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spk00: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Acoustics Technologies' fiscal 2024 second quarter conference call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At the conclusion of the company's presentation, Acoustics Management will take questions. To ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad to be placed into the queue. A replay of the call will be available on the Investor Relations section of Acoustics' website. Thank you. You may begin.
spk07: Thank you, Operator, and good morning to everyone on the call. Welcome to Acoustics' second quarter fiscal 2024 conference call. I am Ken Bowler, CFO, and I'm joined today by our founder and CEO, Jeff Shealy, and EVP of Business Development, Dave Eichle. Before we begin, please note that today's presentation includes forward-looking statements about our business outlook. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this conference call, such as expectations regarding our strategies and operations, including the timing and prospects of product development and customer orders and design wins, possible collaborative or partnering relationships, litigation matters, and expected financial and operating results are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are predictions based on the company's expectations as of today and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. The company and our management team assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made on today's call. Our SEC filings mention important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our latest Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the SEC to get a better understanding of those risks and uncertainties. In addition, our presentation today may also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable gap measure is presented in our earnings call highlights release, available in the investor section of Acoustis.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Shearley, founder and CEO of Acoustis.
spk04: Thank you, Ken, and welcome, everyone, to our FY24 fiscal second quarter conference call. Revenue in the December quarter was within our guided range of flat sequentially. During the December quarter, we had two customers that each made up greater than 10% of our reported revenue. XBAR-related sales accounted for the top five customers and seven out of the top 10 customers. Our top 10 customers made up 58% of revenue. Our top 25 customers made up 74% of revenue. In terms of regional sales, three of our top 10 customers were Asia-based. Our top 36 customers made up 80% of our revenue, with 40% of our sales coming from Asia, followed by 47% of our sales coming from North America, and 13% of our sales coming from Europe. Finally, our top two customers were Asia and US-based customers, respectively, and collectively made up 30% of sales. Last year, we commented that the buildup in channel inventory particularly at our Wi-Fi customers in the Asia region, would adversely impact our revenue in the second half of calendar 2023. Our revenue met our guided targets for September and December quarters. Today, we believe we have worked through the inventory issues from 2023, and we expect demand returning in Wi-Fi with strength in Wi-Fi 6E and first production demand in Wi-Fi 7. Consistent with our early guidance for fiscal Q3 on last quarter's investor call, we reiterate our expectation to return to record quarterly revenue for the quarter ending March 31st, 2024, up 18 to 25% sequentially. The company continues to focus on expense and cost savings to significantly reduce cash burn moving forward. Ken will detail our ongoing activities and impact on reducing our cash burn during his upcoming comments. I would now like to take a moment to discuss updates involving the company's activity related to the Chips and Science Act of 2022. Regarding Chips Act funding, there are two detailed updates to share with investors. First, during the December quarter, we became members of three microelectronics ME Commons hubs focused on electronic warfare, for the Department of Defense. Membership to these hubs is critical as it allows access to be part of the hub proposal team for new government research programs. We currently have two active EW proposals under one hub membership with one of the proposals potentially worth several million dollars annually beginning in the second half of calendar year 2024. Furthermore, we are currently pursuing memberships with additional ME hub centers and will detail our efforts in progress moving forward. Second, the CHIPS Act of 2022 included a provision for a 25% refundable investment tax credit or CHIPS ITC on investments in facilities that manufacture semiconductors or semiconductor manufacturing equipment that were placed in service after December 31st, 2022. We currently estimate the amount of the refundable tax credit applicable to Acoustis to be 3.7 million to 4.7 million over the next 12 to 15 months. Next, I would like to discuss several updates in our primary target markets, beginning with Wi-Fi. Our first milestone for the December quarter in Wi-Fi was to receive a design win in a next-generation Wi-Fi 7 solution with a Tier 