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Resonant updates on XBAR +3

08:55 11-Feb-19


Resonant has issued another XBAR press release in advance of its MWC demos.  It mostly documents that the first filters using XBAR resonators have been fabricated and their performance is being measured.  Management provides qualitative statements on that, saying that they demonstrate "capability to handle the wider passbands required for 5G" but goes beyond that to provide some initial measurements (>500 MHz @ 5 GHz). 

To put that in perspective, the 802.11ac WiFi routers introduced a few years ago use bands up to 160MHz wide in the same range.  Although they are theoretically capable of 433 Mbps - 1.7 Gbps speeds, real world performance is typically half that.  On the other of the spectrum, modules being introduced by Qualcomm now handle up to 800 MHz of bandwidth in the 26.5-29.5 GHz (n257), 27.5-28.35 (n261), and 37-40 GHz (n260) mmWave bands, but these use arrays of antennas.  Consequently, we can probably cut the top line figure by at least a factor of 3, and the much higher frequency implies an expectation of higher speed at the cost of distance and penetration.  Without taking time to look for better comparisons, I would say that Resonant is looking at a potential improvement of 2-3x over the state of the art. 

Resonant plans to give an invited presentation on the technology at the International Microwave Symposium, which takes place the week of June 2nd, in addition to the MWC demos in two weeks.  I suspect that leakage of these details has something to do with the wave of short covering we saw last month, though any short-seller worth his salt would have also recognized the tax loss selling in December as an opportunity.  The net rebate rate has risen back over 20% again recently, but the risk of further dilution remains.  So long as the company continues to grow independently and unprofitably, it will be very difficult to balance that against the opportunity this presents for the next 5 years or so.