While military applications continue to drive the GaN device market, commercial applications have emerged that will help fuel rapid market growth. The recently released Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs) Forecast and Outlook, "GaN Microelectronics Market Update: 2012-2017," concludes that the overall GaN microelectronics device market closed 2012 with revenues of slightly less than $100 million. The report also forecasts that commercial RF and power management applications will begin shipping in volume during the forecast period and this activity will push the overall market to slightly more than $334 million by 2017.

"The GaN device market has been ‘about to take off’ for a number of years," noted Eric Higham, director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs).  "Based on our most recent research, it appears there are segments of the commercial market, like CATV and wireless infrastructure that are seeing higher volumes, but the broad commercial market is still not quite into the production phase. We do anticipate seeing more of these commercial segments contribute over the period and this will be the driver for strong revenue growth."

Asif Anwar, director in the Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice (STP) added, "Despite the interest and growth in commercial applications for GaN, military applications will continue to account for more than half of the GaN device revenue in 2017. The performance benefits of using GaN devices in military applications are clear and this will keep driving GaN usage."

The Strategy Analytics forecast segments the GaN device market by RF and power management applications, as well as substrate technology. The report also discusses technology advantages and challenges for GaN, along with trends and differentiators for commercial and military market segments. A summary of GaN research projects details contributions to the current state of the technology.