Most Taiwan-based GaAs foundry houses will not see much impact on their orders from the coronavirus outbreak in the near term, as the bulk of their production facilities are outside of China, and therefore they can fulfill orders on schedule, according to industry sources.

Among them, Advanced Wireless Semiconductor (AWSC) has said that its production remains intact, and its order visibility for 4G/5G PAs, RF components for Wi-Fi devices and VCSEL chips is clear.

It reported revenues of NT$269 million (US$8.93 million) for January, up 0.75% on month. It is also on track to expand its OEM 6-inch GaAs wafer production capacity to 11,000 units by mid-2020 and to 15,000 units by year-end from 9,000 units currently.

Sources from RF component makers revealed that 50% of AWSC's RF component orders are coming from clients in the US and Europe, 30% from Taiwan-based RF IC-design houses, and only 20% from China.

AWSE and fellow companies including Win Semiconductors and Visual Photonics Epitaxy (VPEC) have also landed significant RF and PA components orders for 5G infrastructure from clients in Asia, the US and Europe, ensuring steady sales growth in the first quarter of 2020, indicated the sources.

Nevertheless, most makers are not certain whether the sales momentum will continue after March, while pinpointing their hopes on new products to be unveiled at the forthcoming MWC 2020.

By: DocMemory
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