29 October 2012

Wireless infrastructure GaAs device revenue boosted by shrinking cell sizes

According to Strategy Analytics’ recent market report ‘Wireless Infrastructure Markets: 2011-2016’, gallium arsenide (GaAs) device revenue in wireless infrastructure will grow at a CAAGR (compounded average annual growth rate) of 12% to reach nearly $348m in 2016. In response to increasing data consumption, says the firm, operators are developing new wireless network architectures with smaller cells to support consumer demands. These cells, each with lower transmit power, will boost GaAs-based device revenues for wireless infrastructure applications. The report also forecasts that metro and pico-cell growth will increase the number of wireless base-station sectors from 2.3 million in 2011 to 6.6 million in 2016.

“As wireless data consumption continues to skyrocket, operators and network equipment manufacturers are responding by shrinking cell sizes to boost data rates and capacity for users,” said Eric Higham, director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs). “As a consequence, we expect growth of large macro cells used in traditional network architecture to peak next year and then slowly decline. Offsetting this decline will be explosive growth in base stations with lower transmit power that we expect will begin around 2014.”

Asif Anwar, director in the Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice (STP), added, “LDMOS will continue to be the main technology for the RF power portion of the base station, but the deployment of small cells will lead to an increase in GaAs device revenue”.

Tags: GaAs Wireless base-station

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