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 195% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue to a record $5.6 million for the fiscal quarter ended September 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 December quarter with a year-over-year increase of 55%-70% despite the ongoing supply chain challenges in the consumer electronics industry.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “Akoustis was able to achieve another quarter of record revenue and continued unit growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 despite the persistent macro challenges presented by COVID lockdowns, supply chain disruptions and semiconductor chip shortages. Our current growth is being driven largely by production ramps of our patented XBAW® RF filter solutions to multiple customers across our diverse end markets, including Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, 5G mobile and infrastructure, timing control, automotive and other markets.”
Mr. Shealy added, “As Akoustis manufactures its XBAW® semiconductor chips exclusively in Upstate New York, USA, 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 enable 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 and September quarters, 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.
Recent Business Highlights
- Announced three new Wi-Fi 6E design wins for MU-MIMO architectures, bringing the total number of Wi-Fi design wins to 20
- Started sampling next generation 5.5 GHz and 6.5 GHz Wi-Fi 6E/7 XBAW® filters in chip-scale-packaging offering 4x smaller size compared to prior generations of Akoustis parts and superior out-of-band rejection
- Completed development of new 5.6 GHz and 6.6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E / 7 XBAW® filter solutions and started sampling with multiple OEMs and ODMs
- 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
- Received first purchase order from tier-1 RF module maker for 5G filter
- Iterated first RF filter design for 5G mobile foundry customer and received a purchase order for two additional filters
- Completed process flow for new WLP and chip-scale package (CSP) products and design-locked first WLP for tier-1 5G mobile customer, received volume order from this customer for production ramp in early calendar 2023
- Continued the migration of the development and manufacture of Akoustis’ new WLP process into the New York fab
- Announced new design win for a 3.5 GHz 5G network infrastructure filter, bringing the total number of 5G design wins to five
- Continued ramping production for three Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) customers with a total of four additional network infrastructure design wins
- Scaled CBRS production capacity given stronger than expected demand from leading customer
- Began sampling new 3.7-3.98 GHz C-band filter for the US 5G infrastructure market
- RFMi product line awarded significant new design win from a leading integrated circuit supplier for a secure battery management system for use in electric vehicles (EVs)
- Started multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract from the Deference Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to advance XBAW® technology to 18 GHz
- Started qualification of two timing control resonator products for first customer
- Received order from second timing control customer for resonator products
- Continued DARPA direct-to-phase II (DP2) contract to advance design and manufacturing of XBAW® technology for filters and other sensors
- Company’s XBAW® patent portfolio grew to 73 issued and licensed patents plus 123 patents pending as of October 28, 2022
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its Wi-Fi 6 tandem filter solutions, shipping multiple 5G small cell XBAW® filter solutions, and 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 completing the annual production capacity increase at its New York fab to approximately 0.5 billion filters per year.
