- RF Wireless Industry Veteran to Oversee Expansion of Company’s BAW Filter Product Portfolio
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Charlotte, N.C., Nov. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akoustis Technologies,
Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or the “Company”), a manufacturer of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW)
high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced today it has appointed Rohan Houlden as its Chief
Product Officer.
Mr. Houlden, who joined Akoustis in September 2016 as Vice President of Engineering, has been a key contributor
to the commercialization of Akoustis’ XBAW filter technology. Mr. Houlden oversees the device engineering and product design teams
as well as the testing, characterization and mechanical design of all Akoustis products.
In his new role as Chief Product Officer, he will oversee the development and release of all wireless products
for the Company’s target market segments including WiFi, 4G/5G infrastructure and mobile devices, military, defense and other
markets.
Jeff Shealy, Founder and CEO of Akoustis, commented, “Since joining Akoustis, Rohan has proved to be a key
management addition for the Company. He has leveraged his RF industry expertise to lead the development of high-performance
RF filter products using the Company’s patented XBAW technology.” Mr. Shealy continued, “In his new role, he will focus on
expanding our RF filter product portfolio for our growing number of customer engagements.”
Mr. Houlden led the development of the Company’s AKF-1938, a 3.8 GHz BAW filter for the radar market, which Akoustis began shipping in the
September quarter. In addition, his engineering team developed the AKF-1252 BAW filter, the industry’s first commercial 5.2 GHz BAW RF filter for tri-band WiFi
applications. The Company is currently sampling the AKF-1252 filter with more than 12 potential customers, with primary interest
from OEM, ODM, SoC and RF module manufacturers.
Mr. Houlden also led the development of the Company’s most recent product introductions, the AKF-1125D and the
AKF-1125U; BAW filter solutions designed specifically for 4G/LTE wireless infrastructure applications. The Company
announced in October it began sampling filters to a new Tier-1 OEM customer.
About Rohan Houlden
Prior to joining Akoustis, Mr. Houlden spent 29 years in design engineering, business development and management
in the RF and wireless industry. From 2015-2016, he was the General Manager of the Connectivity Business Unit at Qorvo, Inc.
(formerly RF Micro Devices), responsible for customer premise equipment (CPE) WiFi, Smart Energy and Automotive product lines,
where he managed the product development and production ramp of custom front end modules (FEMs) and BAW filters for leading
enterprise, retail OEMs and automotive suppliers. Prior to the merger between RF Micro Devices, Inc. and TriQuint Semiconductor,
Inc., Mr. Houlden was General Manager of the Wireless Connectivity Business Unit at RF Micro Devices for 7 years, responsible for
WiFi and Smart Energy product lines. In addition, he also managed the product development and production ramp of custom FEMs to all
leading wireless OEMs - including Tier-1 and Tier-2 smartphone OEMs, as well as key OEMs involved in the emerging
Internet-of-Things (IoT). Mr. Houlden holds an MBA from University of Iowa, a Masters of Science from Iowa State University and a
Bachelor of Science from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Australia).
About Akoustis Technologies, Inc.
Akoustis® (http://www.akoustis.com) is a high-tech BAW RF filter solutions company that is pioneering
next-generation materials science and MEMS wafer manufacturing to address the market requirements for improved RF filters -
targeting higher bandwidth, higher operating frequencies and higher output power compared to incumbent polycrystalline
BAW technology deployed today. The Company utilizes its proprietary XBAW manufacturing process to produce bulk acoustic wave RF filters for mobile and other
wireless markets, which facilitate signal acquisition and accelerate band performance between the antenna and digital back
end. Superior performance is driven by the significant advances of high-purity, single-crystal and associated
piezoelectric materials and the resonator-filter process technology which drives electro-mechanical coupling and translates to wide
filter bandwidth.
Akoustis plans to service the fast growing multi-billion-dollar RF filter market using its integrated
design and manufacturing (IDM) business model. The Company owns and operates a 120,000 sq. ft. ISO-9001:2015
certified commercial wafer-manufacturing facility located in Canandaigua, NY, which includes a class 100 /
class 1000 cleanroom facility - tooled for 150-mm diameter wafers - for the design, development, fabrication and
packaging of RF filters, MEMS and other semiconductor devices. Akoustis Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in the
Piedmont technology corridor near Charlotte, North Carolina.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act, and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are intended to be covered by the “safe harbor” created by
those sections. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our estimates,
expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans or strategies for the future (including our possible future results of operations,
business strategies, competitive position, potential growth opportunities, potential market opportunities and the effects of
competition), and the assumptions underlying such statements. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not
historical facts and typically are identified by use of terms such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan,"
"anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," “intend,” “forecast,” “seek,” "potential," "continue" and similar words, although
some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances
of future performance. Instead, these forward-looking statements are based on management’s current beliefs, expectations and
assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those currently anticipated include, without limitation, risks relating to the results of our research and development activities,
including uncertainties relating to semiconductor process manufacturing; the development of our XBAWTM technology and
products presently under development and the anticipated timing of such development; our ability to protect our intellectual
property rights that are valuable to our business, including patent and other intellectual property rights; our ability to
successfully manufacture, market and sell products based on our technologies; the ability to achieve qualification of our products
for commercial manufacturing in a timely manner and the size and growth of the potential markets for any products so qualified; the
rate and degree of market acceptance of any of our products; our ability to raise funding to support operations and the continued
development and qualification of our products and the technologies underlying them; and our ability to service our outstanding
indebtedness. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Risk Factors and Management’s Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations sections of the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and
in subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Considering these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking
statements regarding future events and circumstances discussed in this document may not occur, and actual results could differ
materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon
forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The forward-looking statements included in this document speak only as
of the date hereof and, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly or privately any forward-looking
statements, whether written or oral, for any reason after the date of this document to conform these statements to new information,
actual results or to changes in our expectations.
Contact: COMPANY: Tom Sepenzis Akoustis Technologies Director of Investor Relations (980) 689-4961 tsepenzis@akoustis.com The Del Mar Consulting Group, Inc. Robert B. Prag, President 858-794-9500 bprag@delmarconsulting.com
