By Telecom Lead Team: The cellular power amplifier (PA)
market has achieved a growth of 19 percent, to more than $3.3 billion in 2011,
driven by the growth of cellular terminal shipments to an estimated 2.3 billion
units.
The non-handset segments of this market to contribute
more than 40 percent of the demand in 2016.
Grey market (illegal, or shanzhai) handsets grew, as did
smartphones, cellular-enabled notebooks, netbooks, tablets, USB dongles and M2M
devices,” said Christopher Taylor, director, Strategy Analytics RF &
Wireless Components.
Strategy Analytics said that the average number of bands
and modes supported by cellular devices also grew, which slightly increased the
average number of PAs per cellular device 2011.
GaAs-based PAs make up about 95 percent of the market,
however W-CDMA PAs fabricated in monolithic CMOS will capture a small but
growing share in low-cost 3G devices over the next five years. Even so, the
market for GaAs-based PAs will continue to grow in more demanding applications
and in the form of complex modules for multiband smartphones,” said Eric
Higham, director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and compound semiconductor
market research service.
