China RF Power Amplifier Industry Research Report in 2025
ICV: Silicon-based LDMOS and GaN RF power amplifiers both hold a prominent position in the field of mobile communications
Background and Introduction
LDMOS (Laterally Diffused Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) is an enhancement-mode N-channel MOSFET, commonly used in RF power circuits to meet requirements such as high voltage resistance and power control. Entering the communication field, LDMOS RF power amplifiers are widely adopted in communication base stations and mobile radios due to advantages including low cost, high integrability, and better compatibility with DPD (Digital Pre-Distortion). Among these applications, communication base stations are currently the largest market for LDMOS.
GaN has a wide band gap of 3.4 eV; the larger the band gap, the better its high-voltage and high-temperature capabilities. Combined with a high electron saturation velocity, this gives GaN RF power amplifiers excellent high-frequency and high-power performance. Base-station RF devices are the primary source of demand for GaN RF products, with the final-stage power amplifier driving most market growth. In 5G macro-base-station multi-stage amplifier chains, GaN’s high power density, high linearity and high efficiency have made it the preferred solution for the final high-power stage, especially suited to Massive MIMO architectures. Its penetration in base-station RF devices now exceeds 50% and continues to rise.
In the global mobile communication sector, early technologies and markets were mainly dominated by European enterprises. With the evolution of communication technologies from 2G to 5G, Chinese enterprises have further enhanced their technical and industrial status in the global mobile communication field, becoming important participants. Entering the R&D phase of 5G-A and 6G, China's participation in technical standard formulation, commercial deployment, and other links continues to deepen.
Base station RF power amplifiers belong to the high-threshold upstream segment of the industrial chain. European manufacturers such as NXP and Ampleon have a long development history, establishing foundations in capital investment, R&D accumulation, and technical precipitation. Their LDMOS RF power amplifier products have gained certain recognition in the industry. As the region with the largest investment scale in mobile communication infrastructure globally, Chinese local enterprises started late in the LDMOS field but have cultivated market-competitive enterprises through independent innovation to improve technical capabilities, with the product self-sufficiency rate gradually increasing.
Industry data in China is relatively open and transparent, providing sufficient basic information for industry research. Unlike other countries or regions where the telecommunications industry is mainly participated by private enterprises, China's communication infrastructure construction and operation are led by the government, and telecom operators are all state-owned enterprises. A large amount of basic data is statistically released by official authorities. Among them, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT) is the competent department of China's mobile communication industry, mainly responsible for industry planning, coordinating network construction, formulating tariff policies, and industry supervision. MIIT regularly (usually monthly) releases relevant data on China's communication industry, including key information such as base station commissioning data, user numbers, and traffic volume. In addition, telecom operators such as China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom are all listed companies with adequate data disclosure.
China's development in the mobile communication technology field shows phased improvement characteristics. In the 1G/2G era, the industry's technical system and standards were dominated by European and American countries and enterprises. In the 3G era, the Chinese government and enterprises launched relevant technology R&D and industrial investment. In the 4G/5G era, Chinese enterprises formed competitiveness in technical R&D, equipment manufacturing, and other links, emerging communication equipment suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE Corporation. In terms of market share, in the first half of 2025, Huawei accounted for 35% of the global 5G base station market, ranking first globally; ZTE Corporation held a 9% share, ranking fifth. Together, the two enterprises accounted for 44% of the global market share, while Ericsson and Nokia accounted for 25% and 18% respectively. In terms of patent quantity, as of the beginning of 2025, Huawei held 15% of global 5G Standard Essential Patents (SEP), ranking first; ZTE Corporation, OPPO, and Datang entered the global top ten. In the 6G field, China's 6G patent applications accounted for 40.3%, ranking first in the world. Technical proposals related to "integrated communication and sensing" and "space-air-ground integration" by Huawei and ZTE have been included in international standard discussions.
