Published on June 17th, 2021 📆 | 4229 Views ⚑
0Is Resonant Poised For A Breakout With Its Proprietary RF Filter Technology?
The hype around 5G wireless network technology is currently off the charts. But just because your smart phone says itâs on hooked up to a 5G network doesnât mean itâs truly running 5G. In fact, most people are unaware of the reality that weâve still got a way to go for true 5G. Resonant Inc. says that its XBAR radio frequency (RF) filter is one of the keys to getting us there.
Resonant, a late-stage tech development company, is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and was founded in 2014. The company trades on NASDAQ under the symbol RESN and has a market capitalization of nearly $225 million. Resonant does no manufacturing itself, but is a provider of intellectual property (IP) and services to device manufacturers.
The primary IP it offers is the aforementioned RF filters. Youâve probably never heard of them, but theyâre a vital component of your smart phone. âTodayâs cell phone has a big wide data pipe coming in,â explained George Holmes, Resonantâs Chairman and CEO. âRF filters are physical hardware devices that keep signals from colliding. When signals collide, the phone gets hot, battery life goes down, and your movie download takes longer. Preventing those collisions gets harder with 5G, and with the new WiFi spectrum allocated by the FCC.â
That makes the filters important not only because of the greater demands from a technology perspective, but also because of sheer numbers. âThe first iPhone had less than a dozen filters,â Holmes said. âThe latest one has about a hundred.â
In the end, of course, all the numbers and technology arenât worth a thing if they donât improve the user experience. Thatâs where true 5G holds immense promise: where the download time for a 3 gigabit movie with current technology might take over 20 minutes, properly functioning 5G technology will cut that time to just under half a minute.
And Resonant believes itâs uniquely capable to help deliver what will be needed to make that âproperly functioningâ qualifier a reality, and that its independence from manufacturing is a strength. When the company was designing its 4G IP, it developed its proprietary ISN design software platform, which it says allows it to leapfrog the traditional iterative filter development process. âBecause of the precision of our design software tool, we were able to make use of Chevy manufacturing technology for devices that run like a Ferrari,â said Mike Eddy, VP, Corporate Development at Resonant. âBut for the next generation, you need a Lamborghini. Now the legacy guys who are married to foundries are trying to make their Ferraris look like Lamborghinis. With our XBAR technology, we came up with a way to leverage new engineered substrates with our new structures, and our filters are running like a Lamborghini right out of the gate. Our competitors will try to get close to XBAR, but they canât match it.â
Of course, the proof of all that is in the business results. Like so many tech companies, Resonant has experienced the hype cycleâtheir stock price spiked after their IPO, and has had some subsequent lesser spikes since with various news releases, but has averaged flat for the past couple years until posting a substantial gain in the first half of this year. Holmes is brutally honest about the missteps along the way. âWe got out over our own skis a few times with some public discussions that shouldnât have taken place,â he said.
And so far the company remains unprofitable. But Holmes believes itâs firmly on the path to profitability. âWhen I joined, our market cap was $11 million,â he said. âNow itâs headed for $230 million. Our business is growing. We gave honest guidance through the tough times of COVID, and met or exceeded it each quarter. I believe weâll hit our cash flow breakeven target sometime in 2022. If you look at our peers, they bought fabs and manufacture for themselves, so their road to profitability is much tougher. Our business model is simple: we license our technology to the worldâs biggest companies.â
The company points to its licensing agreement with Murata, the worldâs largest filter manufacturer, with 38% market share, as the example for its plan of attack. âWe have four XBAR devices currently under contract,â Holmes said. âWe only need twelve concurrently, of the same magnitude, to reach cash flow breakeven.â
Resonant points to two other factors in its favor: its strong IP portfolio and its advisory board. The company boasts over 300 total patents, with half of those centered on its XBAR technology. Its advisory board, meanwhile, includes such names as Clint Brown, who was Director Business Development Mobility Wireless Connectivity at Broadcom and was the Vice Chairman of the WiFi Alliance; RubĂŠn Caballero, Corporate VP of Engineering, Devices & Technology in the Mixed Reality & AI Division at Microsoft, previously VP of Engineering at Apple; and Peter Gammel, former CTO of Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
In the end, itâs about Resonantâs belief that its technology is the answer for true 5G. âWeâre not trying to reinvent the world,â said Holmes. âI think our business model plays really well in this space. It boils down to really simple stuff: downloading a movie in 30 seconds, betting in real time while you drive to the sports field, VR and near-virtual, and glasses with no other hardware where you can pull up a screen and type virtually. Think Mission Impossible or James Bond and techâthis is our life now. When it comes right down to it, everybody just wants it to work. We partner with the best companies to get it to market faster.â
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