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News

12 October 2007

 

WIN closing gap to TriQuint in GaAs foundry market

While TriQuint Semiconductor Inc of Hillsboro, OR, USA remains the world’s largest supplier of GaAs foundry services, WIN Semiconductor Corp of Tao Yuan Shien, Taiwan is closing the gap following consolidation in the GaAs foundry sector, reckons market research firm Strategy Analytics in its new report ‘WIN Semiconductor Poised to Become Number One?’.

After a slew of companies offering GaAs foundry services emerged in Asia several years ago, in 2002 Strategy Analytics predicted that only a few pure-play GaAs foundry companies would prevail. With the exit of companies such as Taiwan’s Suntek early on and, more recently, Global Communication Technology Corp of Hsinchu, Taiwan (acquired by WIN in 2004) and Knowledge*On of Iksan, Korea , the prediction has come true, the firm says, with just a handful of companies remaining in 2006.

Strategy Analytics estimates that, in 2006, the GaAs foundry market was $218m, with TriQuint and WIN together accounting for over 60%. TriQuint’s market share was estimated to be 40%, nearly double that of its nearest competitor.

While TriQuint is not a pure-play foundry, it has a wide range of processes that can cater to both high-volume and high-value services (as well as being one of the largest suppliers to the military markets), says Strategy Analytics in the report. “The foundry services offered by TriQuint are an integral component of the company’s success,” said Strategy Analytics’ Stephen Entwistle, VP Strategic Technologies Practice, at European Microwave Week 2007 in Munich, Germany this week . “We believe that TriQuint will continue to be the world’s largest GaAs foundry in 2007.” Asif Anwar, director of Strategy Analytics’ GaAs service, adds: “The company is well positioned to defend its number one position against pure-play foundry competitors, with a strong heritage recognized by both commercial and military customers.”

Meanwhile, the deep pockets of investors in WIN Semiconductor have allowed it to progressively build up its capabilities as a dedicated pure-play GaAs foundry by expanding both its scale and process mix, says Strategy Analytics . “WIN Semiconductor is the world’s largest pure-play GaAs foundry company,” noted Anwar at European Microwave Week. “As a privately held company with strong financial backing from its investors, WIN Semiconductor has been able to continually invest in new process technology and resources.”

With an expansion roadmap in place that will effectively increase wafer capacity by 200% by 2008, WIN will continue to stretch its lead over the remaining pure-play GaAs foundries still in operation and close the gap on TriQuint, concludes the market research firm.

See related items:

Compound acquisitions reach $2bn, driven by IP and product portfolio expansions

WIN appoints Plextek as approved third-party design house

RFMD, Skyworks and Triquint grew GaAs device market share to 55% in 2006

Search: WIN Semiconductor TriQuint GaAs

Visit: www.strategyanalytics.com