In terms of investment intensity in ICT infrastructure, China leads far ahead. Public data shows that as of the first half of 2025, the total number of 5G base stations in China reached approximately 4.55 million, accounting for over 60% of the global total, firmly ranking first. In contrast, the progress of 5G coverage in North America, the EU, and other regions is relatively slow, with 4G still dominating these regions, with some rural and suburban areas in the early stage of 5G construction. Most countries in the Middle East and Africa still focus on 4G capacity expansion for their mobile networks, with 2G/3G remaining in remote areas. It is evident that China continues to lead the world in 5G base station scale, user penetration, and network performance.
There are two main reasons for China's leadership: first, the government has continuously included 5G/gigabit networks as the core of "New Infrastructure", maintaining fiscal special funds and policy-based financial quotas. It has also allocated more than 1000 MHz of spectrum at one time and allowed co-construction and sharing, significantly reducing the cost per station. Second, China has a large population and strong market demand, with the number of users that a single station can serve being much higher than that in Europe and the United State. This enables operators to achieve break-even even with low ARPU values. In contrast, North America and Europe are dominated by private capital, and high investment, high electricity prices, and sparse rural scenarios have led to longer investment payback periods, resulting in a significantly slower expansion pace than China.
Principles and Characteristics
RF power amplifiers are used to amplify RF signals, converting weak modulated signals into sufficiently powerful signals at the output. They generally consist of transistors, input/output matching circuits, bias and power supply circuits, etc. The principle is to use the current/voltage control function of transistors to convert power from the power supply into current that changes according to the input signal, thereby achieving current/voltage amplification.
Figure 1 Working Principle of RF Power Amplifiers
Compared with traditional power amplifiers, RF power amplifiers feature higher output power, higher efficiency, and higher reliability in higher frequency bands. They can not only serve as the core component in RF front-end architectures for wireless communication fields such as base stations, mobile phones, WiFi, and NB-IoT but also form RF power supplies for industrial, medical, scientific, and other fields. This research mainly focuses on their application in base stations.
Figure 2 Application Fields of RF Power Amplifiers
RF power amplifiers are the most important part of the base station RF front-end. Their performance directly determines key factors such as signal strength and stability, affecting end-user experience. Base station RF power amplifiers are used in the transmission link: signals in the transmission link are amplified step by step through the pre-driver stage/driver stage and final stage, converting weak signals into higher-power signals, which are then fed to the antenna for radiation. This realizes gain amplification of the input excitation signal and converts DC power into microwave power output.
Figure 3 Working Process of RF Power Amplifiers
Since the launch of 2G mobile communication technology, LDMOS has gradually become the market mainstream in communication base station applications and has maintained this position to date. With the development of new-generation mobile communication technologies such as 5G, GaN (Gallium Nitride) has been promoted in communication base stations due to its excellent performance in high-frequency application scenarios. However, in medium and low-frequency application scenarios, LDMOS still occupies a dominant position with advantages such as low cost, high integrability, and better DPD compatibility. In low-power scenarios such as pre-driver stages and small base stations, GaAs (Gallium Arsenide) is still used, but its market share is shrinking and will not be discussed in detail.
Therefore, based on their respective advantages, LDMOS and GaN have different main application fields. GaN is mainly concentrated in high-frequency and high-power scenarios, while LDMOS is mainly used in medium and low-frequency scenarios, with some applications in certain high-frequency and low-power scenarios. However, the choice between LDMOS and GaN is not fixed and often varies according to manufacturers' strategies.
Development Overview of the LDMOS RF Power Amplifier Industry in China's Communication Base Station Field
(1) Classification of Base Stations
Base stations can be further divided into macro base stations, small base stations, indoor distribution systems, and other types according to coverage radius, transmission power, etc., each with different application scenarios.
