10 High Frequency Electronics
Healthy Defense Industry Activity
Marred by Lackluster Revenues
Ongoing activity in March and April included mergers
and acquisitions, product launches and milestones, as
well as seemingly healthy contract activity, but financials
continue to emphasize the difficulties faced by the defense
industry. Strategy Analytics’ Advanced Defense Systems
(ADS) service reports, “Defense Electronics Industry
Review: March 2013,” and “Defense Electronics Industry
Review: April 2013,” detail significant defense industry
news, including product announcements, milestones, con-
tract activity and defense industry financial performance
as the first quarter of 2013 came to a close.
Taking a snapshot of financials from companies
including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman,
Raytheon and United Technologies, revenues were by and
large flat for most companies for the first quarter of 2013.
The defense industry continues to focus on streamlining
operations and ensuring profitability as revenue growth
slows, stagnates or declines.
“Taking a look at 2013 first quarter financials com-
pared with the year-ago quarter really demonstrates the
impact that budget cuts are starting to have on the
defense industry,” noted Asif Anwar Director of the ADS
service at Strategy Analytics.
However, revenues are not the whole story and activ-
ity around contracts, business tie-ups, product launches
and milestones remained robust over March and April.
March saw several key systems passing tests such as the
Northrop Grumman AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task
Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) and Raytheon testing a dual-
band datalink with a Thales Nederland Advanced Phased
Array Radar (APAR).
—Strategy Analytics
strategyanalytics.com
More Than 30 Billion Devices Will
Wirelessly Connect to the Internet of
Everything in 2020
ABI Research’s latest data on the Internet of
Everything (IoE) shows that there are more than 10 bil-
lion wirelessly connected devices in the market today;
with over 30 billion devices expected by 2020.
“The emergence of standardized ultra-low power wire-
less technologies is one of the main enablers of the IoE,
with semiconductor vendors and standards bodies at the
forefront of the market push, helping to bring the IoE into
reality,” said Peter Cooney, practice director.
“The year 2013 is seen by many as the year of the
Internet of Everything, but it will still be many years
until it reaches its full potential. The next 5 years will be
pivotal in its growth and establishment as a tangible con-
cept to the consumer.”
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Cellular, RFID, and many
other wireless technologies are all important to drive
Internet of Everything growth. The long term expansion
of the market will be dependent on wireless technology
becoming invisible so that the consumer will be oblivious
to which technology is used and only know that it works.
“Today, Hub devices such as smartphones, tablets, and
laptops are pivotal in enabling the IoE ecosystem and will
continue to be an essential building block,” added Cooney.
“Future growth, however, is driven by node or sensor type
devices and by 2020 these will account for 60% of the total
installed base of devices.”
—ABI Research
abiresearch.com
802.11ac Standards, MIMO
Technology to Drive RF Test
Equipment Market
The deployment of progressively more complex tele-
communication techniques, including 802.11ac, together
with the adoption of advanced multiple-input, multiple-
output (MIMO) technologies will fuel the global radio
frequency (RF) testing market.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that the
market earned revenues of $3.02 billion in 2011 and esti-
mates this to reach $4.20 billion in 2016. The research
covers traditional general purpose (GP) instrumentation,
modular GP instrumentation, semiconductor automatic
test equipment (ATE), and rental GP segments.
802.11ac is one of the key drivers for the RF test
equipment market. With the 802.11ac standard, faster
speed and higher data handling capacity through wider
channels than the existing systems are achieved.
“The existing 802.11 protocol devices have managed to
satisfy network requirements over the past decade,” noted
Frost & Sullivan Measurement & Instrumentation
Industry Analyst Prathima Bommakanti. “However, with
the increasing consumption of digital data, mobile data
traffic needs to be handled with more powerful wireless
network infrastructure that would offer more capacity,
reliability, and speed.”
Research indicates that with the 802.11ac standard,
the usage of 8x8 MIMO to support 160 MHz bandwidth
and that with LTE advanced, the usage of 8X8 MIMO to
support 100 MHZ channel bandwidth, is becoming popu-
lar. The widening adoption of MIMO will, therefore, also
boost market prospects.
While the overall market is poised to expand, modular
RF test equipment is expected to compete with traditional
GP and semiconductor ATE in a growing number of appli-
cations. This is due to its ease-of-use, scalability and abil-
ity to support lower test costs.
—Frost & Sullivan
frost.com
MARKET REPORTS