News: Markets
6 May 2020
COVID-19 to reduce GaAs revenue in 2020, but recovery could be swift
With a heavy dependence on cellular terminals, recent forecasts of declining handset shipments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will result in lower gallium arsenide (GaAs) device revenue in 2020, reckons the Strategy Analytics Advanced Semiconductor Application (ASA) insight ‘A First Look at the Effects of COVID-19 on GaAs Revenue’. Based on current trends in several application segments, the insight forecasts a likely trajectory for GaAs revenue out to 2025.
“GaAs RF device revenue growth has struggled in recent years and revenue actually declined for the first time in many years in 2019,” notes Eric Higham, director of the Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) service. “GaAs revenue links closely to trends in the cellular segment, so recent forecasts of sharp drops in smartphone shipments caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will contribute to further declines in GaAs revenue,” he adds. “The complete effects of COVID-19 on the supply chain remain unclear, but I’m optimistic about the future of GaAs device revenue. Based on the most recent information, 5G will become a strong growth engine and GaAs device revenue should be reaching new highs in the next few years.”
