Akoustis Technologies, an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced a year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue to be more than 140% taking Q4 revenue to $5.2 Million (quarter ended June 30, 2022). Based on robust activity in both the sales and design win pipelines, the Company expects to report another quarter of record revenue in the current September quarter with a year-over-year increase of greater than 200%, despite the ongoing supply chain challenges in the consumer electronics industry. The Company had $80.5 million in cash as of June 30, 2022.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “Akoustis was able to achieve another quarter of record revenue and unit growth in June despite the persistent macro challenges presented from COVID lockdowns, supply chain disruptions and semiconductor chip shortages. Our growth is being driven by production ramps of our patented XBAW® RF filter solutions to multiple customers across our diverse end markets including Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, 5G mobile and network infrastructure, timing control, automotive and other markets.”
Mr. Shealy added, “As Akoustis manufactures its XBAW® semiconductor chips exclusively in Upstate New York, USA for consumer wireless devices, we believe we are an attractive candidate to receive funding from the recently passed CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Such funding could position Akoustis to expand manufacturing to deliver billions of XBAW® RF filter chips annually and position the Company to service both tier 1 and tier 2 mobile companies for 5G smartphones, as well as other end markets including 5G networks, high-frequency Wi-Fi devices, and other high-volume wireless markets.”
Akoustis continues to experience strong demand and a growing sales funnel for its Wi-Fi, 5G mobile and 5G infrastructure products including CBRS XBAW® filters, as well as its new XBAW® and RFMi resonator and oscillator products. During the June quarter, the Company shipped multiple samples of its new 5G XBAW® wafers complete with its new, advanced wafer-level packaging (WLP) technology. Akoustis continues to add new Wi-Fi design wins, many of which are expected to ramp into production in calendar 2022.
Key Business Highlights
- Announced two new Wi-Fi 6E design wins for MU-MIMO architectures, bringing the total number of Wi-Fi design wins to 15
- Began sampling next generation Wi-Fi 6E / Wi-Fi 7 XBAW® filters in chip-scale-packaging offering 4x smaller size compared to prior generations of Akoustis parts and superior out-of-band rejection
- Iterated second design of new Wi-Fi 7 diplexer to Fortune 100 PC chipset customer and shipped samples in WLP
- Received a new development order from a Fortune 100 Internet company for multiple new Wi-Fi 7 diplexer products for the AR/VR and wearable markets
- Continued ramp of multiple Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E customers
- Fully qualified four Wi-Fi 6E XBAW® filter solutions
- Developed first samples of two new 5G mobile XBAW® filters for tier-1 RF module maker
- Shipped second sample of a 5G mobile filter to tier-1 RF component customer in new, advanced WLP
- Iterated second 5G mobile XBAW® filter design for first foundry customer and received a purchase order for additional filter designs
- Continued the migration of the development and manufacture of new Akoustis’ WLP process into the New York fab
- Ramped initial production for three Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) customers
- Began sampling new 3.7-3.98 GHz C-band filter for the US 5G infrastructure market
- Awarded new multi-year, multi-million-dollar DARPA contract to advance XBAW® technology to 18 GHz
- Continued DARPA direct-to-phase II (DP2) contract to advance design and manufacturing of XBAW® technology for filters and other sensors
- Completed the acquisition of the remaining interest in RFM Integrated Device Inc. (RFMi) - a RF product leader with over 400 RF SAW resonator & filter and crystal resonator & VCO timing control products in its expanding portfolio
- Company’s XBAW® patent portfolio grew to 67 issued and licensed patents plus 117 patents pending as of August 30, 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. To date, Akoustis has received more than 20 customer design wins for its patented XBAW® filter solutions.
Given the rapidly growing sales funnel activity, as well as ongoing interaction with customers regarding expected ramps in 5G mobile, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E in calendar 2022, the Company is increasing the annual production capacity at its New York fab to approximately 0.5 billion filters per year.
Click here for more details on the XBAW® technology.
Click here to see Akoustis portfolio of XBAW based RF Filters.
