RF Power Semiconductors for Broadcast Equipment, a Shadow of Its Former Self

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1Q 2017 | IN-4498

Broadcast equipment is one of the true legacy businesses in electronics. Dating from the early 1920s, it has been consistent with its presence over many years. Originally based on vacuum tubes, it slowly transitioned to semiconductors. Today, almost all broadcast transmitters are solid-state but there is still some very high-power equipment that uses the older technology.

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A True Legacy Market

NEWS


Broadcast equipment is one of the true legacy businesses in electronics. Dating from the early 1920s, it has been consistent with its presence over many years. Originally based on vacuum tubes, it slowly transitioned to semiconductors. Today, almost all broadcast transmitters are solid-state but there is still some very high-power equipment that uses the older technology.

Broadcast serves a number of different segments that are almost household words today. These include AM, FM, analog TV, digital TV, and digital broadcasting.

Why This Market Waxes and Wanes

IMPACT


Broadcast is a market place that can have frantic activity and then lapse into inactivity for long periods of time. There are principally two reasons as to why this happens:

  • Technology Introduction – When new technology enters the market there is initially a burst of activity as it is rolled out. After this introductory phase, wider deployment is the driving factor. These two phases of rollout can frequently last up to 20 years. The most recent major technology introduction was digital television; introduced in the 1990s, deployment has taken up the last two decades. While not finished yet, the worldwide deployment of digital television has settled down to a constant level.
  • Design Cycles – Broadcast equipment can have lifetimes measured in decades. There are many examples of 30-year-old transmitters that are still on the air today. Simple hardware lifetimes, maintenance issues, parts availability, and complicating factors like increased energy efficiency (an important consideration for a high-power transmitter) will all contribute to overall equipment lifetime in one way or another. This tends to run in cycles, and therefore new transmitters, in the absence of a technology introduction, usually are replaced at 20- to 30-year cycles.

These two factors will occasionally coincide, and the situation is truly one of feast or famine.

Where We Are Today

COMMENTARY


For RF power semiconductors, the broadcast segment historically has been in the US$30 million to US$40 million range, but a look at the market today suggests that the present indicators point to a total actual market (TAM) of about half that. The two market driving factors in the previous section are occurring at the same time today.

There are no major new technology introductions, and the transmitters on the air today are mostly of relatively recent vintage. There are some minor sub-segments of digital television that are rolling out but they pale into insignificance as compared to the gigantic DTV deployment of the last two decades.

There is another convolution that is happening today, as well. The way many devices are purchased has moved from a direct vendor, to a manufacturer path, to one using distributors of electronic parts. AM, FM, and to some extent, analog TV, use parts that are very similar to those used in the industrial, scientific, and medical sector (ISM). This makes the true tracking of RF power devices from a market segment perspective a bit opaque.

The somewhat depressed state of this business could last for another decade or so, but it will continue to be there.

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