Akoustis Announces New Customer Engagement With Fortune 500 Company
May 24 2017 - 7:00AM
Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or the
“Company”), a manufacturer of patented single-crystal BulkONE® bulk
acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile, Wi-Fi and
other wireless applications, announced today it received a
purchase order from a new customer for the development of
high-performance BAW diplexers for non-mobile communication
systems. This new customer is a multi-billion dollar, Fortune 500
U.S. company, which provides systems, products and solutions to
government and commercial customers worldwide.
The purchase order covers the cost of
engineering development and initial delivery of BAW RF diplexers
for band-specific applications in the frequency spectrum below
1.5GHz. Akoustis will provide small form-factor bandpass filter
solutions that replace larger legacy-filter technology, which
enables system miniaturization without trading off performance.
Today’s announcement is Akoustis’ third customer
engagement. In August 2016, Akoustis announced its first customer
engagement signing multiple non-exclusive agreements with a Chinese
tier one RF front end (RFFE) module manufacturer to supply its
premium RF filter products. In December 2016, AKTS announced
its second customer engagement, for the development of a
band-specific, high-frequency (above 3.5 GHz) BAW RF filter for a
non-mobile commercial application. That customer is a
well-established OEM specializing in non-mobile communication
systems with annual revenue of more than $1 Billion.
David Aichele, VP of Business Development at
Akoustis, commented “This new customer engagement will extend our
technology reach below 1.5GHz, which further validates the
industry’s interest in our single-crystal BAW technology and its
potential to address difficult filter requirements.”
Jeff Shealy, CEO of Akoustis, commented “Adding
a third customer at this time fits well with the planned
consolidation of our supply chain into the STC-MEMS New York
facility, for which we expect to finalize the acquisition in late
June. With this consolidation, we believe we can shorten the
time-to-market for RF products and increase the number of customer
engagements.”
On March 24, 2017, Akoustis announced it had
entered into definitive agreements to acquire a 120,000 Sq. Ft.
Wafer Manufacturing Facility, and STC-MEMS, a semiconductor wafer
manufacturing operation with associated 150-mm wafer production
tools and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) business, as well
as 57-acres of real estate associated with the facility
located in Canandaigua, New York. The transaction is expected
to close by the end of June 2017 and enables the Company to further
control the manufacturing of its BAW RF filters.
Akoustis is pioneering next-generation material
science to address the market requirements for improved RF filters
- targeting higher bandwidth, higher operating frequencies and
higher output power compared to incumbent polycrystalline BAW
technology deployed today. Superior performance is driven by the
significant advances of high-purity, single-crystal piezoelectric
materials and the resonator-filter process technology. The
advanced material properties drive electro-mechanical coupling,
which translates to wide filter bandwidth. High-band RF filters are
achieved by leveraging the Company’s high-sound velocity,
single-crystal piezoelectric materials. These single-crystal
piezoelectric materials offer high-thermal conductivity along the
path of heat flow, enabling high-power handling capability of the
RF filter.
About Akoustis
Akoustis® (http://www.akoustis.com) is a
high-tech RF filter solutions company that designs and manufactures
its unique, patented BulkONE® technology to produce single-crystal
bulk acoustic wave (BAW) RF filters for mobile and other wireless
markets, which facilitate signal acquisition and accelerate band
performance between the antenna and digital back end. Its
BulkONE® technology will service the fast growing multi-billion
dollar market of device OEMs, network providers, and consumers to
diminish Front End phone heat, battery drain and signal loss -- all
considered to be directly related to current RF polycrystalline
filter technologies' limitations. Akoustis’ capital-efficient
business model leverages new and existing investments in
manufacturing infrastructure within the semiconductor
industry. Akoustis® is located in the Piedmont technology
corridor between Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Forward-Looking StatementsStatements in
this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts
are forward-looking statements, which are based on management’s
current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and
uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking
statements by terminology, including “anticipates,” “believes,”
“can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,”
“may,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts,” “should,” “will,” “would”
or the negative of these terms or other comparable
terminology. Factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those currently anticipated include, without
limitation,
- risks relating to the results of our research and development
activities, including uncertainties relating to semiconductor
process manufacturing;
- the early stage of our BulkONE® technology presently under
development;
- our need for substantial additional funds in order to continue
our operations and the uncertainty of whether we will be able to
obtain the funding we need;
- our ability to retain or hire key scientific, engineering or
management personnel; our ability to protect our intellectual
property rights that are valuable to our business, including patent
and other intellectual property rights;
- our dependence on third-party manufacturers, suppliers,
research organizations, testing laboratories and other potential
collaborators;
- our planned acquisition of STC-MEMS, and such acquisition may
not close, could disrupt our business, may not be successfully
integrated, and we may not be able to operate it profitably or
realize the benefits of the acquired business within expected
timeframes or at all;
- our ability to successfully market and sell our
technologies;
- the size and growth of the potential markets for any of our
technologies, and the rate and degree of market acceptance of any
of our technologies;
- competition in our industry; and
- regulatory developments in the U.S. and foreign countries.
In light of these risks, uncertainties and
assumptions, the forward-looking statements regarding future events
and circumstances discussed in this press release may not occur,
and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those
anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. You
should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of
future events. The forward-looking statements included in
this presentation speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as
required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly or
privately any forward-looking statements for any reason after the
date of this presentation to conform these statements to actual
results or to changes in our expectations. The materials do not
constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of any offer to
buy, any securities of Akoustis, or any other entity
whatsoever. Any representation to the contrary by any party
should be ignored.
Akoustis Contact Information:
COMPANY: Dave Aichele Akoustis Technologies,
Inc. VP of Business Development 704-997-5735, ext. 106
daichele@akoustis.com INVESTORS:The Del Mar
Consulting Group, Inc.Robert B. Prag,
President858-794-9500bprag@delmarconsulting.com
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