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 that it has been awarded a
third design win for 5G small cell network infrastructure XBAW™
filters from an existing tier-1 customer. The Company expects to
enter commercial production in the second half of calendar
2020.
This third design win is for 5G band n79 small
cell network infrastructure filters and follows Akoustis’ recently
announced wide bandwidth n77 XBAW™ filter which has now been
qualified in the customer’s initial build of 5G small cell base
stations. Akoustis completed initial sample shipments earlier in
the June quarter and expects to increase shipments during the
current quarter. The Company’s tier-1 OEM customer has received 5G
network infrastructure contract awards from the mobile carriers and
plans to ramp volume production of all three 5G small cell base
station XBAWTM filters in the second half of calendar 2020.
The Company’s XBAW™ filters are uniquely suited
to serve the 5G network infrastructure market given the ability to
handle high frequency, wide bandwidth, and high power. In addition
to the two design wins with this first customer, Akoustis has more
than five active engagements with other tier-1 and tier-2 small
cell network equipment OEMs which are currently evaluating the
Company’s existing band n77 and n79 RF filter solutions. In
addition, multiple OEMs have indicated the desire for additional
new filters in the sub-6 GHz 5G bands.
Jeff Shealy, Founder and CEO of Akoustis,
stated, “We are pleased to follow-up our two previous design wins
with this third design win in 5G small cell network infrastructure.
We are also experiencing increased customer interest in our small
cell XBAWTM filter portfolio quarter-over-quarter, with over five
current engagements, including multiple tier-1 OEM customers.” Mr.
Shealy continued, “As we continue to expand our product catalog
beyond the 14 design-locked RF filters, we expect to secure more
design wins across multiple target end markets.”
5G small cell base stations are low power, short
range cellular transmission devices, capable of providing extended
coverage for consumers, enterprises, or to augment cellular
coverage for 5G mobile service providers. They offer all the
standard characteristics of a traditional tower base station and
can handle high data throughput. 5G networks are expected to employ
small cells in greater quantity than prior networks to help
mitigate the shorter wavelengths associated with higher
frequencies.
In an April 2019 report, Zion Market Research
estimated the global small cell 5G network market was valued at
around $381 million in 2018 and is expected to reach approximately
$3.5 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of approximately 37% between 2019
and 2025.
Akoustis’ high frequency, high performance XBAW
process and filters are experiencing growing interest as the
Company prepares to enter production in multiple markets in
calendar 2020, including 5G network infrastructure, high-band WiFi
and phased-array radar applications.
Akoustis has added 14 filters to its product
catalog including a 5.6 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.2 GHz WiFi filter, a
5.5 GHz WiFi-6E filter, three small cell 5G network infrastructure
filters including two Band n77 filters and one Band n79 filter, a
3.8 GHz filter and five S-Band filters for defense phased-array
radar applications, a 3.6 GHz filter for the CBRS 5G infrastructure
market and a C-Band filter for the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)
market. 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® (http://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 achieve design wins from current and
future customers; our ability to raise funding to support
operations and the continued development and qualification of our
products and the technologies underlying them; our ability to
service our outstanding indebtedness; and the effects of a pandemic
or epidemic or a natural disaster, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
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
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