Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or
the “Company”), an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented
bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other
wireless applications, announced today it has locked the design for
its new 5.6 GHz WiFi BAW filter and is currently manufacturing
pre-production units. The AKF-1256 is a high performance, high
frequency coexistence filter that operates at 5.6 GHz in the
unlicensed spectrum for high-speed WiFi.
When paired with the Company’s existing 5.2 GHz
WiFi filter product, Akoustis now offers the first commercially
available tandem BAW coexistence micro-filter solution covering
both the 5.2 GHz and 5.6 GHz frequency bands for tri-band WiFi
routers and other devices. The 5.6 GHz filter shares the same XBAW
wafer process, backend package and supply chain as the 5.2 GHz WiFi
filter.
Potential customers have been sampling the 5.6
GHz WiFi filter over the past few months, providing Akoustis
feedback regarding performance relative to desired specifications.
The feedback has led to fine adjustments resulting in a locked
design for 5.6 GHz filters.
Akoustis expects to ship pre-production 5.6 GHz
filters to its two announced customers in the current quarter
including a global RF partner that has ordered over 50k units as
well as a multi-billion dollar leading WiFi SoC vendor that is
evaluating the 5.2 GHz and 5.6 GHz tandem solution for possible
inclusion in MU-MIMO tri-mode reference designs.
In addition to the two announced customers,
Akoustis expects additional pre-production orders over the next
several months as over fifteen potential customers, including OEMs,
ODMs, SoC and RF module manufacturers, have tested the performance
of the 5.2 GHz filter and have been waiting for availability of the
tandem 5.2 GHz/5.6 GHz solution to displace the incumbent
dielectric resonator filters, which are over 20x larger.
Jeff Shealy, Founder and CEO of Akoustis,
stated, “With the completion of our 5.6 GHz WiFi XBAW filter, we
have now entered pre-production in our first high-volume commercial
market with a tandem BAW coexistence micro-filter solution for
tri-band WiFi routers.”
Mr. Shealy continued, “Our WiFi opportunity is
significant both in terms of potential units and revenue,
especially with the expected growth in MU-MIMO architectures. While
we are pursuing multiple markets including defense, WiFi, mobile
infrastructure and handsets, we believe we can achieve
profitability from the WiFi router market alone given the growing
need for high-performance micro-filters above 5 GHz.”
The 5.6 GHz XBAW WiFi filter
features:
• Low insertion loss passband filter • Wide
bandwidth covering entire 345 MHz UNII 2C+3 passband• High
rejection enables co-existence with adjacent WiFi UNII bands •
Single ended Tx/Rx ports • High power rating, maximum +30dBm• Ultra
small form factor 2.5mm x 2.0mm x 0.9mm • Performance over -40C to
+85C• RoHS compliant, Pb-free package
The 5.6 GHz filter is designed and manufactured
using the Company’s patented XBAW process and manufactured in the
Company’s Si-MEMS Wafer Fab located in Canandaigua, NY.
Akoustis has introduced several new filters over
the past twelve months including a 5.6 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.2 GHz
WiFi filter, a 3.8 GHz filter for defense phased-array radar
applications, a 3.6 GHz filter for the CBRS infrastructure market
and Band 25 downlink and uplink filters for LTE infrastructure. The
Company is also developing several new filters for the sub 7 GHz
bands targeting 5G mobile device, network infrastructure, WiFi CPE
and defense markets.
About Akoustis Technologies,
Inc.
Akoustis® (www.akoustis.com) is a high-tech BAW
RF filter solutions company that is pioneering next-generation
materials science and MEMS wafer manufacturing 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. The Company utilizes its proprietary XBAW
manufacturing process to produce bulk acoustic wave RF filters
for mobile and other wireless markets, which facilitate
signal acquisition and accelerate band performance between the
antenna and digital back end. Superior performance is
driven by the significant advances of high-purity,
single-crystal and associated piezoelectric materials and the
resonator-filter process technology which drives electro-mechanical
coupling and translates to wide filter bandwidth.
Akoustis plans to service the fast growing
multi-billion-dollar RF filter market using its integrated
device manufacturer (IDM) business model. The Company owns and
operates a 120,000 sq. ft. ISO-9001:2015
certified commercial wafer-manufacturing facility located in
Canandaigua, NY, which includes a class 100 / class 1000 cleanroom
facility - tooled for 150-mm diameter wafers - for the
design, development, fabrication and packaging of RF filters, MEMS
and other semiconductor devices. Akoustis Technologies,
Inc. is headquartered in the Piedmont technology
corridor near Charlotte, North Carolina.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document includes “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities
Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, that are intended to be covered by the “safe harbor”
created by those sections. These forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, statements about our estimates,
expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans or strategies for the
future (including our possible future results of operations,
business strategies, competitive position, potential growth
opportunities, potential market opportunities and the effects of
competition), and the assumptions underlying such statements.
Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not
historical facts and typically are identified by use of terms such
as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan,"
"anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," “intend,”
“forecast,” “seek,” "potential," "continue" and similar words,
although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently.
Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor
assurances of future performance. Instead, these forward-looking
statements are based on management’s current beliefs,
expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and
uncertainties. 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 development of our
XBAWTM technology and products presently under development and
the anticipated timing of such development; our ability to protect
our intellectual property rights that are valuable to our business,
including patent and other intellectual property rights; our
ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell products based
on our technologies; the ability to achieve qualification of our
products for commercial manufacturing in a timely manner and the
size and growth of the potential markets for any products so
qualified; the rate and degree of market acceptance of any of our
products; our ability to raise funding to support operations and
the continued development and qualification of our products and the
technologies underlying them; and our ability to service our
outstanding indebtedness. These and other risks and uncertainties
are described in more detail in the Risk Factors and Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations sections of the Company’s most recent Annual Report on
Form 10-K and in subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
Considering these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the
forward-looking statements regarding future events and
circumstances discussed in this document 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
document 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, whether written or oral, for any
reason after the date of this document to conform these statements
to new information, actual results or to changes in our
expectations.
Contact:
COMPANY:
Tom Sepenzis
Akoustis Technologies
VP of Corporate Development & IR
(980) 689-4961
tsepenzis@akoustis.com
The Del Mar Consulting Group, Inc.
Robert B. Prag, President
(858) 794-9500
bprag@delmarconsulting.com
Akoustis Technologies (NASDAQ:AKTS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024
Akoustis Technologies (NASDAQ:AKTS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024