Akoustis Technologies, Inc., an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced today that it has received its first high-volume 5G mobile filter purchase order from its leading multi-billion-dollar Tier-1 RF component company customer. The filter is manufactured using the Akoustis XBAW process and is designed into the customer’s new multiplexer product that is expected to ship in the first half of calendar 2023 as part of a major chipset OEM reference design.
The filter solution leverages one of Akoustis’ new wafer-level-packages (WLP), developed and manufactured in its Canandaigua, New York fab. The new XBAW-based design is being used to address difficult coexistence issues between 5G mid-bands and Wi-Fi 6E 5 to 7 GHz bands. The customer is considering additional applications for filters using the XBAW process in future modules for 5G smartphones and other mobile devices after the successful completion of this first solution.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “We are thrilled to start our first production ramp in 5G mobile, the largest market by unit volume and revenue that our technology addresses.” Mr. Shealy continued, “With the recent qualification of our internally developed advanced CSP and WLP packages, we are now able to address our customers’ challenges in high-frequency 5G mobile and high-frequency Wi-Fi in handsets and other mobile devices. We expect to support this initial 5G mobile customer through its planned high-volume ramps beginning in the current quarter.”
Akoustis began shipping initial pre-production chips against customer purchase orders for development, sampling, and qualification during the quarter ending December 31, 2022. This new order will be used by the Tier-1 RF component customer to support large volume deliveries to multiple mobile device manufacturers that will utilize a major chipset OEM reference design.
The new filter solution is the first product to ship with the Company’s internally developed and manufactured WLP. In response to global supply chain challenges, Akoustis has been developing proprietary chip-scale packaging (CSP) and WLP technology in its New York facility for the past year and is rapidly growing its manufacturing capacity to target the 5G mobile device market with filter products using the XBAW process. The new CSP and WLP technologies offer significantly reduced size relative to Akoustis’ current generation packages and superior in back-end manufacturing cost.
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 December quarter, 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 2023.
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 has entered 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 2023, the Company is completing the annual production capacity increase at its New York fab to approximately 0.5 billion filters per year.
