Akoustis Technologies, an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, has announced that it has shipped 60,000 pre-production 5.6 GHz BAW filters (AKF-1256) to a leading global supplier of RF solutions, for tri-band WiFi customer premise equipment (CPE).
In March of this year, Akoustis and this global RF company executed a non-exclusive product development and supply agreement for RF coexistence filters along with a statement of work for new WiFi CPE filter solutions to support the customer’s expanding product portfolio. This includes the Akoustis’ tandem 5.2 GHz (AKF-1252) and 5.6 GHz (AKF-1256) coexistence XBAW filters, which combine to make the world’s first microfilter solution for high band WiFi CPE.
Akoustis expects to make an additional volume of commercial shipments to this customer in calendar 2020 and beyond as part of the agreement.
Akoustis’ XBAW technology is a variant of the regular BAW technology. It can deliver in the high-frequency bands for WiFi networking and 5G mobile. The customer chose the Akoustis 5 GHz WiFi coexistence filter solution given the significant size advantage over existing dielectric resonator filters with a footprint up to 23 times smaller than the alternative. The filters provide low insertion loss, meet the demanding coexistence rejection specifications and can be surface mounted.
The company continues to execute, hitting another important milestone and highlighting its ability to scale XBAW production, including this new and challenging wideband 5.6 GHz coexistence filter (AKF-1256).
With this shipment, and the shipment of 80,000 5.2 GHz WiFi tandem filters (AKF-1252) earlier this year, their RF solutions customer is now well-positioned to begin capturing share in multiple markets and help deliver new revenue streams in calendar 2020 and beyond.
The 5.6 GHz XBAW WiFi filter 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 5.6 GHz filters are 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 4.9 GHz band n79 filter for small cell network infrastructure, a 3.8 GHz filter for defense phased-array radar applications (AKF-1938), 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 devices, network infrastructure, WiFi CPE and defense markets.
