According to Lance Wilson, research director, semiconductors, at ABI Research, “High power radio frequency ICs have been ‘flying under the radar’ for the last couple of years.
There are a lot more being sold than people realize. Readers of a new study we have just published will be very surprised when they find exactly how many.
High power RFICs are going to be a major force in the RF power market for base stations and will grab a good chunk of this market in the next five years.” Over the past two years, this new breed of high powered RFICs—primarily geared for use in base stations for cellular and other infrastructures—has been quietly grabbing significant market share, and will continue to do so at an increasing pace.
That is one of the surprise conclusions contained in a new study just released by ABI Research. Low powered radio frequency ICs have been around for a long time, most commonly used in the power amplifiers of mobile phone handsets. But these new RFICs are a different matter entirely. In the past, they have been both underpowered and expensive, but according to Wilson, that has now changed.
“It is hard to get people to sign up for a new solution that costs more, even though it may be easier to use,” he said. “But this year, RFICs have reached the same power levels as devices built around discrete transistors. They have also become much more price-competitive compared to the conventional solution.
The accepted wisdom about high power RFICs simply no longer applies.” As one might expect, the vendors who are most fully engaged in making high power RFICs are the Big Three of RF power devices for wireless infrastructure: Freescale, NXP Semiconductors and Infineon Technologies.
However, notes Wilson, the research has revealed some eye-opening facts about their relative market shares. The new report, “High-Power RFICs,” is included in ABI Research’s RF Power Devices Research Service, which includes other research reports, ABI insights and analysis inquiry support.