Figure 4 Classification and Applications of Base Stations
(2) Increased 5G Frequency Drives Higher Base Station Construction Density
Frequency is a scarce resource in mobile communications. To avoid interference between various communications, reasonable planning and allocation are required. Although frequency allocation varies across countries and regions, with the development of wireless communication technologies, low-frequency band resources have been occupied, and wireless communications are moving towards higher frequency bands. China's 5G mainly focuses on frequency bands such as 2.5GHz-2.7GHz, 3GHz-3.6GHz, and 4.8GHz-5GHz, while the United States mainly uses higher millimeter waves.
Under ideal conditions (excluding losses), the wireless signal transmission distance formula is as follows:
d: Radio wave transmission distance
Pt: Base station transmission power
Pr: Terminal reception power
λ: Electromagnetic wavelength
Gt: Base station transmission antenna gain
Gr: Terminal reception antenna gain
Therefore, to achieve the same coverage effect, 5G base stations require higher construction density.
(3) Comparison of Construction Density Between 5G and 4G Macro Base Stations
The distribution density of 4G macro base stations is 500 meters per station in central urban areas, while 5G macro base stations require approximately 250 meters per station. Overall, the demand for 5G macro base stations in central urban areas is 2-3 times that of 4G macro base stations.
Figure 5 Comparison of Construction Density Between 5G and 4G Macro Base Stations
(4) Total Number of China's Mobile Communication Base Stations Grows Year by Year, with 5G Share Continuously Increasing
According to the 2024 Communication Industry Statistical Communique released by MIIT, as of the end of 2024, the total number of mobile communication base stations nationwide reached 12.65 million, a net increase of 1.026 million compared with the end of the previous year. Among them, there were 7.112 million 4G base stations, a net increase of 818,000; and 4.251 million 5G base stations, a net increase of 874,000. 5G base stations accounted for 33.6% of the total number of mobile communication base stations, an increase of 4.5 percentage points from the end of the previous year. It is expected that by 2026, the number of China's mobile communication base stations will reach 15.3065 million, including 8.2895 million 5G base stations (a net increase of 1.3915 million from the previous year), accounting for 54.15% of the total base stations.
Figure 6 Total Number of China's Mobile Communication Base Stations and 5G Base Stations (ten thousand)
In the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Information and Communication Industry", MIIT proposed that by 2025, China will have 26 5G base stations per 10,000 people.
Although the final stage of RF power amplifiers in high frequency 5G macro base stations is mainly based on GaN, LDMOS is still used in a large proportion of driver stages due to its advantages of low cost, high integrability, and better DPD compatibility.
(5) Application of MIMO Technology
Traditional SISO (Single-Input Single-Output) enables data transmission between base stations and mobile terminals through a single channel. To improve data upload and download rates, MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) technology emerged. It allows multiple antennas to transmit and receive signals simultaneously, doubling the system channel capacity without increasing spectrum resources or antenna transmission power.
At this stage, MIMO has evolved from multi-antenna gain in the 3G/4G era to a core technology in 5G-A networks. Current mainstream base stations are generally equipped with 64T64R and 128T128R Massive MIMO, while 2T4R has become the standard configuration on the terminal side, with high-end mobile phones supporting 4T8R. In Sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave bands, MIMO, through coordination with space division multiplexing, beamforming, and intelligent surfaces, increases the single-carrier downlink peak rate by 10-20 times without additional spectrum or increased transmission power, significantly improving user experience in deep indoor coverage and high-speed mobile scenarios such as high-speed railways.
Figure 7 Evolution of MIMO Technology
(6) Massive MIMO Greatly Increases the Number of Antenna Channels in Communication Base Stations
To adapt to the transmission speed of 5G, compared with MIMO which has 2/4/8 antennas, Massive MIMO has 32/64 antennas and has been widely used in 5G. Since each transmission channel requires a power amplifier, the demand for power amplifiers has increased exponentially.
Figure 8 Number of Antenna Channels in Communication Base Stations Adopting Massive MIMO Technology
With the power of a single base station unchanged, the more transmission channels there are, the lower the power of a single channel, thereby increasing the demand for LDMOS.
