Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or the
“Company”), a manufacturer of patented single-crystal bulk acoustic
wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless
applications, announced today that it has completed the
qualification of its first generation XBAW wafer technology and the
underlying single crystal materials process at its Canandaigua, NY
fabrication facility.
The XBAW-1 (XB1) process establishes the
industry’s first single crystal BAW technology for the expanding RF
filter market for 4G/LTE, 5G mobile, 5G infrastructure, WiFi,
military radar and other applications. The XB1 process
features:
- Patented single crystal piezoelectric materials
- Novel MEMS wafer manufacturing
- High-Frequency RF performance from 1.5 GHz - 7 GHz
- High linearity and wide bandwidth performance
- Compatibility with conventional and flip-chip packaging
Jeff Shealy, Founder and CEO of Akoustis
Technologies said, “Reaching this critical milestone, we have moved
from pure R&D to the commercialization of our patented single
crystal BAW technology. We are now positioned to concentrate on the
delivery of high performance RF filters for current customer
engagements to support WiFi, mobile devices and infrastructure,
radar and other wireless applications. We expect to achieve full
product qualification of our first three announced products, the
AKF-1252, the AKF-1938 and the AKF-1652 later this calendar year
now that our patented technology has been fully qualified in our
New York wafer manufacturing facility.”
The Akoustis technology development process
consists of the following five phases:
- Pre-Alpha – Demonstrate basic feasibility / capabilities
- Alpha – Develop stable recipe (Process Freeze) with limited
product development
- Beta – Complete technology qualification (Process
Qualification) in factory to enable product design
- Pre-Production – Demonstrate lead product production
capabilities, release final design tools
- Production – Continual improvement of process and parametric
performance
In March 2018, Akoustis announced the completion
of the alpha-phase for its XB1 process and today it has completed
the beta-phase qualification for both XB1 and the single crystal
materials process. This shortens the development cycle time for new
catalog and custom components as each new product will start in the
pre-production phase and will not require end-to-end
qualification.
Since March, Akoustis has manufactured multiple
XB1 wafer lots and, utilizing the data from these lots, has
established all necessary controls and supporting documentation
within its ISO9001:2015 certified quality management system to
ensure the robustness and repeatability of the process as the
pre-production phase of development begins for multiple
products.
Joel Morgan, Director of Quality, commented,
“These qualifications are a major milestone towards introducing
this technology to the market. The speed at which the XBAW process
was conceived, developed, and qualified is quite remarkable and
speaks highly of the capabilities of the development team. This
provides confidence that the next steps of product qualification
and release, along with the rollout of design support tools for
potential foundry customers, will result in the rapid release of
products, beginning later this year.”
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 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 single-crystal BAW
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 piezoelectric materials and the resonator-filter
process technology which drives electro-mechanical coupling and
translates to wide filter bandwidth.
The Company plans to 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. The Company
owns and operates a 120,000 sq. ft. ISO-9001
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 press release 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 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; and
our ability to raise funding to support operations and the
continued development and qualification of our products and the
technologies underlying them. These and other risks and
uncertainties are described in more detail in the Part I, Item 1A -
Risk Factors 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 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
press release 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 press release to conform
these statements to new information, actual results or to changes
in our expectations.
Contact:
COMPANY:
Tom Sepenzis
Akoustis Technologies
Director of Investor Relations
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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