News

11 May 2009

 

TriQuint and WIN increase share of growing GaAs foundry market

RF product maker TriQuint Semiconductor Inc of Hillsboro, OR, USA and WIN Semiconductors Corp of Tao Yuan Shien, Taiwan increased their collective share of the gallium arsenide foundry market from 67% in 2007 to 77% in 2008, according to the report ‘Squeezing Out the Competition; TriQuint Semiconductor and WIN Semiconductors Extend GaAs Foundry Leadership’ from market research firm Strategy Analytics.

TriQuint held onto the top spot in 2008, benefiting from commercial opportunities as well as engagements in the US defense and aerospace industries. WIN is by far the largest pure-play GaAs foundry, pushing TriQuint hard for the number-one spot in 2008, with only one percentage point separating the two firms in overall market share.

Strategy Analytics estimates that the GaAs foundry market grew 27% year-on-year in 2008 to $311m. “The market for GaAs foundry services will continue to grow as dual-sourcing and fabless strategies become more prominent in the GaAs industry,” forecasts Asif Anwar of Strategy Analytics.

“Start-up companies and research institutes targeting niche and emerging markets may be finding that the tape-out costs of ‘cheap silicon’ are too expensive in the current downturn,” notes Stephen Entwistle, VP of Strategy Analytics’ Strategic Technologies Practice. “This offers an additional opportunity for GaAs foundries to leverage the lower costs and higher performance capabilities offered by GaAs processes,” he concludes.

*On 1 May, WIN Semiconductors opened its second 6-inch GaAs wafer fabrication plant. Fab B. Co-located in the Hwaya Technology Park with Fab A, the new fab will offer cost-effective synergy in operations, the firm says.  Fab B’s capacity of 5000 wafers per month (wpm) will to WIN's existing capacity of 7000 wpm in Fab A.

WIN has opened Fab B to meet accelerating customer demand in an industry driven by continued efficiency-based outsourcing and consolidation, the firm says. “Maintaining our aggressive posture, we have also purchased the land for Fab C located within the same technology park,” says Bob Donahue, executive VP of sales & marketing.

See related item:

WIN closing gap to TriQuint in GaAs foundry market

Search: TriQuint WIN Semiconductor GaAs GaAs foundry

Visit: www.strategyanalytics.com

Visit: www.triquint.com/foundry

Visit: www.winfoundry.com