(7) Small Base Stations for Coverage Compensation: A Lower-Cost and Higher-Coverage Networking Method
Due to the high frequency of 5G signals, their ability to penetrate walls and diffract is weak, resulting in coverage blind spots. Macro base stations cannot be widely constructed due to factors such as large floor space and impact on street appearance. To make up for the blind spots in network signal coverage, using small base stations for coverage compensation to increase base station deployment density has become a lower-cost and higher-coverage networking method.
The frequency of 5G is higher than that of 4G, so more dense small base stations need to be deployed to achieve network coverage. Usually, 1 5G macro base station requires 2-10 small base stations for networking to achieve signal coverage. In the early stage of 5G construction, macro base stations are the focus; after reaching a certain scale, the demand for small base stations will rise accordingly.
Figure 9 Small Base Station Deployment Scheme
Small base stations have high requirements for chip size, and silicon-based LDMOS, with higher integrability, has become the mainstream choice. A small number of enterprises choose GaAs.
(8) Indoor Distribution Systems: A Necessary Choice to Ensure Indoor Signal Coverage
In scenarios with indoor coverage needs such as shopping malls, office buildings, and hotels, network signals transmitted by base stations often cannot cover evenly due to obstacles such as walls and doors/windows. Various indoor distribution systems are required to evenly distribute base station signals to every corner of the indoor space. Due to their low power, LDMOS is the mainstream choice for indoor distribution systems.
Figure 10 RF Link of Indoor Distribution Systems
(9) China Tower's Indoor Distribution System Business Revenue Maintains Rapid Growth
China Tower's major shareholders are the three major telecom operators: China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. It undertakes the construction, maintenance, and operation of most communication towers and other base station supporting facilities, public network coverage of high-speed railways and subways, and large-scale indoor distribution systems in China.
According to China Tower's 2024 annual report, the coverage area of China Tower's indoor distributed buildings reached 12.68 billion square meters, a year-on-year increase of 24.9%; the total coverage mileage of high-speed railway tunnels and subways reached 29,315 kilometers, a year-on-year increase of 21.78%. The business revenue of indoor distribution systems maintained strong growth.
Figure 11 Business Revenue Scale of China Tower's Indoor Distribution Systems
(USD 100 Million)
(10) Spectrum Refarming Enables Low-Frequency Bands to Be Used for 5G
To address frequency resource issues and reduce 5G construction costs, in 2020, MIIT allocated the 700MHz band to 5G, which was co-constructed by China Radio and Television and China Mobile. Starting from August 2023, China Telecom also obtained approval from MIIT to use the 800MHz band for 5G network construction, with large-scale deployment expected to start in 2025. In October 2025, MIIT further confirmed that China Unicom has obtained approval to fully refarm the 900MHz band (904–915 / 949–960MHz) originally used for 2G/3G/4G into 5G systems, incorporating it into the co-construction and sharing system to jointly promote low-frequency 5G network deployment with China Telecom. In the near future, more and more low-frequency base stations in the above bands will be deployed.
These low-frequency bands were originally used for 2G/3G/4G. The reallocation of frequency bands has reduced 5G construction costs, making it economically feasible for 5G signals to cover rural and remote areas with low population density. With the phasing out of old communication technologies such as 2G, more low-frequency spectrum resources are expected to be released in the future, thereby driving the market demand for LDMOS.
Silicon-based LDMOS and GaN technologies complement each other, jointly supporting application needs across different scenarios.
Figure 12 Frequency–Power Coverage Range of Various Power Device Types
In the field of radio-frequency power amplifiers, silicon-based LDMOS and GaN technologies complement each other, jointly addressing application needs across different scenarios. Leveraging their distinct material properties and process strengths, the two technologies form a complementary system that covers the full range of power levels and frequency bands, serving as a core driver of advancement in the RF power amplifier industry.
