Lowered demand for telecommunications end-devices in 2020 is  expected to result in a 3.8% decline in the market for GaAs RF front ends to $5.793 billion, says TrendForce.

Applications include PA (power amplifiers), LNA (low noise amplifiers), and filters.

GaAs  is particularly suited for use in PAs because of its high temperature resistance, high usable frequency range, and low noise under high frequencies. Furthermore, the number of PA components used in smartphones has increased along with the jump in cellular frequencies. 4G smartphones contain on average 5 to 7 PA parts per unit, while 5G smartphones contain 10 to 14 parts.

China still depends on US IDMs for PAs and RF modules which has helped US suppliers’ bottom lines. In 1Q20, Qorvo’s revenue grew by 15.7% YoY to reach $788 million, while Skyworks’ revenue decreased by 5.5% YoY to reach $766 million.

For GaAs foundry, Chinese fabless companies have gone to  WIN Semiconductor Corp and AWSC. In 1Q20, WIN’s revenue grew by 67.8% YoY to reach $201 million, while AWSC’s revenue increased by 162.6% to reach $27 million.  GCS saw a$12 million revenue, 2.8% decrease YoY, in 1Q20, since operations at its main fab in California were affected by the pandemic.

TrendForce expects revenues of major RF front end IDMs to potentially make a rebound from rock bottom in 2021, as the global build-out of 5G base stations accelerates, and 5G handsets account for an increasing share of smartphone manufacturers’ yearly production.

At the same time, some foundries are also likely to benefit from these circumstances, with the overall GaAs foundry revenue making an expected rebound as well.