Akoustis Technologies announced its first production order for initial quantities of the AKF-1938, a 3.8 GHz BAW filter designed for general-purpose transceiver, commercial radio, military radio and phased-array radar markets. The AKF-1938 is the company's first BAW filter design win above 3 GHz.

In a press release, Akoustis said the first customer for the AKF-1938 is a "well-established military OEM specializing in non-mobile communication systems, with annual revenue of more than $1 billion." The company awarded Akoustis a pre-production order for the filter last quarter, which Akoustis expects to complete later this quarter. Product qualification of the AKF-1938 has begun, with full qualification and production shipments planned to begin during the fourth calendar quarter of 2018.

AKF-1938 Features

  • 3.8 GHz center frequency with 100 MHz bandwidth.
  • >40 dB rejection up to 10 GHz.
  • Single-ended input and output.
  • Operating temperature range from −40°C to +105°C.
  • Small form factor packaged module measuring 2 mm x 2.5 mm x 0.9 mm.
  • Compatible with high volume, lead-free SMT assembly.

The AKF-1938 BAW filter is manufactured using Akoustis’ proprietary, single-crystal BAW manufacturing process, called XB1, which can be used for RF filters up to 7 GHz. This frequency range covers 2 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, emerging 5G and C-V2X applications.

In March, Akoustis announced its first filter product using the XB1 process: a commercial 5.2 GHz BAW filter designed for tri-band Wi-Fi routers, the industry’s first according to Akoustis.

“This design win and production order represent key milestones, as we transition into a product company shipping customer-qualified product. The AKF-1938 is scheduled to be one of the first products shipped from our recently qualified XB1 BAW RF filter process. Operating at 3.8 GHz, this filter further demonstrates the capability of our patented single crystal BAW technology to reach frequencies currently lacking high performance BAW filter solutions.” — Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis