Mobile Experts released a report that predicts a new future for base station semiconductors. In particular, the number of base station transceivers will grow to more than 17 million per year by 2017. Increasing bandwidth requirements, MIMO, and carrier aggregation will drive growth in key semiconductor components. The new report, "Semiconductors for Macro Transceivers and RRH," gives a detailed analysis of these trends.

"Despite extremely strong mobile data demand, the market for base station radios has been dropping for the past 18 months," explained Joe Madden, principal analyst at Mobile Experts. "The market will begin to grow again in the second half of 2012, with LTE leading the way to new and richer architectures.

"The Remote Radio Head and transceiver market has slowed down by 12% this year, and the supporting semiconductor market has dropped even more due to price erosion. Despite the grim market of the last 18 months, key indicators are positive for 2013 through 2017. Our current projection shows a turnaround and growth in the RF semiconductor market to a level of almost $3B in 2017."

"Semiconductors for Macro Transceivers and RRH" includes a thorough analysis of technical trends impacting the base station market. Comprehensive research backs up predictions of a stabilizing market. Thirty-six specific charts and exhibits clearly display trends and research. The report covers:

  • ASICs, FPGAs, SoCs, and DSP/ASSPs
  • Secondary or Companion Processors
  • Power Transistors including LDMOS, HBT, and GaN
  • Data Converters including DACs and ADCs
  • Quadrature Modulators including AQMs and discretes
  • Phase Locked Loops (PLLS), VCOs, and Small Signal RF Components

The 61-page report provides a detailed analysis of the semiconductors inside macro base station transceivers, including:

  • The impact of increasing bandwidth, carrier aggregation, Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) and other LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) features on the block diagram
  • The effect of Systems on a Chip (SoCs) developed for small cells, and their migration into macrocell systems
  • Cost estimates for each semiconductor device in a Remote Radio Head (RRH)
  • Market share and competitive dynamics for ASICs, FPGAs, DSP/SoCs, power transistors, data converters, PLLs, VCOs, Quadrature Modulators (AQMs), and Small Signal RF components
  • A five-year forecast of mobile transceivers and the supporting semiconductor devices
  • Profiles for the key semiconductor suppliers in the radio chain
  • A supporting Excel spreadsheet with detailed analysis down to various power levels, single and multimode radios, and analysis of migration between devices types such as ASIC/SoC/FPGA and LDMOS/GaN