- New Filter for Multiple Enterprise-Class Wi-Fi 7 Access Points with MU-MIMO Architectures
- Advanced Single-Crystal Material Delivers Improved Power Handling and Harmonics over Existing Poly-Crystal Materials
- Customer Wi-Fi Routers Expected to Ship First Half CY24
Charlotte, N.C., Aug. 17, 2023 (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 that it has shipped samples of a new advanced single-crystal XBAW® filter solution to a tier-1 enterprise-class Wi-Fi access point (AP) customer. The filter targets next-generation enterprise Wi-Fi 7 architectures that enable faster speeds, support more connections, and provide greater adaptability with reliable low latency performance.
Akoustis has completed a re-development of its advanced single-crystal nanomaterials and has created a new process that delivers BAW filters with higher power handling and improved harmonics over its standard poly-crystal technology. Higher power handling offers AP makers the ability to design products with higher transmit power and, therefore, greater range and obstruction penetration. Improved harmonics increase the linearity of the power amplifier in the radio chain, reducing noise in the transmit path.
The customer plans to use the filter in multiple Wi-Fi 7 routers that are expected to begin shipping in the first half calendar 2024. Currently, the routers are expected to ship with 2X2 and 4X4 multi-user, multiple-in-multiple-out (MU-MIMO) architectures, with multiple XBAW® filters per device.
Dave Aichele, EVP of Business Development of Akoustis, stated, “This new technology is being sampled by our top enterprise-class customer for potential use across its future family of Wi-Fi 7 devices.” Mr. Aichele continued, “This new material offers significant improvements in what can be achieved today in our poly crystal technologies, with advantages in power handling and improved harmonics, and allows our customer to further push the boundaries of Wi-Fi performance. We expect this new material to deliver results in BAW across 5G mobile devices, 5G mobile infrastructure, Wi-Fi, automotive, and other markets as we introduce additional single-crystal driven XBAW® filters in the coming years.”
Akoustis continues to experience strong demand and a growing sales funnel for its Wi-Fi, 5G mobile, and 5G infrastructure products, as well as its new XBAW®/SAW resonator and oscillator products, and semiconductor back-end services. During the June quarter, the Company shipped samples of its new 5.6 GHz/6.6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E/7 XBAW® filter products to multiple customers. Akoustis continues to add new Wi-Fi design wins, many of which are expected to ramp into production in calendar 2023.
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 legacy polycrystalline BAW technology. The Company utilizes its proprietary and patented 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 poly-crystal, single-crystal and other high purity piezoelectric materials and the resonator-filter process technology which enables optimal trade-offs between critical power, frequency and bandwidth performance specifications.
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.
Forward-Looking Statements
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Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated include, without limitation, risks relating to our inability to obtain adequate financing and sustain our status as a going concern; our limited operating history; our inability to generate revenues or achieve profitability; the results of our research and development activities; our inability to achieve acceptance of our products in the market; the possibility that the anticipated benefits from business acquisitions (including the acquisition of Grinding and Dicing Services, Inc.) will not be realized in full or at all or may take longer to realize than expected; the possibility that costs or difficulties related to the integration of acquired businesses’ operations will be greater than expected and the possibility of disruptions to our business during integration efforts and strain on management time and resources; the impact of a pandemic or epidemic or a natural disaster, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and other sources of volatility on our operations, financial condition and the worldwide economy, including its impact on our ability to access the capital markets; increases in prices for raw materials, labor, and fuel caused by rising inflation; general economic conditions, including upturns and downturns in the industry; shortages in supplies needed to manufacture our products, or needed by our customers to manufacture devices incorporating our products; our limited number of patents; failure to obtain, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property rights; claims of infringement, misappropriation or misuse of third party intellectual property, including the lawsuit filed by Qorvo, Inc. in October 2021, that, regardless of merit, could result in significant expense and negatively impact our business results; our inability to attract and retain qualified personnel; our reliance on third parties to complete certain processes in connection with the manufacture of our products; product quality and defects; existing or increased competition; our ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell products based on our technologies; our ability to meet the required specifications of customers and achieve qualification of our products for commercial manufacturing in a timely manner; our inability to successfully scale our New York wafer fabrication facility and related operations while maintaining quality control and assurance and avoiding delays in output; the rate and degree of market acceptance of any of our products; our ability to achieve design wins from current and future customers; contracting with customers and other parties with greater bargaining power and agreeing to terms and conditions that may adversely affect our business; risks related to doing business in foreign countries, including China; any security breaches, cyber-attacks or other disruptions compromising our proprietary information and exposing us to liability; our failure to innovate or adapt to new or emerging technologies, including in relation to our competitors; our failure to comply with regulatory requirements; results of any arbitration or litigation that may arise; stock volatility and illiquidity; dilution caused by any future issuance of common stock or securities that are convertible into or exercisable for common stock; our failure to implement our business plans or strategies; and our ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. 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
