave radios.
The most rapid overall growth is exhibited by ACC and millimeter-wave radio applications. The global market for MMICs into W-band ACC amounted to low tens of millions in 2012 increasing to low hundreds of millions in 2017, mostly SiGe MMICs in Europe. The global market relating to millimeter-wave radio was also low tens of millions in 2012 increasing to around $0.5B in 2017 – dominated by GaAs MMICs. This application largely shrugs off the increasing competition from RF CMOS.
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