- 23 August 2006 -

Top 10 GaAs IC Makers Winners and Losers

One of the most looked forward to reports each year, the Strategy Analytics annual ranking of the world's top GaAs device manufacturers, has been published. It is interesting to see which companies moved up or down but there are few surprises near in the top half.

What might be surprising to some readers was that in 2005 Eudyna Devices, Sony and NEC all slipped out of the Top Ten. Conversely, Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba gained market share. In fact Mitsubishi Electric was the Japanese market leader in the 2005 GaAs device market thanks to 'significant growth' for its MMIC business as it led the supply of GaAs power amplifier chips to the Japanese 3G cellular handset market.
Not surprisingly, seven of the Top Ten GaAs device manufacturers in 2005 were based in North America. The usual suspects were joined by the fabless company, Hittite. RF Micro Devices, Skyworks Solutions and TriQuint Semiconductor remain entrenched as market leaders, it says, accounting for no less than 52% of the total global GaAs device merchant market.

"2006 will bring some changes as well," observes Asif Anwar, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies service. "None of the European GaAs device manufacturers held a Top Ten position in 2005, yet we expect Filtronic to enter the ranking in 2006.

"The Asia-Pacific foundries will also maintain growth in 2006 and 2007. Demand for foundry services in some cases is actually coming from the traditional GaAs device companies themselves, many of whom are choosing to outsource excess GaAs device production rather than investing it in upgrading existing facilities."

According to Stephen Entwistle, Vice President of the Strategic Technologies Practice at Strategy Analytics,"Despite these movements, we believe that North American players will continue to cement their dominance of the GaAs device market in 2006, since they supply the majority of GaAs devices to the strategically important handset market, as well as to other markets utilizing GaAs devices."

Clearly the market's status quo will be maintained for the near to medium term. This is the nature of the business which is dominated by cellular handsets, base-stations, WLAN and related segments. Moreover, despite the hyperbole and conjecture, rumours of the decline of GaAs MMICs continue to be exaggerated. Each year newer materials such as InP and SiGe make some inroads. But at the same time the ongoing evolution of GaAs and the ability of this Top Ten to keep on meeting the needs of its customer base - both technically and economically - ensures that their trespass is minimal.

The "GaAs Device Vendor Market Share 2005: North America" and "GaAs Device Vendor Market Share 2005: Asia Pacific and Europe" reports are currently available.

Join Strategy Analytics at European Microwave Week 2006 in Manchester, England for "The Cellphone as the Universal Device: Convergence and What It Means for Radio Components, " outlining how the changing demands from the cellular handset market will affect component manufacturers.

See www.strategyanalytics.com for further details.