For August, Taiwan's WIN Semiconductors Corp (the world's largest pure-play gallium arsenide foundry) has reported revenue of NT$1.04bn (US$34.5m) - its highest revenue in the past 12 months - up 7.41% on July and up 23.45% on a year ago. Growth is attributed to increased demand from branded handset vendors ahead of new product launches this quarter and next quarter, reports the Taipei Times.
WIN provides foundry services for GaAs components used in handsets, including smartphones. Its major clients - Avago Technologies, Japan's Murata Manufacturing, China's RDA Microelectronics and US-based Skyworks Solutions - produce GaAs-based devices used by Apple, Samsung Electronics and Nokia in their products.
In August, power amplifier (PA) chips accounted for more than 50% of WIN's total sales. The rest included Wi-Fi-linked components and infrastructure-related applications, such as those for base-stations, optical fiber networks, satellite communications, and national defense businesses.
WIN's fellow local firms - Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co (VPEC) and Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Co (AWSC) - have also reported strong sales for August, reports Taipei Times. VPEC, one of the world's top three GaAs epitaxial wafer manufacturers, reported revenue of NT$218m, up 5.3% on July and 30.45% on a year ago (and its highest since July 2013). GaAs foundry AWSC reported revenue of NT$275m, up 4.4% on July and 221% on a year ago.
WIN, VPEC and AWSC are expected to report strong sales for the September quarter, considering the launch of the Apple iPhone 6 as well as demand for PA chips for non-Apple handsets and other Wi-Fi-linked components.
However, analysts say that Taiwan's GaAs industry still faces potential challenges in the long term, such as price competition from power amplifiers based on CMOS silicon, the Taipei Times report concludes.