Thanks to decades of technological iteration, silicon-based LDMOS technology has evolved into a highly mature manufacturing ecosystem. It offers strong compatibility with conventional silicon CMOS processes, high thermal conductivity, high output power and low cost—typically about one-third the cost of an equivalent GaN device. In low-frequency, high-power scenarios its superior characteristics make it the mainstream choice that cannot yet be replaced by RF power amplifiers built from other semiconductor materials. In base-station applications LDMOS RF power amplifiers are a key component, and their market performance is closely tied to 4G network maintenance and the deployment of 5G Sub-6 GHz macro base stations.
In the multi-stage amplification chain of macro base stations, LDMOS still holds a prominent position in sub-3 GHz final-stage power-amplifier scenarios, especially for power levels below 20 W per channel. In sub-1 GHz bands such as 700 MHz and 800 MHz, its cost-effectiveness, mature thermal-management technology and high compatibility with existing architectures give it a clear edge over GaN. This advantage is evident during 4G network maintenance and the deployment of low-frequency 5G bands (e.g., n28 and the lower portion of n78). For example, in remote-area base-station builds where cost sensitivity is high, the low price of LDMOS makes it the primary solution for achieving effective signal coverage.
As communication technology evolves, GaN—thanks to its high power density, wideband adaptability and high-temperature resilience—has gradually become the preferred choice for final-stage power amplifiers in 5G high-frequency bands (>3 GHz) and millimetre-wave scenarios. In these segments the widespread adoption of GaN final stages is eroding LDMOS market share. Nevertheless, in cost-sensitive low-frequency bands and in the retrofit of legacy base stations, LDMOS remains firmly entrenched thanks to its long-established strengths. Some equipment vendors now use a hybrid LDMOS+GaN architecture, with LDMOS acting as the pre-driver and GaN as the final amplifier, thereby balancing system performance and cost.
Thus, viewed from the overall industry trend, silicon-based LDMOS and GaN are not mutually substitutive but deeply complementary and co-evolving. Together they form a technology solution that covers the full power range and multiple application scenarios, driving diversified development of the RF power amplifier industry.
Steady Growth in LDMOS Demand for RF Power Amplifiers in China's Newly Built Base Stations
As a discrete RF-front-end component, the RF power amplifier is critical in systems with demanding customization, thermal and frequency requirements—such as base stations, electronic-warfare platforms and radar. These devices are often paired with transceivers or used in modular designs, and the main technologies employed include GaN, GaAs, LDMOS, InP, SiGe, and discrete SAW and BAW devices.
According to Yole, the global market for RF-front-end discrete devices grew from USD 9,692 million in 2020 to USD 10,858 million in 2024 and is forecast to reach USD 13,666 million by 2030. Owing to pressure from GaN, the LDMOS segment is undergoing a mild correction: the worldwide LDMOS market is valued at USD 715 million in 2024 and is expected to decline to USD 462 million in 2030. In contrast, GaN demand is expanding robustly, with the market projected to increase from USD 855 million in 2024 to USD 1,530 million in 2030.
Figure 13 Global RF-Front-End Discrete Devices Market Size (USD 100 Million)
Figure 14 Global LDMOS and GaN Market Size (USD 100 Million)
From the perspective of domestic demand，Since 2020, the refarming of 700 MHz, 800/900 MHz spectrums, the expansion of 2.6 GHz, and the co-construction and sharing of 5G low frequencies by China Telecom and China Unicom have generally increased the transmission power demand per station. This power range is exactly in the optimal operating area of the LDMOS efficiency curve, allowing the device to balance high linearity and low thermal loss. At the same time, the million-level demand for 20-40 W-class PAs in small base stations, indoor distribution, and tunnel scenarios has further expanded LDMOS's cost-performance advantage. Data shows that the usage of LDMOS RF power amplifiers in China's newly built base stations was 52.77 million units in 2023 and 56.53 million units in 2024.
Figure 15 LDMOS Market Demand in China (Million units)
