Akoustis Technologies has locked the design for its new 5.6 GHz WiFi BAW filter and is currently manufacturing pre-production units. The AKF-1256 is a high performance, high-frequency coexistence filter that operates at 5.6 GHz in the unlicensed spectrum for high-speed WiFi.
When paired with the Company’s existing 5.2 GHz WiFi filter product (AKF-1252), Akoustis now offers the first commercially available tandem BAW coexistence micro-filter solution covering both the 5.2 GHz and 5.6 GHz frequency bands for tri-band WiFi routers and other devices. The 5.6 GHz filter shares the same XBAW wafer process, backend package and supply chain as the 5.2 GHz WiFi filter.
Potential customers have been sampling the 5.6 GHz WiFi filter over the past few months, providing Akoustis feedback regarding performance relative to desired specifications. The feedback has led to fine adjustments resulting in a locked design for 5.6 GHz filters.
Akoustis expects to ship pre-production 5.6 GHz filters to its two announced customers in the current quarter including a global RF partner that has ordered over 50k units as well as a multi-billion dollar leading WiFi SoC vendor that is evaluating the 5.2 GHz and 5.6 GHz tandem solution for possible inclusion in MU-MIMO tri-mode reference designs.
In addition to the two announced customers, Akoustis expects additional pre-production orders over the next several months as over fifteen potential customers, including OEMs, ODMs, SoC and RF module manufacturers, have tested the performance of the 5.2 GHz filter and have been waiting for availability of the tandem 5.2 GHz/5.6 GHz solution to displace the incumbent dielectric resonator filters, which are over 20x larger.
The 5.6 GHz XBAW WiFi filter (AKF-1256) features:
• Low insertion loss passband filter
• Wide bandwidth covering entire 345 MHz UNII 2C+3 passband
• High rejection enables co-existence with adjacent WiFi UNII bands
• Single-ended Tx/Rx ports
• High power rating, maximum +30dBm
• Ultra-small form factor 2.5mm x 2.0mm x 0.9mm
• Performance over -40C to +85C
• RoHS compliant, Pb-free package
The AKF-1256 is designed and manufactured using the Company’s patented XBAW process and manufactured in the Company’s Si-MEMS Wafer Fab located in Canandaigua, NY.
Akoustis has introduced several new filters over the past twelve months including a 5.6 GHz WiFi filter (AKF-1256), a 5.2 GHz WiFi filter (AKF-1252), a 3.8 GHz filter (AKF-1938) for defense phased-array radar applications, a 3.6 GHz filter for the CBRS infrastructure market and Band 25 downlink and uplink filters for LTE infrastructure. The Company is also developing several new filters for the sub 7 GHz bands targeting 5G mobile device, network infrastructure, WiFi CPE and defense markets.
