Akoustis™ Names Former Qorvo General Manager, Rohan Houlden, as Vice President Engineering

Charlotte, N.C., Oct. 31, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or the “Company”), a manufacturer of innovative BulkONE™ bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile wireless, announced today that Rohan Houlden has joined Akoustis as Vice President of Engineering. In that role, he will oversee the Company’s Engineering Department, including the development and qualification of the Company’s high-band RF BAW filter product portfolio.

Mr. Houlden brings to Akoustis 29 years of experience in design engineering, business development and management in the RF and wireless industry. From 2015-2016, he was the General Manager of the Connectivity Business Unit at Qorvo, Inc., responsible for CPE Wi-Fi, Smart Energy and Automotive product lines, where he managed the product development and production ramp of custom Front End Modules (FEMs) and BAW filters for leading enterprise, retail OEMs and automotive suppliers. Prior to the merger between RF Micro Devices, Inc. and TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc., Mr. Houlden was General Manager of the Wireless Connectivity Business Unit at RF Micro Devices for 7 years, responsible for WiFi and Smart Energy product lines. In addition, he also managed the product development and production ramp of custom FEMs to all leading wireless OEMs - including tier 1 and tier 2 Smartphone OEMs, as well as key OEMs involved in emerging Internet-of-Things (IoT).

Jeff Shealy, CEO of Akoustis, commented “The addition of Rohan is a key and timely hire for Akoustis.  His expertise will be invaluable as we transition from a development-stage technology company into a pure-play BAW RF filter product company. With his product development expertise in the RF and wireless industry, Rohan will add exceptional leadership and depth to our outstanding team of RF engineers. We are thrilled to have him join the Akoustis team.”  

Mr. Houlden commented “Akoustis has an opportunity to be a disruptive player in the fast-growing, premium-performance high-band BAW RF filter market. Its highly differentiated, patented approach, using single-crystal BAW resonator technology, should allow Akoustis to produce BAW RF filters with superior performance and thereby position the Company to compete in the high-band RF filter market for 4G/LTE mobile and the emerging 5GHz Wi-Fi and 5G mobile communications markets.”

Akoustis is pioneering superior material science to address the market requirements for improved filters – targeting higher bandwidth, higher operating frequencies and higher output power as compared to conventional polycrystalline BAW technology deployed today. Superior performance is driven by the piezoelectric-crystal material and resonator-filter process technology. The piezoelectric constant and material composition drive electro-mechanical coupling to enable higher filter bandwidth. In the case of operating frequency, high sound velocity in high-purity piezoelectric materials allows signals to propagate faster in the RF filter. In terms of power handling, high-purity, single-crystal piezoelectric materials offer high-thermal conductivity along the path of heat flow, enabling the high-power handling capability of the RF filter.

About Akoustis

Akoustis™ (http://www.akoustis.com) is a high-tech RF filter solutions company that manufactures its unique, patent-pending BulkONE™ technology to produce single crystal bulk acoustic wave (BAW) RF filters for the mobile-wireless industry, which facilitate signal acquisition and accelerate band performance between the antenna and the back end of mobile devices. Its BulkONE™ technology will 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.  Akoustis’ capital-efficient business model leverages third party investments and existing manufacturing infrastructure in the semiconductor industry. Akoustis™ is located in the Piedmont technology corridor between Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology including “anticipates,” “believes,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts,” “should,” “will,” “would” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology.  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 early stage of our BulkONE^™ technology presently under development;
• our need for substantial additional funds in order to continue our operations and the uncertainty of whether we will be able to obtain the funding we need;
• our ability to retain or hire key scientific, engineering or management personnel;
• our ability to protect our intellectual property rights that are valuable to our business, including patent and other intellectual property rights;
• our dependence on third-party manufacturers, suppliers, research organizations, testing laboratories and other potential collaborators;
• our ability to successfully market and sell our technologies;
• the size and growth of the potential markets for any of our technologies, and the rate and degree of market acceptance of any of our technologies;
• competition in our industry; and
• regulatory developments in the U.S. and foreign countries.

In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future events and circumstances discussed in the forward-looking statements 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 presentation 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 for any reason after the date of this presentation to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations. The materials do not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of any offer to buy, any securities of Akoustis, or any other entity whatsoever.  Any representation to the contrary by any party should be ignored.

Akoustis Contact Information:

COMPANY:
Dave Aichele
Akoustis, Inc.
VP of Business Development
Main: 704-997-5735, ext. 106
Email: daichele@akoustis.com

INVESTORS:

The Del Mar Consulting Group, Inc.
Robert B. Prag, President
858-794-9500
bprag@delmarconsulting.com

or

Integra Consulting Group LLC
Jeremy Roe, Managing Partner
925-262-8305
jeremy@integracg.net

Released October 31, 2016