GaN makes inroads in the wireless infrastructure

Abstract

One of the most rapidly developing segments of the broader semiconductor industry is the telecommunications market, where manufacturers seek to profit from the huge volume of mobile phone handsets. Some 960 million handsets were shipped in the 2005–2006 period, and volume is still growing, driven in part by burgeoning sales in remote areas (some of which have never had significant landline systems), and in part by the rapid-fire addition of sophisticated new functions to the handsets. The latter is increasing in an endeavour to find that elusive ‘killer application’ in the commodity market.