1 US-based carrier. Our carrier partner has awarded us design wins for two high-band XBOS filters for Wi-Fi 7. Further, we received prototype orders to support a production ramp in the second half of calendar year 2024. Our second milestone was to secure multiple design wins for our tier one enterprise class customers Wi-Fi 7 suite of routers. We announced this design win last week along with visibility on volume orders to support the production ramp. We support this new platform with a suite of advanced filters covering both wide band and narrow band solutions. Also, our first mass produced aluminum scanium nitride single crystal XBAL filter is to be qualified for production for this customer's application. Our third milestone was to secure a design win for a Wi-Fi 7 solution with a tier one enterprise class OEM. We announced this completion of this milestone in our January 10th press release. This customer is our second tier one customer to adopt multiple wideband and narrowband solutions covering five gigahertz and six gigahertz Wi-Fi 7 for a four by four multi-user MIMO AP platform. We received prototype orders to support a production ramp which is slated to begin in the second half of calendar year 2024. Looking ahead in the March quarter, we expect to ramp XBAR filter production for two programs in Wi-Fi 7 at a tier one enterprise class customer. In addition, we expect to ramp XBAL filter production for Wi-Fi 7 with a tier one enterprise class OEM, and we expect to secure a design win for a Wi-Fi 7 solution with a tier one enterprise class OEM. Next, I would like to discuss our recent developments in the 5G mobile market. During the December quarter, We recognized filter sales, which incorporated our WLP package to our tier one RF component customer. This customer was a top 10 customer on a revenue basis. Also, in the December quarter, we expected to deliver the first of three Wi-Fi filters to our tier two 5G mobile RF front end module making customer. We have contracted with this customer for three filters. We shipped the first of three filters The second filter is releasing to the FAB this month, and the third filter is currently in the design phase of the process. Finally, we successfully engaged a fifth mobile partner offering our XBAW process and foundry for their module and discrete product needs. We have shipped this partner multiple XBAW die for engineering evaluation for a future multiplexer application for the mobile market. Our anticipated milestones for the March quarter include deliver the second of three revised Wi-Fi filters to our Tier 2 5G mobile RF front-end module-making customer. And now I will discuss our progress in our network infrastructure business. During the December quarter, we completed the redesign of our new and improved 5G Band 41 and 5G US 3.8 GHz network infrastructure filter solutions. We successfully sampled the Band 41 filter earlier this month, and we currently are evaluating the performance of our 3.8 gigahertz filter in engineering as we prepare for sampling. During the quarter, we experienced softness in XBAL filter shipments to our 5G network infrastructure customers. However, we expect modest growth of shipments to return in the March quarter. For the March quarter, we expect to secure a foundry order for development of up to four 5G, 4G LTE XBOG WLP die with a tier one SATCOM provider. Second, we expect to gain approved supplier status and achieve a design win with a tier one infrastructure customer. And finally, we expect to complete NRE development and deliver band N104 samples to a tier one network infrastructure customer. Finally, before handing the call off to Ken, I would like to provide an update on our defense and other markets business. During the December quarter, two out of our top 10 customers were in our defense and other business category, and I will begin with an update on our published milestones for the quarter. First, as we announced on January 29th, we secured a ball filter design win for an automotive wireless battery management system, or WBMS, solution using a Tier 1 IC reference design. We expect a production ramp in the March quarter of calendar 2025. Second, we completed the qualification of the optimized second XBall resonator for a key customer in the timing control market. Now that this qualification is complete, the design is released for limited production. The resonator is used in a tunable oscillator application scheduled for production in the second half of calendar 2024. Third, we delivered our first X-band ball filter using Acoustis' advanced XP3F technology to a tier one defense customer. We met with this customer last month and received positive feedback and expect this engagement to continue for X-band phased array radar applications. As previously mentioned, our biggest success in the defense and other market segment was the introduction of our new XP3F technology, which incorporates a new revolutionary patented multi-layer nanomaterial that incorporates our single crystal piezoelectric material. This new nanomaterial was developed with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to scale the XBAL technology to frequencies up to 18 gigahertz. During the December quarter, we began work on our