RF Components Market - Growth, Trends, Forecasts (2020 - 2025)

The RF components market is expected to register a CAGR of 13% during the forecast period 2020-2025. Radio Frequency (RF) technology is vital to many sides of modern electronics. RF engineering is incorporated into almost everything helping to transmit or receiving a radio wave across the complete RF spectrum (3 kHz to 300 GHz) that includes cellular phones, radios, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi technology. With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and even greater wireless connectivity, there will be increased demand for RF components.

• Advancement in Electronic Warfare (EW) Technology caters to the demand for RF components, which helps to drive the market. EW is the use of electromagnetic and directed energy controlling the electromagnetic spectrum. Major defense contractors shall incorporate more and more EW technology into their products in the coming decade. Lockheed-Martin, for example, features sophisticated EW technology in their new F-35 fighter allowing it to block energy frequencies and suppress radar. Many of these new EW systems utilize gallium-nitride (GaN) devices helping to meet their demanding power requirements with low-noise amplifiers (LNA). Additionally, the use of unmanned vehicles (UAV) on land, in the air, and the sea will also increase, along with a need for sophisticated RF solutions to communicate with and control these machines on secure networks.
• Further, in the military and the commercial sector, the need for advanced RF solutions for satellite communications (SATCOM) will penetrate to increase. One particularly ambitious project requiring advanced RF engineering is the global Wi-Fi project from SpaceX, which will require over 42,000 satellites into orbit to beam wireless internet down to people all over the world till 2020, using frequencies of 10-30ghz, in the Ku and Ka-band range.
• The adoption of front-end modules in telecom drives the market. According to Ericsson, the expected 5G mobile subscription until 2024 is 1903 million units. 5G base stations and handsets will rely on higher-end RF front-end modules and power amplifiers to meet requirements for increasingly sophisticated and efficient communication performances. Volumes of transceiver filters, RF switches, and PA devices needed for 5G handsets will grow exponentially compared to those for 4G models. The mmWave 5G smartphones also will need more RF devices than sub-6GHz models, fueling the demand for AiP (antenna in the package) technology that can prevent mmWave signal interference.
• Further, third-generation compound semiconductors will also be increasingly applied to 5G base stations, as III-V semiconductor materials, especially GaN, can facilitate the construction of transmission systems smaller in size and lower in power consumption and cost.
• The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to affect the RF Components market. With the slowdown of smartphone sales, OEMs are resistant to higher the bills of material, and an economic downturn in China will all result in curtailing the growth of RF front-end components used in mobile phones and other cellular user equipment. For instance, Huawei announced delays in launching 5G mobile networks in Europe.
• Further, according to ESM China, Murata and Samsung’s MLCCs (multilayer ceramic chip capacitors commonly used in RF circuits) are used primarily in high-end markets such as smartphones, automobiles, industrial, and medical equipment. The suspension of production from Murata and Samsung will have a market impact on the high-end RF components market.
• Also, according to IEA, vehicle sales in China declined 43.3 percent year-on-year to 1.428 million in March of 2020, following a 79 percent plunge in the previous month, which was the steepest yearly decline on record and March marked the 21st month of decline in vehicle sales. Due to the declining demand for vehicles, the demand for RF components is negligible, causing oversupply, which is leading to immediate damage to the RF components revenues.

Key Market Trends

Automotive Sector to Hold Significant Growth

Sophisticated RF electronic components in automobiles resulted in much safer, efficient, and connected vehicles. Radio was the birthplace of wireless RF integration with the automotive industry and remains one of RF design’s critical roles within the industry today. Further, the explosion of RF-based vehicle systems is not just restricted to passenger-oriented functionality. The number of RF-based subsystems in a vehicle is used for features like tire pressure monitoring, remote keyless entry, software updates, etc.

