Wifi Revolution

The cellular power amplifier (PA) market is set to reach $3.7 billion over the next five years, driven primarily by the ever increasing deployment of high-speed LTE (News - Alert) networks and multi-mode PAs, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics. LTE and multi-mode PAs will play a crucial role in this growth, potentially disrupting the present PA supplier base and ushering new players into the market, says the researcher.

The Boston, MA-based research firm says multi-mode PAs require improved methods to manage linearity and efficiency, such as envelope tracking, so they will bring new players into the PA market as partners or competitors to existing PA vendors.

According to Christopher Taylor, director, RF & Wireless Components, LTE devices are likely to emerge quickly as the second most significant driver of PA demand after UMTS devices.

Most LTE devices require one 2G / 2.5G power amp, one or more 3G power amps, and one LTE power amp. While this may sound like a windfall in the making for PA suppliers, OEMs will demand multi-mode PAs that can handle more than one air interface to reduce the front-end complexity and bill of materials in LTE mobile devices.

According to Eric Higham, director of the Gallium Arsenide and Compound Semiconductor service at Strategy Analytics (News - Alert), “The changes coming to the power amplifier market represent new opportunities for CMOS PAs to compete with the incumbent GaAs, but also new technical challenges. Overall, GaAs will remain the dominant technology in PAs over the next five years, with continuing gains by CMOS and LDMOS especially in lower-priced mobile devices.”

The report covers discrete PAs, PA-switch modules, PA-duplexers, multi-mode PAs, and power amplifiers by mobile device generation (2G, 3G, 3.9G / 4G) and by major air interface (CDMA, GSM / GPRS / EDGE, W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA, LTE). It also provides an overview of the product technologies offered by the leading PA suppliers.

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