multi-million dollar phase two contract option, which extends our current DARPA coffee program and funding through December 2024. During the December quarter, we continued shipments supporting a new DARPA contract unrelated to the DARPA coffee contract, which requires high performance custom resonators for timing control applications. This customer was a top 10 customer for the December quarter. In addition, we submitted a proposal on a new multi-million dollar program with the Office of Naval Research to fund RF filter multiplexers incorporating our XBAR and P3F materials technology, which, if awarded, could be announced as early as Q2 of calendar 2024 and begin in summer 2024. In our GDSI business, we service 148 customers during the December quarter, and the average customer spend is up approximately 17% over the same quarter last year. As mentioned earlier, Acousys has established memberships with three regional hubs, and GDSI has at least five additional applications pending with remaining hubs, which we expect to convert to memberships by Q2 of calendar 2024. One key customer milestone for the quarter was the successful completion of a supplier quality audit for an FDA approved diagnostic chip aimed at real time PCR results. Finally, GDSI saw a double digit increase in new quoting activity over the prior quarter, which we will push to convert to new orders to grow the business. For the March quarter in the defense and other market segment, we are expecting to deliver the new XBAL PDK to two customers for ongoing foundry engagements and complete the design and sample of a new 2.4 gigahertz Wi-Fi CPE automotive XBAL filter to multiple customers. And now I would like to hand the call over to Ken to go through our financial highlights.
spk07: Thank you, Jeff. For the second quarter ended December 31st, 2023, The company reported revenue of $7 million, which is in line with our prior guidance and flat over the prior quarter ending September 30, 2023. However, this represents an increase of 20% year-over-year. On a gap basis, operating loss was $15 million for the December quarter, driven by revenue of $7 million, offset by labor costs of $8 million, depreciation and amortization of $3.2 million, and other operational costs totaling $10.8 million. It is noteworthy that our labor and other operating costs have declined sequentially. As a result, gap net loss per share was 21 cents. CapEx spending for Q2 was $1.6 million, completing our New York FAB tool capacity expansion project to 500 million filters per year. Cash used in operating activities was $11.3 million, which included additional payroll costs associated with our expense reduction efforts, increased legal costs, and increased AR and other, which will be converted to cash in the March quarter. The inventory channel buildup in Wi-Fi is behind us, and we continue to receive design wins and introduce new products. As a result, we have backlog to support a return to record quarterly revenue in the March quarter, with quarterly sales expected to be up 18 to 25%. On the expense front, we have undertaken aggressive expense reduction and cost-saving measures, that we estimate will reduce our operating cash flow burn rate by 30 to 38% sequentially in the March quarter. Furthermore, with the expense reductions and cost-saving actions in place, we expect the operating cash burn will drop another 30 to 40% in the June quarter. Given the top-line projections, the CHIP's ITC refunds, and full impact of recent cost savings, we continue to expect operating cash flow break-even later this year in the December quarter. The company sits with a strong balance sheet after the recent completion of the $11.5 million underwritten common stock offering announced in late January. And I will now turn the call back over to Jeff for his closing comments.
spk04: Thank you, Ken. The market opportunity for our patented high-frequency XPAW and XP3S filters continues to be substantial. We currently have approximately 189 issued patents, and patents pending, providing a substantial IP moat around our technology. We continue to work aggressively to achieve each of our stated objectives, and we will continue to provide updates on our execution against these objectives as we progress. I want to emphasize to investors that management continues to focus on improving our income statement. As per our guidance, we expect to achieve record quarterly revenues in the March quarter We are diligently pursuing product cost savings to lower operating expenses and improve gross margin. We have undertaken necessary steps to reduce our operating cash burn in the coming quarters. We believe this is prudent in the economic environment that we are facing. Further, I appreciate our employees for their hard work, passion, and dedication in working together to position our company for growth in the quarters ahead. Finally, I also wish to thank our shareholders who continue to support the company. And with that, I would like to open the call for questions from the investment community. Operator, please go ahead with the first question.
spk00: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the start keys. Our first question is from Anthony Stoss with Craig Callum Capital Group. Please proceed.
