Akoustis Announces New Customer Engagement With Fortune 500 Company

- New purchase order includes funding for development of BulkONE® single crystal AlN BAW filter technology below 1.5GHz -

Charlotte, N.C., May 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or the “Company”), a manufacturer of patented single-crystal BulkONE® bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile, Wi-Fi and other wireless applications, announced today it received a purchase order from a new customer for the development of high-performance BAW diplexers for non-mobile communication systems. This new customer is a multi-billion dollar, Fortune 500 U.S. company, which provides systems, products and solutions to government and commercial customers worldwide. 

The purchase order covers the cost of engineering development and initial delivery of BAW RF diplexers for band-specific applications in the frequency spectrum below 1.5GHz. Akoustis will provide small form-factor bandpass filter solutions that replace larger legacy-filter technology, which enables system miniaturization without trading off performance.

Today’s announcement is Akoustis’ third customer engagement. In August 2016, Akoustis announced its first customer engagement signing multiple non-exclusive agreements with a Chinese tier one RF front end (RFFE) module manufacturer to supply its premium RF filter products.  In December 2016, AKTS announced its second customer engagement, for the development of a band-specific, high-frequency (above 3.5 GHz) BAW RF filter for a non-mobile commercial application. That customer is a well-established OEM specializing in non-mobile communication systems with annual revenue of more than $1 Billion. 

David Aichele, VP of Business Development at Akoustis, commented “This new customer engagement will extend our technology reach below 1.5GHz, which further validates the industry’s interest in our single-crystal BAW technology and its potential to address difficult filter requirements.”

Jeff Shealy, CEO of Akoustis, commented “Adding a third customer at this time fits well with the planned consolidation of our supply chain into the STC-MEMS New York facility, for which we expect to finalize the acquisition in late June. With this consolidation, we believe we can shorten the time-to-market for RF products and increase the number of customer engagements.”

On March 24, 2017, Akoustis announced it had entered into definitive agreements to acquire a 120,000 Sq. Ft. Wafer Manufacturing Facility, and STC-MEMS, a semiconductor wafer manufacturing operation with associated 150-mm wafer production tools and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) business, as well as 57-acres of  real estate associated with the facility located in Canandaigua, New York.  The transaction is expected to close by the end of June 2017 and enables the Company to further control the manufacturing of its BAW RF filters.

Akoustis is pioneering next-generation material 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. Superior performance is driven by the significant advances of high-purity, single-crystal piezoelectric materials and the resonator-filter process technology. The advanced material properties drive electro-mechanical coupling, which translates to wide filter bandwidth. High-band RF filters are achieved by leveraging the Company’s high-sound velocity, single-crystal piezoelectric materials. These single-crystal piezoelectric materials offer high-thermal conductivity along the path of heat flow, enabling high-power handling capability of the RF filter.

About Akoustis

Akoustis® (http://www.akoustis.com) is a high-tech RF filter solutions company that designs and manufactures its unique, patented BulkONE® technology to produce single-crystal bulk acoustic wave (BAW) RF filters for mobile and other wireless markets, which facilitate signal acquisition and accelerate band performance between the antenna and digital back end.  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 new and existing investments in manufacturing infrastructure within 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, which 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 planned acquisition of STC-MEMS, and such acquisition may not close, could disrupt our business, may not be successfully integrated, and we may not be able to operate it profitably or realize the benefits of the acquired business within expected timeframes or at all;
• 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 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 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 Technologies, Inc.
VP of Business Development
704-997-5735, ext. 106
daichele@akoustis.com

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

Released May 24, 2017