Date: 25th Aug 2010
ABI: Microwave VEDs have a total available
market of over $1 billion
ABI research have estimated that microwave and millimeter
wave high-power vacuum electron devices (VEDs) have a total
available market (TAM) of over $1 billion.
ABI says despite its size, and although these tubes remain
essential elements in specialized military, scientific/medical
and space communications applications, this market is generally
under-reported and poorly understood by those not directly
involved in it.
Essentially, this is now a stable industry after several
rounds of consolidation in recent years. ABI Research director
Lance Wilson says, There is potential for some further
consolidation, but there are no signs of that happening
yet. One new RF semiconductor technology gallium
nitride (GaN) may change the landscape but has not
yet done so to any meaningful degree. While it is not yet
monopolizing the microwave RF power industry, GaN is advancing
steadily and is a technology that should be closely watched,
as it will continue to be a threat to some aspects of the
microwave and millimeter wave VED marketplace.
Wilson continues, The size of this market continues
to surprise everyone and its longevity and firm resistance
to RF power semiconductor encroachment is just as surprising.
These specialized vacuum electron devices may at
first seem anachronistic, he adds. But in some
cases there is no other way to generate such high levels
of RF power within an acceptably small space. Certain microwave
and millimeter wave VEDs can generate megawatts, and it
would take tens of thousands of transistors to do that.
|