Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or the
“Company”), 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 design win in 5G mobile from a leading multi-billion-dollar
Tier-1 RF component company customer. The XBAW® filter is designed
into a 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 its
Canandaigua, New York fab. The new XBAW® design is being used to
address difficult coexistence issues between 5G mid bands and WiFi
6E 5 to 7 GHz bands. The customer is considering additional
applications for XBAW® in future modules for 5G smartphones,
tablets, wearables, and other mobile devices after the successful
completion of this first solution. Akoustis began shipping
pre-production chips against customer purchase orders for
development, sampling and qualification during the quarter ending
December 31, 2022.
The new Akoustis filter solution is the first
product to ship with the internally developed and manufactured WLP.
In response to global supply chain challenges, Akoustis has been
developing proprietary 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 its XBAW® filter
products.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis,
stated, “This is a significant milestone in the commercialization
of our XBAW® technology.” Mr. Shealy continued, “This is our first
design win for the 5G mobile market that is planned to ramp
production in the first half of CY2023, supporting selectivity
demands in the 3 to 7GHz 5G/WiFi spectrum. Further, it is our
first product that leverages our new proprietary
wafer-level-package technology, which is significantly smaller than
our current packages and superior in back-end manufacturing cost.
This is the culmination of significant effort by our team and
tremendous advancement of our technology over the past year.”
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 is now entering 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.
About Akoustis Technologies,
Inc.
Akoustis® (http://www.akoustis.com/) is a
high-tech BAW RF filter solutions company that is pioneering
next-generation materials science and MEMS wafer manufacturing
to address the market requirements for improved RF filters -
targeting higher bandwidth, higher operating frequencies and higher
output power compared to legacy polycrystalline BAW
technology. The Company utilizes its proprietary and patented XBAW®
manufacturing process to produce bulk acoustic wave RF filters
for mobile and other wireless markets, which facilitate
signal acquisition and accelerate band performance between the
antenna and digital back end. Superior performance is
driven by the significant advances of poly-crystal,
single-crystal and other high purity piezoelectric materials and
the resonator-filter process technology which enables optimal
trade-offs between critical power, frequency and bandwidth
performance specifications.
Akoustis plans to service the fast growing
multi-billion-dollar RF filter market using its integrated
device manufacturer (IDM) business model. The Company owns and
operates a 120,000 sq. ft. ISO-9001:2015
registered commercial wafer-manufacturing facility located in
Canandaigua, NY, which includes a class 100 / class 1000 cleanroom
facility - tooled for 150-mm diameter wafers - for the
design, development, fabrication and packaging of RF filters, MEMS
and other semiconductor devices. Akoustis Technologies,
Inc. is headquartered in the Piedmont technology
corridor near Charlotte, North Carolina.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document includes “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities
Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, each
as amended, that are intended to be covered by the “safe harbor”
created by those sections. These forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, statements about our estimates,
expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans or strategies for the
future (including our possible future results of operations,
business strategies, competitive position, potential growth
opportunities, potential market opportunities and the effects of
competition), the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of RFM
Integrated Device, Inc., and supply agreement with Tai-Saw,
including estimated synergies and other financial impacts, and the
assumptions underlying such statements. Forward-looking statements
include all statements that are not historical facts and typically
are identified by use of terms such as "may," “might,” “would,”
"will," "should," "could," “project,” "expect," "plan," “strategy,”
"anticipate," “attempt,” “develop,” “help,” "believe," “think,”
"estimate," "predict," “intend,” “forecast,” “seek,” "potential,"
“possible,” "continue," “future,” and similar words (including the
negative of any of the foregoing), although some forward-looking
statements are expressed differently. Forward-looking statements
are neither historical facts nor assurances of future results,
performance, events or circumstances. Instead, these
forward-looking statements are based on management’s current
beliefs, expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and
uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those currently anticipated include, without
limitation, risks relating to our inability to obtain adequate
financing and sustain our status as a going concern; our limited
operating history; our inability to generate revenues or achieve
profitability; the results of our research and development
activities; our inability to achieve acceptance of our products in
the market; the possibility that the anticipated benefits from
business acquisitions will not be realized in full or at all or may
take longer to realize than expected; the possibility that costs or
difficulties related to the integration of acquired businesses’
operations will be greater than expected and the possibility of
disruptions to our business during integration efforts and strain
on management time and resources; the impact of a pandemic or
epidemic or a natural disaster, including the COVID-19 pandemic,
the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and other sources of volatility on
our operations, financial condition and the worldwide economy,
including its impact on our ability to access the capital markets;
increases in prices for raw materials, labor, and fuel caused by
rising inflation; general economic conditions, including upturns
and downturns in the industry; shortages in supplies needed to
manufacture our products, or needed by our customers to manufacture
devices incorporating our products; our limited number of patents;
failure to obtain, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property
rights; claims of infringement, misappropriation or misuse of third
party intellectual property, including the lawsuit filed by Qorvo,
Inc. in October 2021, that, regardless of merit, could result in
significant expense and negatively impact our business results; our
inability to attract and retain qualified personnel; our reliance
on third parties to complete certain processes in connection with
the manufacture of our products; product quality and defects;
existing or increased competition; our ability to successfully
manufacture, market and sell products based on our technologies;
our ability to meet the required specifications of customers and
achieve qualification of our products for commercial manufacturing
in a timely manner; our inability to successfully scale our New
York wafer fabrication facility and related operations while
maintaining quality control and assurance and avoiding delays in
output; the rate and degree of market acceptance of any of our
products; our ability to achieve design wins from current and
future customers; contracting with customers and other parties with
greater bargaining power and agreeing to terms and conditions that
may adversely affect our business; risks related to doing business
in foreign countries, including China; any security breaches,
cyber-attacks or other disruptions compromising our proprietary
information and exposing us to liability; our failure to innovate
or adapt to new or emerging technologies, including in relation to
our competitors; our failure to comply with regulatory
requirements; results of any arbitration or litigation that may
arise; stock volatility and illiquidity; dilution caused by any
future issuance of common stock or securities that are convertible
into or exercisable for common stock; our failure to implement our
business plans or strategies; and our ability to maintain effective
internal control over financial reporting. These and other risks
and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Risk Factors
and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations sections of the Company’s most recent Annual
Report on Form 10-K and in subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on
Form 10-Q. Considering these risks, uncertainties and assumptions,
the forward-looking statements regarding future events and
circumstances discussed in this document may not occur, and actual
results could differ materially and adversely from those
anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. You
should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of
future events. The forward-looking statements included in this
document speak only as of the date hereof and, except as required
by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly or privately
any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, for any
reason after the date of this document to conform these statements
to new information, actual results or to changes in our
expectations.
Contact:
COMPANY:
Tom Sepenzis
Akoustis Technologies
VP of Corporate Development & IR
(980) 689-4961
tsepenzis@akoustis.com
The Del Mar Consulting Group, Inc.
Robert B. Prag, President
(858) 794-9500
bprag@delmarconsulting.com
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