Akoustis Technologies said it shipped AKF-1252 XBAW filters to a multi-billion dollar, tier 1, Wi-Fi OEM. Assuming the OEM’s successful evaluation, Akoustis expects a design win and production ramp to begin as early as the second quarter of calendar 2019.

The unnamed OEM requested 5.2 GHz filters to evaluate in a new 802.11ax, tri-band, multi-user MIMO CPE (customer premise equipment). The AKF-1252 was chosen because of its performance and significantly smaller size compared to incumbent dielectric resonator (DR) filters.

The AKF-1252 is the only high performance, 5.2 GHz, coexistence BAW filter commercially available. The use of BAW technology provides the smallest form factor, up to a 23x reduction in size compared to DR filters currently used in Wi-Fi systems. The AKF-1252 covers the U-NII-1 (5.150 to 5.250 GHz) and U-NII-2A (5.250 to 5.350 GHz) bands with low insertion loss. It meets the stringent rejection required for coexistence with the U-NII-2C (5.470 to 5.725 GHz ) and U-NII-3 (5.725 to 5.850 GHz) bands. The filter’s +30 dBm power rating is industry-leading, according to Akoustis, and meets the requirements of the latest Wi-Fi standards, including 802.11ax.

Akoustis’ BAW filters are produced using the company’s proprietary XBAW manufacturing process, which supports high-performance RF filter designs to 7 GHz, covering all the sub-6 GHz bands proposed for 5G. The filters use standard commercial module packaging, are RoHS compliant and compatible with high-volume, lead-free SMT soldering processes.

Other features of the AKF-1252 filter are:

  • Single-ended Tx and Rx ports.
  • 2 mm x 2.5 mm x 0.9 mm size.
  • Operating temperature range from −40ºC to +85ºC.

Akoustis completed final engineering modifications to the AKF-1252 design in August (2018), subsequently receiving preproduction orders from a tier-1 SoC supplier and a distribution partner. Both orders are planned to ship before the end of 2018. Akoustis has also sampled evaluation boards and individual AKF-1252 filters to more than a dozen potential customers.

“I am encouraged by the interest we are receiving from several multi-billion dollar, tier 1 companies regarding our AKF-1252 Wi-Fi filter solution. Given the smaller size of BAW relative to existing DR filters and higher filter content in MU-MIMO routers, we believe the AKF-1252 is compelling for the Wi-Fi CPE market.” — Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis