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 shipped the first 5G mobile filters to its tier-1 RF component customer. The filters are packaged using wafer-level packaging technology (WLP) and are the first of two 5G filter designs that Akoustis is fabricating for this foundry customer.
The Company plans to further expand its capabilities in WLP as it delivers new filters that can leverage the technology for mobile handsets and other devices where size considerations are at a premium.
Both filters are being developed to offer 5G/Wi-Fi coexistence in the mid and ultra-high bands and will be considered for use in filter modules for 5G smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Akoustis is on-track to deliver the second WLP filter sample to this customer by the end of the current calendar year and remains confident that it will be ready to enter production with this customer in the second half of calendar 2022.
Jeff Shealy, Founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated that 5G mobile represents their largest potential filter market by both revenue and unit volume. Shipping the new 5G mobile filters with their most advanced wafer-level-package technology is a very significant achievement for their team.
Shealy further added “While we remain focused on the ongoing commercialization and customer adoption of our Wi-Fi CPE and 5G network infrastructure XBAW™ products, we are aligning the production readiness of these new, high performance 5G mobile device filters for our strategic customers’ RF module release by Q4 calendar 2022.”
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its Wi-Fi 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 Wi-Fi 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, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 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, which when qualified, 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 device, network infrastructure, Wi-Fi CPE and defense markets.
