CHARLOTTE, NC--(Marketwired - Sep 22, 2015) - Akoustis Technologies (OTCQB: AKTS) ("Akoustis" or the "Company"), a manufacturer of innovative Bulk ONE™ single crystal piezoelectric RF filters for mobile wireless, today announced the Company has expanded its portfolio of intellectual property ("IP") for the use of single crystal piezoelectric materials to improve performance of radio frequency ("RF") filters in mobile devices and smartphones.
Through an agreement signed with University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), Akoustis Technologies, Inc. has obtained exclusive rights to U.S. Patent Nos. 7,687,293 and 8,405,128, titled "METHOD FOR ENHANCING GROWTH OF SEMIPOLAR (AL, IN, GA, B) VIA METAL ORGANIC CHEMICAL VAPOR.," assigned to the Regents of the University of California. The patents relate to advanced semi-polar configurations of single crystal nitride-based materials suitable for construction of next-generation resonators used in BAW RF Filters. The technology rights acquired by Akoustis is anticipated to provide valuable intellectual property to its Bulk One™ RF filter technologies currently under review by the Company's design clientele. Akoustis currently has ten design clients in Phase 1 of a design cycle whom are actively reviewing Bulk One™ and other Akoustis Technologies for application in future smartphone radio-frequency front ends (RFFEs).
"I am pleased to see these advanced semi-polar configurations migrate into RF BAW filters," said Professor Shuji Nakamura, "I believe advanced semi-polar configurations in the licensed patents and their application into single-crystal piezoelectric materials will result in a tremendous performance advantage. Based on published performance data of incumbent materials, a resonator designed with single crystal nitride materials can enable a new class of high performance BAW filters."
"Our agreement with UCSB allows Akoustis to leverage years of university research in single crystal materials," began Jeffrey Shealy, Chairman and CEO of Akoustis Technologies, Inc. "We believe our single-crystal architecture will quickly develop into high performance BAW filters, leading to increased performance versus current poly-crystalline installations. Our exclusive access to Professor Nakamura's patents will help us accelerate our development and design currently underway with our design clients. Additionally, adding IP to our portfolio protects our technologies, increases barriers to entry, and positions us with smartphone OEMs and RF front end module and transceiver manufacturers worldwide."
Akoustis Technologies, Inc. has seven (7) US Patents filed, plus three (3) foreign applications protecting its use of single crystal piezoelectric materials for the manufacturing, packaging and circuit integration of its materials in BAW filtering devices and resonators. BAW filtering devices are considered the next generation of RF filtering technologies for mobile devices and smartphones worldwide. Akoustis believes a new class of RF Filters, based upon high purity single crystal piezoelectric resonators, can service a multibillion dollar market of device OEMs, network providers, and consumers to diminish front end phone heat, battery drain and signal loss -- all considered to be directly related to current RF filter technologies' limitations.
About Dr. Shuji Nakamura
Dr. Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese-born American physicist and inventor specializing in the field of semiconductor technology, professor at the Materials Department of the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and is regarded as the inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology. He is one of the three recipients of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics using single crystal nitrides "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources."
About Akoustis Technologies
Akoustis™ is a semiconductor designer and manufacturer of radio frequency ("RF") resonators and filters that facilitate signal acquisition and accelerate band performance between the antenna and the back end of mobile devices. Akoustis' patent-pending Bulk ONE™ technology produces single crystal, piezoelectric bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters to maximize mobile device performance and minimize energy demands. Founded in 2014, Akoustis is located in the Piedmont technology corridor between Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.