Akoustis Technologies, an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced today that it has appointed Kamran Cheema as Vice President of Engineering. Mr. Cheema brings a wealth of RF experience in product design, manufacturing, technology development, program management, and quality management with over 25 years of experience in micro-acoustic technology.
Jeff Shealy, founder, and CEO of Akoustis stated, “Kamran is an extraordinarily talented engineer and has held leadership positions at a number of the leading RF companies in the world. He will spearhead our 5G mobile filter and multi-chip-module development, as well as be a significant resource as we deploy our wafer-level packaging into mobile products, including 5G smartphones.”
Before joining Akoustis, Mr. Cheema was the Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm RF360, where he was responsible for all aspects of micro-acoustic hardware solutions for the mobile phone market. Before Qualcomm, Cheema was the Vice President of Engineering and Site Manager at TDK, where he reported directly to the CEO. At TDK, he led a team of professionals, including filter module and switch designers, SAW and BAW filter designers, and laminate and LTCC specialists. Earlier, Cheema worked at TriQuint Semiconductor, now part of Qorvo, as a Director of Engineering where he led the development of acoustic duplexers, the RF module team, GaAs pHEMT, and SOI switch development. Mr. Cheema holds an MSEE from the University of Central Florida.
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its WiFi 6 tandem filter solutions, shipping multiple 5G small cell XBAW® filter solutions, delivering initial designs of its new 5G mobile filter solutions to multiple customers, and is now entering the market with its new WiFi 6E coexistence XBAW® filter solutions.
Given the rapidly growing sales funnel activity as well as ongoing interaction with customers regarding expected ramps in both 5G mobile and WiFi 6E in calendar 2022, the Company plans to increase the annual production capacity at its New York fab by the end of calendar 2021 to approximately 500 million filters per year.
Akoustis currently has 15 commercial XBAW filters in its product catalog and recently introduced 5.6 GHz and 6.6 GHz WiFi 6E coexistence filter modules. When qualified, it will bring the number of catalog products to 17. Current product catalog filters include 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 devices, network infrastructure, WiFi CPE, and defense markets.
