Akoustis Introduces Industry's First 5.6 GHz WiFi BAW Filter And Ships Samples

• New 5.6 GHz Product is World’s Highest Frequency and Widest Bandwidth WiFi BAW Filter
• Company Now Offers Industry’s Only Tandem 5.2/5.6 GHz BAW Coexistence Filter Solution
• Challenging Filter Design Demonstrates Unique Capability of Company’s Patented XBAW Technology

Charlotte, NC (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or the “Company”), a manufacturer of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announces the industry’s first 5.6 GHz WiFi BAW filter and shipment of first samples of the new product. The AKF-1256 is a high performance, high frequency coexistence filter that operates at 5.6 GHz in the unlicensed spectrum for high-speed WiFi.

When paired with the Company’s recently introduced AKF-1252, a high performance 5.2 GHz BAW RF filter, Akoustis now offers the first tandem BAW coexistence filter solution covering both the 5.2 GHz and 5.6 GHz frequency bands in a tri-band WiFi router.

The Company has begun shipment of AKF-1256 samples to select customer engagements for evaluation and technical feedback. Akoustis intends to expand sampling to additional target customers, including OEMs, ODMs, SoC and RF module manufacturers in early calendar 2019.

Jeff Shealy, Founder and CEO of Akoustis, commented, “Now having the first and only tandem 5.2 GHz/5.6 GHz BAW micro-filter coexistence solution, we are positioned to disrupt the current dielectric resonator (DR) WiFi filter market. Based on feedback from companies that have sampled or evaluated our 5.2 GHz WiFi filter, we believe there is sizable demand for a BAW filter solution that covers both the 5.2 GHz and 5.6 GHz frequency bands. Our XBAW filters offer better coexistence performance with a form factor that is 23x smaller than the DR filters deployed today.”

Mr. Shealy continued, “The technical challenges in developing a 5.6 GHz BAW filter for WiFi cannot be overstated. With a passband more than 2 times wider than the 5.2 GHz band, our patented XBAW technology has demonstrated its unique capability to produce high performance BAW filters at frequencies previously unreachable with BAW filters, including sub-6 GHz frequencies aligned with the emerging 5G mobile frequency spectrum.”

The strategic highlights of the new AKF-1256, include:

• New solution enables tandem 5 GHz WiFi BAW filter solution for tri-band architectures
• The new AKF-1256 offers the same size advantage versus DR filters as the Company’s AKF-1252
• Filter performance further demonstrates the sub-6 GHz capability of the XBAW™ process
• XBAW™ technology compatible with future mobile handsets requiring tri-band and MU-MIMO designs

The AKF-1256 provides low insertion loss covering the U-NII-2C and U-NII-3 bands (mid-point - 5.66 GHz) and addresses the stringent rejection requirements enabling coexistence with the U-NII-1 and U-NII-2A bands. 5.6 GHz is a challenging band given the wide passband and the high operating frequency. By comparison, the 5.6 GHz WiFi pass band requires 345 MHz versus the narrower 5.2 GHz WiFi pass band of 160 MHz.

The AKF-1256 filter product features:

• Ultra small form factor 2mm x 2.5mm x 0.9mm
• Single ended Tx/Rx ports
• Ultra-wide passband covering 345 MHz
• High rejection enables coexistence with adjacent WiFi UNII bands
• High power rating, maximum +30dBm
• Low insertion loss passband filter
• Performance over -40C to +85C
• RoHS compliant, Pb-free package

For data sheet and sales inquiries, please contact sales@akoustis.com.

In September, Akoustis completed the final engineering modifications to its AKF-1252, the tandem filter product complementing the new AKF-1256. The Company has since received pre-production orders for the AKF-1252 from a multi-billion-dollar Tier 1 SoC vendor, as well as a distributor partner, both of which are expected to ship in the current quarter. Separately, Akoustis has shipped evaluation boards and individual AKF-1252 filters to more than a dozen potential customers, including the Tier 1 WiFi OEM announced last week.

The AKF-1252 and AKF-1256 are high performance 5.2 GHz BAW RF micro filters designed for use in tri-band WiFi router applications. The filters are produced using Akoustis’ proprietary XBAW manufacturing process, which delivers high performance RF filter solutions for frequencies up to 7 GHz to address critical RF filter requirements for existing and next generation communications applications, including the emerging 5G mobile network. The high power rating satisfies the demanding requirements of the latest WiFi standards including 802.11ax. The filter solution incorporates standard commercial module packaging and is compatible with high-volume, lead-free SMT soldering processes.

About Akoustis Technologies, Inc.
Akoustis® (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 incumbent polycrystalline BAW technology deployed today. The Company utilizes its proprietary 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 high-purity, single-crystal and associated piezoelectric materials and the resonator-filter process technology which drives electro-mechanical coupling and translates to wide filter bandwidth.

Akoustis plans to service the fast growing multi-billion-dollar RF filter market using its integrated design and manufacturing (IDM) business model. The Company owns and operates a 120,000 sq. ft. ISO-9001:2015 certified 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
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