spk05: Morning, guys. Nice progress. Maybe for Ken, can you talk about your, I guess, the new revenue per quarter for breakeven in Q4, what you think gross margins might be in that quarter to get you to breakeven, and also how Maybe just kind of lay out a linear what you expect OPEX each quarter throughout the year.
spk06: Morning, Tony. Let me comment a little about revenue for operating cash flow break even. I will say that we had significant expense reductions starting in the September-October timeframe, and we continue to do so. We had about 14 million annualized reductions Now we have additional cost savings that push those reductions above $20 million annualized. So that also somewhat brings down the need for the gross margin and the revenue in the quarter of operating cash flow breakeven. But I still predict that to be in the, come down a little bit, but the $11 to $15 million range per quarter of revenue to achieve operating cash flow breakeven. And that would also assume a margin of 20 to 25% in that quarter. On the OpEx side, I think you touched on that as well. Those numbers have come down and they are going to continue to come down as well. I predict our operating expense line on our gap financial statements will be more in the range of about $10 million per quarter by the time we get a full quarter of annualized savings and that we get operating cash flow break even. And we talked about margin improvements as well. We're undertaking a number of measures internally to improve our margins. We're focusing on some of our existing parts where we have high laminate costs. Some of those costs we can bring down on the laminate side as much as half of what it currently is. We also are introducing a number of new products. We have about 17 products in production currently. That number is going to more than double in the next year. So we're introducing more products, and all those products have a lower cost structure to them, particularly on the back end side as they're a smaller form factor. And I think I answered all your questions. If I missed one, let me know, and I'll go back on it.
spk05: No, no, I think you hit them all. And then Jeff would love to hear your views. It sounds like the inventory on the Wi-Fi is now normalized. Maybe from a design perspective, what would you see? And, you know, if you're going to double your products doing it in the next year, what do you think about design activity or number of wins?
spk03: Let's see, in terms of, you know, just in terms of the... You touched on several things. Let me start with the Wi-Fi inventory. I think we emphasized that in the prepared comments. We started seeing that lift with orders as well as ongoing design wins. And we started seeing that back in the October-November timeframe, and that's why we were comfortable kind of providing the guidance back to growth and record quarterly revenue. In terms of just estimated, we provided in the prepared comments what we expect milestones at least over the next quarter. You can see additional design wins there. But in terms of number of design wins, over the next year. Let me ask Dave to kind of touch base because he's a little closer to the customer.
spk01: Good morning, Tony. A couple comments I'll make just following up on Jeff's statements. The two Wi-Fi 7 design ones that we just announced, those are in enterprise class programs. And there's some custom filters that we've done for these two customers. And they will turn into standard products that we're going to market to the rest of the industry as well. The dollar content in these are almost 2x what we had with Wi-Fi 6E programs. So I think that's significant. That's what we're trying to track now is significant design wins that we'll see appreciable revenue. In addition to the other design win we announced with the Wi-Fi 6E program, which is more of a consumer-based, The volumes on that are good. A lot of these are with the new products that Ken mentioned that were released. The two that are getting the most attraction right now that we expect to see multiple design wins per quarter with Wi-Fi 7 now that certification is approved and moving forward and there's a lot of momentum. There was some slowdown last year on Wi-Fi 6E transitioning into Wi-Fi 7. So we see that picking up, and these two parts are in a small form factor that's going to service the 5.5 and the 6.5 gigahertz. We also have investments that we're making on 2.4 gigahertz as well so that we can bundle all three. We focus mainly on high frequency, but recognizing that we do have demand down at lower frequency as well, and we can service that. So we expect, you know, this momentum to be pretty strong through 2024 calendar year, you know, with a lot of the Wi-Fi 7. And you can expect us to make, you know, every quarter announcements on new design wins and give you guidance on one of those projected ramps.
spk05: Thanks, Steve. Best of luck, guys. Thanks, Tony.
spk01: Thank you, Tony.
spk00: Our next question is from Craig Ellis with B Riley Securities. Please proceed.
