Boston, MA - December 21, 2006 - The Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies (GaAs) service, releasing its regular analysis of compound semiconductor industry news covering microelectronics, optoelectronics and materials/equipment markets, highlights the continued momentum surrounding gallium nitride technology.

In the RF space, over two dozen significant new GaAs product launches were made over October and November. This positive growth was topped off by further launches of wide bandgap materials products for the commercial sector. The last quarter of 2006 also saw new product announcements from LED manufacturers, including several that target emerging markets in automotive and general lighting applications.

"Announcements from Cree, Nitronex, RF Micro Devices and Toshiba over October and November for products that are now sampling affirm recent Strategy Analytics forecasts for a commercial GaN RF market from 2008 onwards," observes Asif Anwar, GaAs Service Director. "The substrate material remains an issue but we are seeing continued progress in this area as well with innovations coming from Picogiga and newcomers such as BluGlass which will help the economic viability of GaN."

"Strategy Analytics has always maintained that the success of LEDs for lighting applications will require solutions that can work within existing infrastructure," notes Stephen Entwistle, VP of the Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice. "We're now seeing companies like Seoul Semiconductor launching LED-lighting sources that can be directly connected to 110 volt or 220 volt AC outlets. We believe this kind of development helps to bring the concept of solid-state lighting that much closer to reality."

The Compound Semiconductor Industry Review reports covering microelectronics, optoelectronics and materials/equipment market news for the final quarter of 2006 are available now at http://www.strategyanalytics.com/gaas.html.