• Further, automotive radar today often takes the form of a module containing an RF board and a signal processing board. The typical vehicular radar module contains five major functional building blocks, which are antenna, the RF section, a high-speed digital interface, a signal processor, and a power section. The instance is the RDK-S32R274 module from NXP Semiconductors NV. It typically assists as a radar development platform and can also be used for tasks, such as collision avoidance, adaptive cruise control, and occupancy detection.
• Furthermore, according to Goldman Sachs, the market for ADAS is estimated to increase to USD 96 billion in 2025 from USD 3 billion in 2015. Reducing measurement time will be instrumental in bringing affordable ADAS vehicles to market integrated with RF components. In May 2019, Infineon announced to expand its development sites in Linz and Graz, Austria. The company’s new RF development center in Linz will be involved in developing new RF components such as radar ICs for automobiles, with its main focus on 77-GHz radar chips for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).
• Recently companies have also focused on the development of 5G communication modules, which are a vital component of autonomous vehicles (AVs). However, using 5G technology for communication modules for automotive deployment is not easy because it uses high-frequency bands, causing higher loss of signals than LTE (Long Term Evolution, 4G mobile telecommunication technology), as well as high heat generation due to transmission of larger amounts of data.
• To address this problem, LG Innotek used its proprietary RF circuit design technology, high precision, and density modularized technology, as well as heat resistant new materials. In October 2019, LG Innotek was the first company to develop a 5G cellular communication module for automotive applications using Qualcomm chips that can be installed in or on vehicles for V2X. The module combines a communication chip, memory, and RF (radio frequency) circuit.
• Further players are also doing mergers and acquisitions to expand their RF components solutions. In January 2019, Taoglas announced the completion of its acquisition of ThinkWireless, Inc.(antenna provider). With the acquisitions, Taoglas Group looks to further expand into new, synergistic markets such as the commercial vehicle industry, helping to grow presence in trucking, bus, off-road, and motorcycle industry trucking.

Asia-Pacific to Witness Significant Growth

Asia-Pacific is expected to witness significant growth. The advancement in consumer electronics and growing defense equipment requirements with the substantial growth in major emerging economies, such as China, India, and South Korea, will further boost the demand for RF component market.

• The main phone manufacturers differentiate from each other in the RF field by adopting either an integrated or a discrete approach for the RF Front-End Modules. Chinese players such as Unisoc RDA, Airoha, Richwave, Goertek Inc., Smarter Micro, Huntersun, and Maxscend are scoring more and more design wins amongst the Chinese OEM brands. This enables them to integrate with more agreement with other players.
• In April 2019, MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. announced that it has agreed to establish a joint venture company with Goertek Inc. (OEMs and service providers). The joint venture company will be based in Hong Kong and will supply, market, and distribute GaN-on-Si based RF Power components into China’s base station market. Goertek will provide total consideration to MACOM of up to USD 134.6 million, including USD 30 million upfront.
• Increasing the production of vehicles in Asia-Pacific is expected to drive the demand for GaN, which in turn, may boost the market for RF power in the region. China is the largest maker of electric vehicles. China leads with the highest level of EV uptake over the projection period, where the share of EVs in new vehicle sales is estimated to reach 57% across all road transport modes (i.e., two-wheelers, cars, buses, and trucks) till 2030.
• Further, according to IBEF, 2019, the Indian appliance and consumer electronics (ACE) market reached Rs 2.05 trillion (USD 31.48 billion) in 2017 and is expected to grow at 41% CAGR between 2017-20 to reach USD 400 billion. This further holds the expected demand for RF transceiver and the antenna, comprised mostly of components like power amplifiers (PAs), low noise amplifiers (LNAs), switches, duplexers, filters, and other passive devices which penetrates the market growth.
• Further, players are focused on mergers and acquisitions to expand the business of RF components. In February 2020, Apollo Micro Systems, India (caters primarily to defense and aerospace sectors) announced to acquire a majority stake in Ananya SIP RF Technologies (ASIP RF). The company signed an agreement acquiring 51 percent equity share capital, where the company aims to expand the business towards new technologies by establishing a radio frequency (RF) and microwave design-cum-production facility along with the integration facility.

Competitive Landscape

The RF components market is fragmented in nature resulting in intense competition by key companies and causing variation in price margins. Further major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. Key players are TDK Corporation, NXP Semiconductors, etc. Recent developments in the market are -

October 2019 - RF specialist Qorvo acquired Cavendish Kinetics Inc. (CK) (provider of high-performance RF MEMS technology for antenna tuning applications). Several of the world's leading smartphone suppliers have validated significant improvements in antenna performance through lower losses and higher linearity delivered by CK's RF MEMS technology. Qorvo aims to build on the great work CK has done by optimizing and scaling the technology and applying it to other applications like infrastructure and defense.

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