spk02: Yeah, thanks so much for taking the questions. And guys, congratulations on getting the cost structure down and moving closer to cash flow break-even. I want to start with a follow-up to the prior question. So it seems from the prepared remarks and the comments just provided in Q&A that a lot of the momentum in Wi-Fi is around enterprise products. And so I was hoping to get some further color on what you're seeing on the consumer side and how you would expect the mix of consumer and enterprise to play out as we go through this year.
spk01: Good morning, Craig. This is Dave. So I'll take that question. Yeah, a lot of our activity has been with the enterprise, and the volume, system volumes are not as high in the hundreds of thousands. But as I commented earlier, the dollar content is filters that could range in the 20 to 30 per system. And we've got a unique position here in that we're enabling these systems based on our product portfolio of narrowband and wideband. So that's good to continue to increase our customer base there, and it's usually pretty sticky. Once you have a customer in this sector and you maintain a good customer intimacy and technical support, you will continue to support the new design links. The one market segment that you didn't mention, though, that is pretty strong for us also is the carrier side. We just did a press release yesterday, and that was for Wi-Fi 7 program that we got designed into. If you look at that press release, it lists the subscriber base that they have up to 32 million. Those type of volumes that we see on the carrier side, both for Wi-Fi 16 and Wi-Fi 7, puts it up competitive to the type of volume you see You know, on the consumer side, and then the press release we did several weeks ago was for a consumer grade. So we are starting to penetrate the consumer grade that's been a lower priority just based on it is usually more price sensitive and they go after older technology. But we're seeing that those architectures go into higher MIMO count. and also with the requirements of Wi-Fi 7 due to latency and the channel bandwidth, that the higher performance ball filters and the smaller form factor is more critical. So their negotiations on price is less important. It's more on performance.
spk03: Hey, and Craig, this is Jeff. I just wanted to follow on Dave, you know, summarize the Wi-Fi segment. One of the things I wanted to make sure we added in here was just some of the momentum in the defense and other markets. And that's really been driven by what's going on, not only with our success in the coffee program. I think we mentioned the prepared comments, not only starting up the phase two, but there's definitely a follow-on activity to that at the systems level. And we alluded in the prepared comments on some momentum in the contract. That also is supported by these research hubs that are in place. that we have current proposals in place. We're pretty bullish on being able to secure funding, follow-up funding for the XP3F technology, which, as you know, allows us to access much higher frequencies.
spk02: That's real helpful, guys. And then the follow-up is for Ken, and it's really just a clarification on two things. The first one related to those comments. Ken, as we think about sequential revenue growth and fiscal 3Q, it would seem that it stacks up as being significantly led by enterprise Wi-Fi followed by defense and then networking. Is that the case? And then can you just clarify what the CapEx outlook is for calendar 24 and to the extent there's any linearity profile that you can share that would be helpful too? Thank you.
spk06: Sure, Craig. I'll expand a little bit on CapEx spend. So we've been mentioning over the past few quarters that we're completing our 500 million filter capacity expansion. That has been completed. We are now – we have that capacity. Certainly when we talk about operating cash flow break-even and the revenues needed, that capacity is well beyond what that revenue is. We do not anticipate any real material spend in CapEx for the remainder of calendar year 2024. There are a few open projects that we'll finish. There are a few CapEx items that just come across on everyday business as machines possibly break down or we need a new small type of equipment like an analyzer or something of that sort. But I anticipate CapEx spend for the remainder of the year to be in the hundreds of thousands per quarter or less.
