Akoustis Secures WiFi 6E Reference Design with Tier 1 WiFi SoC Vendor

• New SoC Customer Will Create a One-to-Many Sales Opportunity for XBAW WiFi 6E Coexistence Solution
• Superior XBAW Coexistence Solution Offers Use of Entire New WiFi 6E Spectrum
• Design is Expected to be Available Early 2^nd Half of Calendar 2021 

Charlotte, N.C., March 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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 it has secured WiFi 6E reference design with a new Tier 1 System-on-Chip (SoC) vendor.

The 5.5 GHz filter module covers the UNII 1-3 spectrum of the WiFi 6E standard, while the 6.5 GHz filter module covers the entire UNII 5-8 spectrum. The SoC vendor is building a MU-MIMO reference design for next generation routers and other connected devices. The Company expects the reference design to be made available in the second half of calendar 2021.

Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “We continue to see strong interest in our leading WiFi 6E XBAW micro-filter solutions given the superior selectivity performance.” Mr. Shealy continued, “This is our first reference design in WiFi 6E, which should help create an additional sales channel for Akoustis through the existing customer base of our new SoC client.” 

The FCC announced in late April the approval of 5.9 to 7.1 GHz for unlicensed use, which is the largest spectrum addition since the FCC allocated unlicensed spectrum for WiFi in 1989. The next generation of WiFi that is expected to use these new frequency bands is called WiFi 6E. This approval will create another significant new band, or combination of bands, over the next several years. Since the FTC’s April announcement, governments around the world have begun allocating the same or similar spectrum for future WiFi use. As spectrum is scarce, many nations are limited in the amount of new, available unlicensed spectrum above 6 GHz. This is driving great demand for high-performance coexistence filters that allow the use of all available spectrum.

Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its WiFi 6 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 WiFi 6E coexistence XBAW filter solutions. Company management expects continued top-line growth moving forward and given the growing backlog of commercially available RF filter products and technology aimed at large and growing markets, it plans to significantly expand the capacity at its New York fab in calendar 2021.