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 its patented XBAW filters have been designed into a new carrier-class WiFi 6E gateway platform by a tier-1 OEM. Akoustis has commenced volume shipments of filters as the customer prepares for the production ramp of new tri-band routers in early 2022.
The new design will use two 5.5 GHz and two 6.5 GHz XBAWTM coexistence filters for a tri-band multi-user, multiple-in-multiple-out (MU-MIMO) gateway product. The 5.5 GHz filter module covers the UNII 1-3 spectrum of the WiFi 6E standard, while the 6.5 GHz filter module covers the entire UNII 5-8 spectrum. The Company expects the new router to enter production in early 2022.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “Our momentum in WiFi 6E continues to increase given our market-leading XBAW™ technology and our growing portfolio of WiFi 6E filters.” Mr. Shealy continued, “We expect more near-term design win announcements as OEMs recognize the flexibility, superior selectivity, and spectrum use afforded by our 5.5/6.5 GHz, 5.6/6.6 GHz and custom WiFi 6E XBAW™ solutions.”
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its WiFi 6 tandem filter solutions to multiple customers, shipping multiple 5G small cell XBAWTM filter solutions, delivering initial designs of its new 5G mobile filter solutions to multiple tier-1 customers, and is now entering the market with its new WiFi 6E coexistence XBAWTM filter solutions.
Given the rapidly growing sales funnel activity as well as ongoing interaction with customers regarding expected ramps in both 5G mobile, WiFi 6, 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, 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 devices, network infrastructure, WiFi CPE, and defense markets.