spk01: And then, I guess, Craig, to your question on the Q3 revenue, just trying to give you visibility on that, where you are, good, strong backlog to that. That's why you've seen the guidance being in that 18 to 25%. The good news is that the slowdown we saw, and we talked about the inventories under control, we started to see the tick back up on some of the legacy Wi-Fi 60 programs as they make transition. to the Wi-Fi 7 program. So one example is our enterprise tier one customer that we've announced in the past. Their volumes are picking back up on the Wi-Fi 6E, and we're already starting to get appreciable Wi-Fi 7 pre-production orders that we're ramping. And then the same thing with the carrier. The Wi-Fi 6E program has picked up from reductions in their inventories. So that demand is going on as they transition into the Wi-Fi 7. So that's two examples. up in introduction and the Wi-Fi 7, we're starting to see significant pull under two new products. So there's a lot of good activity there. The network side has slowed down. If you look at 5G overall, Nokia, Ericsson, others in that sector have had poor quarterly earnings, and so that has slowed down the 5G deployments. So there is still some demand on the small cell, but that's going to be less of an effect. some of the engagements that we made in the pre-recorded.
spk02: That's real helpful. And then just finally, Ken, you mentioned AR would improve in the fiscal third quarter. Do you expect that to fully normalize, or does that play out through the fiscal second half of the year? Thank you.
spk06: So, Craig, at the end of December, we had some AR buildup on our balance sheet. That was due to a lot of year-end orders that shipped out towards the end of December that we will collect in this quarter, Q3. There are also some timing issues, particularly with a large program that we have on the NRE side with the government. We can bill them and receive money according to a set schedule. So that's also in our other receivables, other asset section, and we'll collect that in this quarter as well. And I expect that to normalize out throughout the remainder of the year.
spk02: Got it. Thanks, guys.
spk00: Thanks, Craig. And our next question is from Suji De Silva with Roth MKM. Please proceed.
spk08: Good morning, Jeff, Dave, and Ken, and congrats on the progress here. Maybe a longer-term question, Jeff. Given you have multiple segments that seem to have opportunity here and promise, what do you think in a year or two are the larger sort of segment contributors? I mean, I would think it would be mobile, but the defense programs sound like with these hub memberships they could be signaling as well. So any kind of qualitative thoughts there would be helpful.
spk03: Yeah, if you look at activity, there's – Certainly in the, I think we've outlined quite a bit, going from Wi-Fi 6E to Wi-Fi 7, you see not only the content increase. Dave touched on the wideband and narrowband portfolio that we have. The other thing that maybe didn't come through is the ASPs and the Wi-Fi 7 portals. That's favorable for us. So we're kind of mixing into new platforms, which certainly have starting ASPs that are higher. So we're very bullish with the content. Dave outlined 2 to 4x of additional content, so we're pretty excited about that. If you look over in the defense segment, As David indicated, it has slowed down. We do see that picking up through the year. While it's small, we do expect that business to roughly triple over the next year if you look at some of the internal modeling. Wi-Fi, we expect very strong performance there. Defense is On the defense side, several contract programs, and we mentioned in the prepared comments that we would be expecting, if awarded, At least 1 of those contracts begin mid year and we continue on with the phase 2 at DARPA and then that has spawned some additional activity in the foundry. So that's strong and also some of the new spinoff programs that have come there. You mentioned mobile, so I'll touch on that. We have been addressing – we've got a foundry activity ongoing there where we're providing filters for fully integrated solutions. We'll see how that plays out, but we've been – We mentioned the prepared comments that we ship the 1st filter. There's 2 additional filters that are in the design and fabrication phase. So that can be a contributor. What I, what I will say, though, kind of overarching. is if you look at the model that we're charging to, the mobile would be upside to the model that we're projecting for the full year. And so as we talk about getting the cash flow break even at the end of the year, and we do expect, you know, that cash flow to be a little lumpy going through the year because we've got ITC credits and the timing of those. Ken mentioned some of the timing challenges. But overall, the mobile would be upside to the plan and with strong performance in defense, Wi-Fi, as well as a network on a percentage growth basis.
spk08: Jeff, that's a very helpful color on what's embedded in your expectations here. Second question is on the I guess the new single crystal product you're sampling and just understand the competitive landscape again and whether the single crystal product expands your competitive advantage, just the color on there and whether that opens up markets or whether it's kind of continuous across the products you're doing to that new one.
