Akoustis Technologies, an Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM) of patented Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced that it has design-locked its new 5.5 GHz and 6.5 GHz XBAW filters for the emerging WiFi 6E market.
The new 5.5 GHz filter module covers the entire UNII 1-3 bands of the WiFi 6E standard, while the 6.5 GHz filter module covers the entire UNII 5-8 bands. Both offer low power loss at the passband, with the 5.5 GHz filter offering greater coexistence with the 6.5 GHz band versus competing LTCC and dielectric resonator filters. WiFi 6E adds more channels to reduce congestion and significantly increases data throughput with additional wider channels available in the new 6 GHz spectrum.
Akoustis expects to fully qualify its leading tandem 5.5 GHz and 6.5 GHz WiFi 6E filters in early 2021, with production ready filters available by the end of the June quarter. Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “This is another landmark moment for Akoustis. Given our leadership in high-band BAW micro-filter technology, we are extremely well positioned at the early stage of the new, emerging WiFi 6E standard to deliver high performance filtering solutions for every kind of device that uses WiFi.” Mr. Shealy continued, “We are currently engaged with multiple OEMs and ODMs for the development and production of WiFi 6E devices, from routers to 5G mobile phones, and we believe that WiFi 6E will provide Akoustis a significant opportunity for unit and revenue growth for years to come.”
The FCC announced in late April the approval of 5.925 - 7.125 GHz spectrum for unlicensed use, which is the largest spectrum addition since the FCC allocated unlicensed spectrum for WiFi in 1989. The next generation of WiFi that is expected to use these new frequency bands is called WiFi 6E. This approval creates another significant new band, or combination of bands, over the next several years. Since the FTC’s April announcement, governments around the world have begun allocating the same or similar spectrum for future WiFi use.
Akoustis’ high frequency, high performance XBAW® process and filters are experiencing growing interest as the Company has entered production in multiple markets in calendar 2020, including 5G network infrastructure, high-band WiFi and phased-array radar applications.
Akoustis has added 15 filters to its product catalog including a 5.6 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.2 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.5 GHz WiFi-6E filter, a 6.5 GHz WiFi 6E filter, three small cell 5G network infrastructure filters including two Band n77 filters and one Band n79 filter, a 3.8 GHz filter and five S-Band filters for defense phased-array radar applications, a 3.6 GHz filter for the CBRS 5G infrastructure market and a C-Band filter for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) market. The Company is also developing several new filters for the sub-7 GHz bands targeting 5G mobile device, network infrastructure, WiFi CPE and defense markets.
Click here to see RF Filters from Akoustis.
