5. Conclusion/trends

Surprisingly, the explosion of this market - around a billion components a year (in 1998) - was not really well foreseen. Some of the reasons are :

• the success of wireless communication systems, including and perhaps especially in developing countries;

• the use of frequency bands is becoming more and more strictly regulated;

• the need for portability, which is increasingly imperative for the general public;

• improved surface wave technology;

• electronics with ever faster processing speeds.

One consequence of this growth has been renewed investment in research and technological development. The result is the availability in just a few years of an enormous improvement in the performance...