Akoustis Enables Ultra Tri-band Filtering for New Line of Aruba Wi-Fi 6E Products
- Multiple Akoustis XBAW Filters in Aruba AP-635 & AP-655 Series MU-MIMO Enterprise Access Points
- New Aruba AP-635 & AP-655 First in Industry to Support Full Wi-Fi 6E Spectrum and Full 5 GHz spectrum (including UNII 4) Utilization Simultaneously
- New Access Points Currently Ramping in Volume Production
Charlotte, N.C., June 02, 2022 (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 is ramping production with Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company’s new suite of leading Wi-Fi 6E enterprise Access Points (AP). Akoustis’ XBAW® filters allow these new Access Points to utilize all the new Wi-Fi 6E spectrum, enabling a technology leadership position in the industry.
Multiple custom Akoustis XBAW® filters will be used for the Aruba AP-635 and Aruba AP-655, both of which will support full Wi-Fi 6E spectrum usage. The new ultra tri-band architecture developed by Aruba is the industry’s first that can utilize all the UNII 1-4 and UNII 5-8 bands, with the difficult 50 MHz transition between UNII 4 and UNII 5. Aruba’s dynamic filtering allows for unrestricted operation of all three bands with no performance degradation (throughput or range) on any of them due to concurrent operation, less interference and superior spectrum utilization given the high performance of the custom XBAW® filter solutions.
Both these Access Points offer tri-band coverage across the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands. The new Aruba AP-635 and Aruba AP-655 use ultra tri-band filtering to prevent interference between the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, offer dual HPE smart rate ports for high availability of data and power, utilize advanced security capabilities like unified policy enforcement across HPE Smart Rate Ethernet ports and wireless networks, enable IoT device inspection and allow Wi-Fi optimization for client devices and radio frequencies.
Mr. Onno Harms, Sr. Director of Product Management at Aruba, stated, “Aruba has a long history of leadership in enterprise Wi-Fi APs which continues with the introduction of our new ultra tri-band solutions.” Mr. Harms, continued, “We chose to work with Akoustis to develop our ultra tri-band products as they were the only company that could deliver a solution that could handle the difficult coexistence challenges inherent in maximizing use of the new Wi-Fi 6E spectrum.”
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “I am thrilled that Aruba has chosen Akoustis to develop and deliver RF filters for their new, exciting ultra tri-band portfolio of enterprise AP solutions.” Mr. Shealy continued, “We believe our XBAW RF filter solutions facilitate Aruba’s product leadership in enterprise Wi-Fi APs utilizing the entire Wi-Fi 6E spectrum.”
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its Wi-Fi 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 has entered the market with its new Wi-Fi 6E coexistence XBAW® filter solutions. To date, Akoustis has received more than 20 customer design wins for its patented XBAW® filter solutions.
Given the rapidly growing sales funnel activity as well as ongoing interaction with customers regarding expected ramps in 5G mobile, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E in calendar 2022, the Company is increasing the annual production capacity at its New York fab to approximately 500 million filters per 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 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 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, high-purity and single-crystal 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
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, each 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), the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of RFMi and supply agreement with Tai-Saw, including estimated synergies and other financial impacts, 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," “might,” “would,” "will," "should," "could," “project,” "expect," "plan," “strategy,” "anticipate," “attempt,” “develop,” “help,” "believe," “think,” "estimate," "predict," “intend,” “forecast,” “seek,” "potential," “possible,” "continue," “future,” and similar words (including the negative of any of the foregoing), although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future results, performance, events or circumstances. 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 our ability 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 RFMi) cannot 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’ (including RFMi’s) 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, on our operations, financial condition and the worldwide economy, including its impact on our ability to access the capital markets; 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 that, regardless of merit, could result in significant expense and loss of our intellectual property rights; 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 ability 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; 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.
Attachment
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
Aruba 635 Access Point
Fast, resilient, and secure Wi-Fi 6E connectivity
Released June 2, 2022