Akoustis Technologies, Inc., manufacturer of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced that it has received a design win and pre-production order for band n79 XBAW™ filters from a new 5G small cell network infrastructure customer. This is the second customer in 5G small cell infrastructure where Akoustis now has more than five active engagements.
The new customer has completed sampling of the Akoustis band n79 filter and plans to use the current order to complete qualification and test its new 5G network infrastructure equipment before commercial launch in early calendar 2021.
Akoustis is currently shipping two XBAW™ RF filter designs in band n77 to its first 5G small cell network infrastructure customer. In addition to the two design wins with its first customer, Akoustis has active engagements with numerous tier-1 and tier-2 small cell network equipment OEMs who are currently evaluating the company’s existing band n77 and n79 RF filter solutions. In addition, multiple OEMs have indicated the desire for additional new filters in the sub-6 GHz 5G bands.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “Our XBAW™ products continue to see increased demand as OEMs, ODMs and SoC makers push into ultra-high band markets including sub-6 GHz 5G, WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E.” Mr. Shealy continued, “We are pleased to receive this design win and pre-production order for our band n79 5G XBAW™ filter from our new 5G small cell customer, and expect to add other new customers in the coming months.”
This design win highlights the increased demand for BAW filters in the rapidly growing 5G small cell market and underscores Akoustis’ leadership in delivering BAW filters at ultra-high frequencies. XBAW™ filters are uniquely suited to serve the 5G network infrastructure market given the ability to handle high frequency, wide bandwidth and high power.
5G small cell base stations are low power, short range cellular transmission devices, capable of providing extended coverage for consumers, enterprises or to augment cellular coverage for 5G mobile service providers. They offer all the standard characteristics of a traditional tower base station and can handle high data throughput. 5G networks are expected to employ small cells in greater quantity than prior networks to help mitigate the shorter wavelengths associated with higher frequencies.
In a recent report, Zion Market Research estimated the global small cell 5G network market was valued at around $381 million in 2018 and is expected to reach approximately $3.5 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of approximately 37 percent between 2019 and 2025.
Akoustis’ high frequency, high performance XBAW process and filters are experiencing growing interest as the company prepares to enter production in multiple markets in calendar 2020, including 5G network infrastructure, high-band Wi-Fi and phased-array radar applications.
Akoustis has added 14 filters to its product catalog including a 5.6 GHz Wi0Fi filter, a 5.2 GHz Wi-Fi filter, a 5.5 GHz Wi-Fi-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 market. 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.