Akoustis Technologies, Inc., an integrated device manufacturer of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) highband RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced that Kamran Cheema has been appointed its new chief product officer.
Cheema joined Akoustis in August 2021 as VP of Engineering, bringing a wealth of RF experience in product design, manufacturing, technology development, program management and quality management with over 30 years of experience in acoustic technology. He will be responsible for the device engineering and product design teams as well as the testing, characterization, and mechanical design of all Akoustis products for all end markets including 5G mobile, 5G infrastructure, Wi-Fi and other markets.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “Since joining Akoustis, Kamran has demonstrated exemplary leadership and significant expertise at every level throughout the company. As Akoustis scales its manufacturing capability and enters multiple high volume markets, we plan to leverage his industry experience, knowledge and skillset to accelerate continuous product improvement and quality across the engineering organization.”
Before joining Akoustis, Cheema was the vice president of Engineering at Qualcomm RF360, where he was responsible for all aspects of micro-acoustic hardware solutions for the mobile phone market. Prior to Qualcomm, he was the vice president of Engineering and site manager at TDK, where he reported directly to the CEO. At TDK, he led a team of professionals, including filter module and switch designers, SAW and BAW filter designers, and laminate and LTCC specialists. Earlier, Cheema worked at TriQuint Semiconductor, now part of Qorvo, as a director of Engineering where he led the development of acoustic RF filter diplexers, the RF module team, GaAs pHEMT and SOI switch development. Cheema holds a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida.
Kamran replaces Rohan Houlden who served as CPO since November 2018. Houlden moves to a strategic advisory role reporting to the CEO. Shealy added, “On behalf of the Board and management at Akoustis, I thank Rohan for his many contributions since joining in 2016. I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new strategic role.”
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its Wi-Fi 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 has entered the market with its new Wi-Fi 6E coexistence XBAW® filter solutions. To date, Akoustis has received more than 20 customer design wins for its patented XBAW® filter solutions.