Akoustis Technologies, Inc. an integrated device manufacturer of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced that it is working with a leading maker of Timing RF Components to develop ultra-high frequency XBAW resonators for use in the customer’s end devices.
The customer intends to use the Akoustis XBAW™ resonators to develop timing RF components for the 5G wireless, networking and automotive markets. Akoustis has begun sampling resonators to its customer and expects to ramp production by the end of calendar 2022 or early calendar 2023.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “The timing RF market represents a significant new opportunity for Akoustis in both unit volume and revenue.” Shealy continued, “Our customer is developing products that could be disruptive in the timing RF components market—looking to displace older, analog technologies with ultra-low jilter and phase noise devices. We are extremely excited that our leading XBAW™ resonators can be a part of this ground-breaking opportunity.”
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E 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 resonators for the timing control market.
Given the rapidly growing sales funnel activity as well as ongoing interaction with customers regarding expected ramps in both 5G mobile, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E in calendar 2022, the Company plans to increase the annual production capacity at its New York fab by the end of calendar 2021 to approximately 500 million filters per year.
Akoustis currently has 15 commercial XBAW™ filters in its product catalog, and recently introduced 5.6 GHz and 6.6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E coexistence filter modules, which when qualified, will bring the number of catalog products to 17. Current product catalog filters include a 5.6 GHz Wi-Fi filter, a 5.2 GHz Wi-Fi filter, a 5.5 GHz WiFi-6E filter, a 6.5 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 (UAS) market. The Company is also developing several new filters for the sub-7 GHz bands targeting 5G mobile device, network infrastructure, Wi-Fi CPE and defense markets.