spk03: So, yeah, I'll start with that and then ask Dave to kind of follow in. That particular product that we mentioned that's going in a new Wi-Fi 7 design, we're utilizing that to obtain some performance enhancements that we think are differentiated. It is amongst the narrowband designs that we're selling. Again, just a reminder, the Wi-Fi 7 design, incorporates both wideband and narrowband. We have multiple narrowband custom designs, which there really are no second source for, so we're not having to compete with second source on those, and so that helps us with our bundling activities. So that's in terms of the single crystal, and maybe Dave wants to add anything else there.
spk01: Yes, Suji, I'll comment that two things, you know, really with the single crystal, you know, the development that we've done for the last couple of years to introduce, you know, the dope in with the aluminum nitride has enabled us to really service, you know, the narrow band and the wide band filters, you know, for certain market segments. So the single crystal gives us some advantages on power handling, you know, with some of these applications where, you've got this really steep rejection and a narrow transition window. Also, we've seen some improvement in harmonics, which are critical for some of these COSYS-type applications. The other thing is it's a building block of our XP3F, which, again, is a unique feature of Acoustus. And the technical community recognizes that and that this is a manufactured process with this multilayer nanomaterial compared to, it's gaining pretty significant interest from the defense industry base, but also from the 5G sector that's looking at, or I should say the cellular sector that's looking at 6G for FR3, and then also the SATCOM market. So the Zoom Crystal is a good building block for discrete devices and also for these high-performance technologies like the XP3F.
spk08: Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Jeff. And my last question is just an update, if you can, on the litigation with Corvo. That would be helpful. Thank you.
spk03: Thank you, Suji. I'll take that one. Regarding the lawsuit Corvo filed against Acoustis in Delaware, the case has reached a point where I can share Acoustis' view that the facts do not support the wide-ranging allegations made by Corvo. Acoustis filed a motion for partial summary judgment on February 1st. And if granted in full, this motion would dispense with a majority of Corvo's complaints, everything but the patent claims. But I'll add that the company is well-positioned on the patent claims. As mentioned in prior calls, the company has developed design updates to demonstrate with real-world data that XBAL filters do not use Corvo's patents. The motion we filed also asked the court to confirm that these designs do not infringe one of the two Corvo patents at issue. The other Corvo patent expires this summer. Acoustis also believes Corvo's damage experts use faulty methods and assumptions to develop key parts of Corvo's estimate of damages. Acoustis has filed a motion to exclude that testimony. This motion represents an additional challenge to key parts of Corvo's claims. Please keep in mind Even if the court ultimately does not grant Acoustis' motions, the defects in Corvo's case will remain hurdles Corvo would have to overcome at any trial. Corvo has filed its own motion for partial summary judgment, but this motion is limited to a ruling on the validity of Corvo patents. No matter the outcome of the motion, Corvo would still bear the burden of providing Acoustis products, approving Acoustis products and French Corvo patents. notwithstanding all the engineering performed by Acoustis to support its defense in the case. Now turning to the lawsuit filed by Acoustis against Corvo in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, this case is beginning to gather steam. As a reminder, this lawsuit alleges Corvo is infringing a patent licensed exclusively to Acoustis by Cornell University. As described in past calls, Corvo has filed a motion to dismiss the case and a motion to strike Acoustis' infringement contentions. The court held a hearing on Corvo's motion to strike on January 10, 2024. After hearing both sides, the court denied Corvo's motion to strike. As a result, this case is moving forward at full steam.
spk08: Thanks for that detailed update, Jeff.
spk09: Thanks, guys.
spk00: We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.
spk03: Okay. Yeah, so this is Jeff. I want to thank everybody for your time today. I did want to point out that one typo that we had in the prepared comments was We actually sampled the 3.8 gigahertz and shipped samples of that 3.8 gigahertz, and that was not the band 41. So I just want to clarify that before we end the call. With that, we look forward to speaking with you during our next update call to discuss the current quarter's execution against our milestones that we discussed today, as well as future expectations. And with that, I'd like to wish everybody a great day, and thank you and goodbye.
spk00: Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.
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