Akoustis begins WiFi 6E coexistence filter solution business

Akoustis Technologies has received its first order for its recently announced tandem WiFi 6E coexistence filter solution from a tier-1 enterprise class customer.

The 5.5 GHz and 6.5 GHz WiFi 6E XBAW™ filters will be tested by the customer for a next generation enterprise MU-MIMO platform that is expected to ramp production in the first half of calendar 2021.

With the introduction of the 6.5 GHz filter last week, Akoustis is now the only company to offer a complete BAW-based WiFi 6E filter solution for the emerging WiFi 6E standard. The potential market for the Company’s WiFi 6E filter solutions include dual-band to quad-band CPE WiFi routers as well as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and gaming devices once wafer-level-packaging (WLP) is completed later this year.

Jeff Shealy, Founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “We are pleased to follow-up our recent WiFi 6E product introductions with this first XBAW™ order from a tier-1 customer focused on the enterprise market. We continue to see growing demand for high performance XBAW™ filters in the ultra-high band 5G and WiFi spectrum between 3 and 7 GHz.”

Mr. Shealy continued, “The interest in WiFi 6E, and particularly in our new WiFi 6E filters, has grown dramatically over the past few months. By having the industry’s only 5.5 and 6.5 GHz tandem BAW-based filter solution, we expect that WiFi 6E will become one of our primary revenue growth drivers moving forward.”

Akoustis’ XBAW™ filters are uniquely suited to serve the emerging WiFi 6E market given the ability to handle high frequency, ultra-wide bandwidth, and adjacent band rejection. In addition to this initial order, Akoustis has multiple active engagements with other tier-1 and tier-2 WiFi CPE equipment OEMs, ODMs and SoC makers targeting both the enterprise and consumer markets.

The FCC announced in April 2020 the approval of 5.9-7.1 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.

In anticipation of the April FCC approval, Akoustis had been developing filters to support the emerging WiFi 6E market. The Company has been active in developing wide bandwidth piezoelectric materials, device models, RF filter designs and has filed key patents surrounding its approach to WiFi 6E RF filters.

Akoustis has added 14 filters to its product catalog including a 5.6 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.2 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.5 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.

Meanwhile, 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.