Akoustis® Readies For 5G By Completing Capital Buildout of Its First BAW RF Filter Line
Charlotte, N.C., Jan. 08, 2018 (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 it has completed the installation of manufacturing equipment at its NY plant which allows it to process wafers from the point of receipt of raw wafers up to the packaging of the RF filter die.
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The capital buildout consolidates the Company’s epitaxy, wafer fabrication and trimming work centers under one roof, establishing the industry’s first single crystal BAW RF filter fab. Key manufacturing tools have been added eliminating previously outsourced pieces of Akoustis’ wafer fabrication process. Qualification of the tools has commenced and is expected to be completed this quarter.
The Company has added scalable metal-organic chemical vapor-phase deposition (MOCVD) manufacturing to produce its patented, single crystal piezoelectric materials. Advanced single crystal materials allow Akoustis to exploit unique material science to address critical RF filter requirements for existing and next generation communications applications, including emerging 5G wireless. The MOCVD capability is configured for 150mm diameter wafers and is forward compatible up to 200mm diameter.
Mary Winters, VP of Wafer Fab operations, commented, “Consolidating our entire BAW process in-house reduces cycle-time for product development and enables a more reliable supply chain to manufacture wide bandwidth, high frequency RF filters.”
Jeff Shealy, CEO of Akoustis, commented, “We now have the capacity to service multiple end markets using high performance, high complexity RF filter products. This consolidated manufacturing capability positions us to execute our business plan, including technology and first product qualification for commercial manufacturing for emerging 5G wireless applications in the first-half of calendar year 2018.”
In June 2017, Akoustis completed the strategic acquisition of a 120,000 sq. ft. wafer manufacturing facility and operations located in Canandaigua, NY to internalize production of its patented, single crystal BAW RF filters. The acquisition included 150-mm wafer manufacturing tools, 57-acres of real property and an ongoing MEMS business.
Akoustis is pioneering next-generation materials 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. The Company has announced four customer engagements for its premium high band BAW RF filters in frequencies ranging from 1.5 GHz to 5.2 GHz and remains focused on customer design engineering engagements, as well as technology and product qualification for commercial manufacturing in first-half of calendar year 2018.
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 wafers - 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; the ability to achieve first product qualification for commercial manufacturing in the first-half of calendar year 2018 and the size and growth of the potential markets for any of our technologies, the rate and degree of market acceptance of any of our technologies and our ability to raise funding to support operations and the continued development and qualification of its premium high-band BAW RF filters utilizing its patented single-crystal piezoelectric materials. 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 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.
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
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Released January 8, 2018