Akoustis Technologies, an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced that its patented XBAW® filters are being included in a new WiFi 6E reference design by a leading system-on-chip (SoC) maker. This is the third SoC reference design partner for WiFi 6E announced by Akoustis since March as its WiFi 6E coexistence solution continues to gain adoption in the market.
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 reference design is already available for WiFi OEMs and ODMs to build cutting-edge WiFi 6E devices. The SoC reference design model enables a one-customer to many-customers sales opportunity as Akoustis benefits from inclusion on the bill-of-materials of leading baseband chipset suppliers.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “It is increasingly apparent that WiFi 6E is one of the most compelling near-to-intermediate term market opportunities for Akoustis as enormous momentum for the planned adoption of the new WiFi 6E spectrum continues to build worldwide.”
Mr. Shealy continued, “As our new and growing product portfolio of 6E filters is now able to target routers, cable set top boxes and other CPE markets as well as the future 5G-enabled mobile device market, the demand for our WiFi 6E XBAW® filters is robust given our superior selectivity performance and smaller form-factor as an early mover in this rapidly-developing market for high frequency BAW micro filters.”
In April 2020, the FCC announced 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 FCC’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 new WiFi 6E coexistence XBAW® filter solutions.
Given the rapidly growing sales funnel activity as well as ongoing interaction with customers regarding expected ramps in both 5G mobile and WiFi 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 WiFi 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 WiFi filter, a 5.2 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.5 GHz WiFi-6E filter, a 6.5 GHz WiFi 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, WiFi CPE and defense markets.
