Akoustis Secures WiFi 6E Reference Design with Tier 1 WiFi SoC Vendor
Akoustis Technologies (NASDAQ: AKTS) announced a significant milestone by securing a WiFi 6E reference design with a Tier 1 SoC vendor. This design utilizes the 5.5 GHz and 6.5 GHz XBAW filter modules, enhancing sales opportunities for Akoustis's filters in next-gen routers. The reference design is expected to be available in the second half of calendar 2021. With the FCC's recent approval of additional unlicensed spectrum, demand for high-performance filters is expected to rise. Akoustis is also ramping up production capacity to meet the increasing demand for its RF filter solutions.
- Secured WiFi 6E reference design with Tier 1 SoC vendor.
- Expected availability of design in the second half of 2021.
- Increased demand for high-performance filters due to FCC's approval of new spectrum.
- Plans to expand production capacity at New York fab in 2021.
- None.
- New SoC Customer Will Create a One-to-Many Sales Opportunity for XBAW WiFi 6E Coexistence Solution
- Superior XBAW Coexistence Solution Offers Use of Entire New WiFi 6E Spectrum
- Design is Expected to be Available Early 2nd Half of Calendar 2021
Charlotte, N.C., March 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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 secured WiFi 6E reference design with a new Tier 1 System-on-Chip (SoC) vendor.
The 5.5 GHz filter module covers the UNII 1-3 spectrum of the WiFi 6E standard, while the 6.5 GHz filter module covers the entire UNII 5-8 spectrum. The SoC vendor is building a MU-MIMO reference design for next generation routers and other connected devices. The Company expects the reference design to be made available in the second half of calendar 2021.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “We continue to see strong interest in our leading WiFi 6E XBAW® micro-filter solutions given the superior selectivity performance.” Mr. Shealy continued, “This is our first reference design in WiFi 6E, which should help create an additional sales channel for Akoustis through the existing customer base of our new SoC client.”
The FCC announced in late April the approval of 5.9 to 7.1 GHz for unlicensed use, which is the largest spectrum addition since the FCC allocated unlicensed spectrum for WiFi in 1989. The next generation of WiFi that is expected to use these new frequency bands is called WiFi 6E. This approval will create another significant new band, or combination of bands, over the next several years. Since the FTC’s April announcement, governments around the world have begun allocating the same or similar spectrum for future WiFi use. As spectrum is scarce, many nations are limited in the amount of new, available unlicensed spectrum above 6 GHz. This is driving great demand for high-performance coexistence filters that allow the use of all available spectrum.
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its WiFi 6 tandem filter solutions, shipping multiple 5G small cell XBAW® filter solutions, delivering initial designs of its new 5G mobile filter solutions to multiple customers and is now entering the market with its WiFi 6E coexistence XBAW® filter solutions. Company management expects continued top-line growth moving forward and given the growing backlog of commercially available RF filter products and technology aimed at large and growing markets, it plans to significantly expand the capacity at its New York fab in calendar 2021.
Akoustis has added 15 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, a 6.5 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 registered 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.
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