概要

WiMax, under development for more than a decade and now growing significantly, has been deployed in many regions as an alternative to wired broadband. Many startups and a few established players are attracted to the WiMax market and are developing integrated semiconductor devices and modules or small systems. Analysts have forecasted hundreds of millions of users within six to seven years; however, there must be further cost reductions and integration at the silicon level for this to happen.

The WiMax semiconductor market is very competitive, with multiple vendors developing both baseband and radio frequency (RF) devices. As Long Term Evolution (LTE) develops and the rollout of WiMax continues, there will be demand for semiconductor devices to support additional frequency bands and a complex mix of frequency, bandwidth, and performance. To meet these challenges, vendors must develop flexible solutions that can meet the performance criteria but still deliver cost-effective and power-efficient designs.

Companies are turning to LTE and finding that many of the key building blocks are the same as WiMax. Many analysts expect the LTE market to be at least five times the size of the WiMax market, which will bring costs down very significantly as volume grows. There is also demand from mobile carriers calling for LTE and WiMax to be integrated to provide a single 4G solution that carriers can sign up for. This has already happened at the silicon level, with vendors working hard to develop flexible solutions that can support both WiMax and LTE.

This report details and analyzes 4G chips and technologies, identifying the key advantages they hold for equipment manufacturers. It also surveys component availability, reviewing features, performance, and flexibility. The report covers more than 50 baseband and RF devices and modules from 20 vendors, and profiles 20 leading vendors in this rapidly growing market.

Sample research data from the report is shown in the excerpts below: Mobile WiMax and LTE are the current focus for chipset development. Most devices can also support fixed WiMax installations. The following except shows the devices in a typical WiMax base station or base transceiver station (BTS). On the left is the network interface, in the middle is the baseband including MAC and PHY devices, and then on the right is the RF front end. 拡大図

• Companies mentioned in this report include: Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (Nasdaq: ALTI); Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI); Beceem Communications Inc.; ComSys Communications & Signal Processing Ltd.; DesignArt Networks Ltd.; Freescale Semiconductor Inc.; Fujitsu Ltd. (Tokyo: 6702; London: FUJ; OTC: FJTSY); Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC); Lime Microsystems Ltd.; NextWave Wireless Inc. (Nasdaq: WAVE); picoChip Designs Ltd.; PMC-Sierra Inc. (Nasdaq: PMCS); Runcom Technologies Ltd.; Sequans Communications; Sierra Monolithics Inc.; SyChip Inc.; STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE: STM)/Ericsson JV (integrating ST-NXP Wireless); Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN); Wavesat Inc.; and Wintegra Inc.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. 4G Market & Technology

• Market Overview
• WiMax
• LTE

III. BaseStation Devices & Solutions

• DesignArt
• Freescale
• picoChip
• Runcom
• Texas Instruments
• Wintegra

IV. CPE & Handset Devices/Modules

• Altair
• Beceem
• ComSys
• Fujitsu
• Intel
• NextWave
• Sequans
• SyChip
• STMicroelectronics/Ericsson JV
• Wavesat

V. RF Chips & Vendors

• Analog Devices
• Lime Microsystems
• PMC-Sierra
• Sierra Monolithics

VI. Conclusions