Akoustis® Technologies Ships First 4G/LTE BAW RF Filter Prototypes
- 4G/LTE Filters Produced at Akoustis’ Recently Acquired 120,000 Sq. Ft. Semiconductor Wafer Manufacturing Operation in Upstate New York. – - Akoustis Targets Commercial Production Ramp in First Half of CY2018 -
Charlotte, N.C., Aug. 08, 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 and other wireless applications, announced today the first shipment of premium high-band BAW RF filter prototypes manufactured using its patented single-crystal BulkONE® technology.
This initial shipment included high performance, LTE-TDD Band 41, 2.6 GHz BAW RF filters that will satisfy the challenging filter requirements in the high growth 4G LTE mobile market in China. The small form factor package, multi-stage filter design provides low insertion loss and high out-of-band rejection (up to 10GHz), along with the high power handling capability that is intrinsic to Akoustis’ BulkONE® process and materials. Included in the shipment was a connectorized evaluation board (EVB) to simplify customer testing.
The RF filter prototypes were shipped to the Company’s recently announced JDA partner, a Chinese tier one RF front end (RFFE) module manufacturer, who plans to incorporate Akoustis’ premium RF filters products into next-generation high-band RFFE modules for 4G, emerging 4.5G and 5G mobile - targeting the China and India OEM markets. Akoustis expects to begin fulfilling production orders for the 4G LTE mobile wireless market in first-half calendar year 2018. Furthermore, the Company has the opportunity to explore horizontal markets, such as wireless infrastructure, for growth opportunities in higher power BAW RF filters.
Jeff Shealy, CEO of Akoustis, commented “Over the last three years, we have focused on developing a patented, single-crystal BAW technology and creating a reliable and scalable supply chain. The significance of our recently acquired New York wafer fab cannot be over-stated. It has dramatically improved our ability to design, prototype and manufacture BAW RF filters by significantly reducing wafer-cycle times to now less than 3-weeks, which in-turn, accelerates our timeline into the commercial marketplace.”
Mr. Shealy continued “Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone for Akoustis and the commercialization of our premium, single-crystal BAW RF filters. We now expect business development activities to increase with current and prospective customers for high-band 4G/LTE mobile wireless applications.”
According to Mobile Expert’s 2016 report, the BAW RF filter market for mobile applications is estimated to be approximately $2.9 billion in 2017, growing to approximately $5.3 billion by 2021.
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 Technologies, Inc.
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. The Company owns and operates a 120,000 sq. ft. ISO-9001 certified commercial wafer-manufacturing facility located in Canandaigua, NY, which includes a class 100 / class 1000 cleanroom facility - tooled for 150-mm diameter - for the design, development, fabrication and packaging of RF filters, MEMS and semiconductor devices. Akoustis is headquartered in the Piedmont technology corridor near Charlotte North Carolina.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our plans, objectives, representations and contentions and are not historical facts and typically are identified by use of terms such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue" and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current 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 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 ability to protect our intellectual property rights that are valuable to our business, including patent and other intellectual property rights; our ability to successfully market and sell our technologies; and 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. These and other risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in other reports and statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 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
Released August 8, 2017