Renesas leaves the microwave semiconductor device business

Instead the company will focus on optoelectronics devices (photocouplers, laser diodes, and photodiodes) among the compound device business. When explaining the reasoning behind withdrawing from the business, Renesas explains that it has been working to boost the performance of the compound device business by developing new products – while implementing various measures including reducing manufacturing cost and promoting development efficiency. Nevertheless, among Renesas’ compound device business it is anticipated that moving forward it will become increasingly difficult for company to maintain profitability in the microwave semiconductor device segment. This mainly due to factors such as shrinking size of the market as a result of the incorporation of peripheral component functionality into system-on-chip (SoC) devices as well as falling prices caused by the emergence of competing device manufacturers, particularly in Taiwan. And as a result of this situation and as a measure to further strengthen the compound device business, Renesas intends to withdraw from the microwave semiconductor device business in order to focus on optoelectronics devices.