According to a recently released industry and market report from Engalco – MMICs2 – the compound semiconductor MMICs market to 2015 – GaAs MMICs will remain important, while GaN and SiGe MMICs will progressively invade these markets. Although the overall worldwide total markets are forecasted to reach $6.26 B in 2015, this total continues to be dominated by the commodity markets of cell phones (over $3 B) and both intelligent cruise control and mobile WiMAX ($1.2 B each). After these end-users have been considered, the remaining market segments of defense, ISM, microwave radio, millimeter-wave radio, SATCOM and SATNAV all come in with much lower market shares. Of these, microwave radio accounts for a market worth around $280 M in 2015; millimeter-wave radio exhibits exceptionally high (double-digit) growth to reach $420 M in the same year. The latter market is driven by the exploding capacity requirements of multi-Gbit links. In the defense segment North America (principally the US) always leads, but both Europe and Asia (especially) are increasingly important. This report indicates how both GaN- and SiGe-based MMICs will progressively invade many market segments. The utility of GaN MMICs for high-power/high-efficiency RF amplification is becoming well known; the application will also be extended to other functions in RF modules. SiGe-based MMICs are already being implemented in low-power signal processing roles, mainly in receivers and switches. In this report, average selling prices and shipments are provided—again with forecasts to 2015. A total of 64 MMIC manufacturing and “fabless” companies are identified and discussed. The industry structure is critiqued in detail, including worldwide sales operations for each player.

Engalco is a tech-sector consultancy, industry analysis, market forecasting and publishing concern. With strong experience in all relevant commercial and defense segments the firm specializes mainly in the RF/microwave, wireless, related electronics/photonics sectors and sustainable energy technologies. Since its inception in 1989, Engalco has been responsible for many published market reports and the completion of several private client projects. The firm’s mission is to continue providing a range of vital types of analysis, research and publishing services, in addition to customized consultancy based upon proven specialist capabilities.