Worldwide GaAs market to grow at 23.3% annually to 1997
A recent report published by The Information Network, a Williamsburg, VA-based
market research company, forecasts that the worldwide GaAs IC market will show
a compounded annual growth rate of 23.3% to 1997. According to the
report–titled “The GaAs IC and Wafer Markets”–the GaAs market will grow from
$219 million in 1992 to $623 million in 1997.
Analog/microwave GaAs ICs are expected to maintain the fastest growth, with a
value reaching $374 million in 1997 from $118 million in 1992 at a rate of
25.9%. In the U.S, which has a more mature market than other countries, the
GaAs IC market is projected to show a rate of only 17.1% over the same period.
In comparison, Europe and Japan will show a rate of 37.0% and 19.6%,
respectively.
Military applications account for the bulk of the GaAs market in the U.S. In
Europe, military as well as communications and consumer applications play a
major role in the development of GaAs ICs.
Until now, one factor in the GaAs market's lackluster performance has been the
use of SSI and MSI technology, resulting in low levels of integration of
components on a chip. However, according to Robert Castellano, president of The
Information Network, “An improvement in densities of logic by providing a great
deal of functionality on the circuit will offset the high cost of the GaAs
devices. At the LSI level, the price/performance ratio of GaAs will actually be
better than silicon for some applications.”
The GaAs industry still faces several other hurdles. These include problems
associated with materials, processing methods, quality control, production
yields, packaging, testing, and standards. For more information, contact The
Information Network at 804-258-3738 or .
–Richard Pell Jr.
PULLOUT QUOTE:
“At the LSI level, the price/performance ratio of GaAs will actually be better
than silicon for some applications.”
–Robert Castellano, The Information Network
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