RF GaN: A $3 Billion Market By 2028
By John Oncea, Editor
According to market research, the RF GaN device market had a value of $1.3 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $2.7 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 12% during this period. Among the top device players, SEDI, Qorvo, and Wolfspeed are experiencing steady growth, while NXP is seeing significant revenue from telecom. The telecom industry presents a new opportunity for RF GaN-on-Si.
The telecom infrastructure industry has adopted GaN technology in many base stations due to its high-power and high-frequency performance advantages. As macro/microcells shift from RRH to AAS, massive MIMO (mMIMO) requires an increased number of power amplifier units per base station.
GaN's higher PAE and broadband capability above 3 GHz, compared to LDMOS, presents a growth opportunity for the technology, according to the Yole Group. It is projected that the GaN-based telecom infrastructure device market will make up almost 45 percent of the total market by 2028.
The defense industry is a significant contributor to the traditional GaN market, particularly in the GaN RF field. GaN-on-SiC remains the primary platform for advanced applications in defense radar, electronic warfare, and communications.
Yole Intelligence has recently published its yearly report on RF GaN, which covers an extensive analysis of the market and its players across different segments. As a part of the Yole Group, the report highlights the product ranges and technologies of each segment along with their market dynamics. The study also discusses the specific requirements of the RF markets and how they impact the need for different technologies, considering the geographical specificities.
According to Aymen Ghorbel, a technology and market analyst who specializes in compound semiconductor and emerging materials at Yole Intelligence, GaN-on-SiC remains the primary platform for RF GaN as of 2023, owing to its well-developed supply chain. In addition, IDM is the preferred business model since IDMs can leverage their current customer channels in the telecom and defense markets to their advantage.
As of 2022, SEDI, Qorvo, and Wolfspeed dominated the RF GaN device industry, while NXP saw significant growth by entering the telecom supply chain. The S.I. SiC wafer market was shared between three major suppliers: Wolfspeed, Coherent, and SICC. In the defense sector, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Chinese CETC were leading the way in GaN adoption. GaN foundries Wolfspeed and Qorvo were trusted by the Department of Defense. Ericsson and Nokia focused on developing the supply of RF GaN devices from multiple suppliers, whereas Samsung worked closely with Korean device players. After the U.S. sanctions, Huawei and ZTE turned to the Chinese supply chain to develop domestic capability.
According to Poshun Chiu, a senior technology and market analyst at Yole Intelligence, GaN technology on SiC substrate will become mainstream by 2023. Many players in the industry, including STMicroelectronics, MACOM, Ommic, Infineon, GlobalFoundries, and UMC, have been developing RF GaN-on-Si technology. With the telecom small cell's demand for PAs with lower power, GaN-on-Si is expected to find its sweet spot in 32T32R and 64T64R mMIMO base stations below 10 W. GaN-on-Si is predicted to enter the market by the end of 2023 and gain market share in the coming years.
As technology continues to evolve, device manufacturers are now developing platforms for the Ku/K/Ka-Bands that can target nodes under 0.1 µm for sub-THz frequencies, with potential for the future 6G market. The GaN-on-Si platform for RF applications is aiming to create a sub-6 GHz small cell that can leverage efficiency and wide bandwidth at a lower power level. However, due to the complexity of changing the design of handset systems, it will take some time for GaN-on-Si to become a dominant market player.