Rising demand for compound semiconductors

RF Micro Devices has announced plans to expand its compound semiconductor manufacturing capacity to support growth expectations in the company's cellular and multi-market product groups.

The company anticipates increased demand for its compound semiconductor process technologies as a result of favourable market trends in the company's primary markets.

In the cellular handset market, the increasing adoption of highly integrated, multi-chip transmit modules and the migration to 3G multimode devices are expected to drive increased demand for RFMD's GaAs pHEMT and RFMD's GaAs HBT (both AlGaAs HBT and InGaP HBT).

These market trends require greater quantities of compound semiconductor content and are expected to underpin a five-year compound annual growth rate of greater than 20% from 2007-2012 in the market for cellular front ends.

Additionally, in markets served by RFMD's multi-market products group, it is anticipated the migration to 802.11n (GaAs HBT and GaAs pHEMT) and the increasing adoption of WiMAX (GaAs HBT and GaN) will be among the primary drivers of increased compound semiconductor content and accelerated market growth.

"The markets served by RFMD are growing, and RFMD is growing its compound semiconductor content within these markets," Bob Bruggeworth, president and CEO of RFMD, said.

RFMD is currently increasing its manufacturing levels of both GaAs HBT and GaAs pHEMT in order to satisfy immediate forecasted demand.