Millimeter wave market worth $1.2 billion by 2018

USA: According to a new market research report "Millimeter Wave (MM Wave) Market - By Technology, Components (Frequency, Imaging, Radio); Products (MM Scanners, MM RADARs, MM Macro/Small Cell Backhaul); Applications (Telecommunication, Healthcare, Automotive)-Analysis & Forecast (2013-2018)".

Published by MarketsandMarkets Inc., the total market is expected to reach roughly $1.2 billion by 2018, growing at an explosive CAGR of 59.10 percent for the period of 2013 to 2018.

A millimeter wave is a special electromagnetic wave whose frequency lies in between 3 GHz to 300 GHz, falling far beyond the frequency range of commonly used wireless technologies. Though originally electromagnetic waves with frequencies above 80 GHz were termed as microwaves and waves with even higher frequencies as radio waves, with commercialization of this technology, the demarcation between frequencies has blurred over the past decade. Majority of the applications involve millimeter waves with frequencies lying between 20 GHz and 120 GHz as of 2013.

The low range and narrow beam of millimeter waves have made it ideal for having little or no interference between neighboring links, even in urban environments. This has made the interception of the Millimeter waves signal very difficult or nearly impossible.

Thus, in telecommunications, MM Waves technology is an alternative to fiber-optics, in terms of speed and performance, but at a low cost. Today, mobile base-station industry is rapidly incorporating MM Waves technology in small-cell equipment, due to advanced features offered by millimeter waves, and this trend has taken a steep upward curve, with the global LTE boom in 2012-2013.

The global millimeter wave market revenue is expected to reach $116 million by end of 2013 is expected to grow to $1.1 billion in 2018 at a CAGR of 59.10 percent. Similarly, volumes are estimated to grow from roughly 11.8 thousand units to more than 360 thousand units in 2018. This growth is heralded by the growing telecommunication applications market for millimeter wave technology, especially in the fields of small cell and macro-cell mobile backhaul.

The millimeter wave scanners and imaging systems market is also expected to grow rapidly in the coming five years with shift of scanning & security industry towards MM Wave technology from competing technologies such as X-ray backscatter technology.

The Total Addressable Market (TAM) for mm wave technology has been calculated by the addition of the TAMs for each of the application markets and is estimated to grow from $4.77 billion in 2013 to $10.56 billion in 2018. The market penetration of millimeter wave technology in its total addressable market stands at 2.44 percent in 2013 and is expected to grow to 11.23 percent by 2018, showing a market penetration of roughly 9 percent over the next five years.

When geographical markets North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Rest of the World are considered, North America has the major share in the market with expected revenue of $roughly 48 million in 2013. The CAGR of the market's primary base - North America, for the period 2013 to 2018 is calculated to be 56.77 percent.

Europe and Asia Pacific are the fastest growing regions, with expected CAGRs of 60.51 percent and 61.13 percent, respectively, from 2013 to 2018, due to the major growth spurts expected in the telecom sector in the developing countries in this region. LTE rollout is another major factor that is driving the millimeter wave technology markets in Europe and APAC.

The major players in this market are BridgeWave Communications Inc. (US), E-Band Communications (US), Gigabeam (US), NEC (Japan), Vubiq Inc. (Israel), L-3 Communications (US), Millivision Technologies (US), Brijot Imaging Systems Inc. (Microsemi, US) and so on.