Q4 2023 Akoustis Technologies Inc Earnings Call

Participants

David M. Aichele; EVP of Business Development; Akoustis Technologies, Inc.

Jeffrey B. Shealy; Founder, President, CEO & Director; Akoustis Technologies, Inc.

Kenneth E. Boller; CFO & Corporate Controller; Akoustis Technologies, Inc.

Thomas Andrew Sepenzis; VP of Corporate Development & IR; Akoustis Technologies, Inc.

Anthony Joseph Stoss; Partner & Senior Research Analyst; Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC, Research Division

Craig Andrew Ellis; Senior MD, Director of Research and Senior Semiconductor & Capital Equipment Analyst; B. Riley Securities, Inc., Research Division

Suji Desilva; MD & Senior Research Analyst; ROTH MKM Partners, LLC, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Akoustis Technologies Fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.
At the conclusion of the company's presentation, Akoustis' management will take questions. (Operator Instructions) A replay of the call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Akoustis' website.
I would now like to turn the floor over to Tom Sepenzis.

Thomas Andrew Sepenzis

Thank you, operator, and good morning to everyone on the call. Welcome to Akoustis' fourth quarter fiscal 2023 conference call. We're joined today by our Founder and CEO, Jeff Shealy; CFO, Ken Boller; and EVP of Business Development, Dave Aichele.
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 the 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, we'll also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is presented in our earnings call highlight release available in the Investors Section of akoustis.com.
I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Shealy, Founder and CEO of Akoustis.

Jeffrey B. Shealy

Thank you, Tom, and welcome everyone to our fiscal fourth quarter conference call. During the quarter, we were able to deliver our seventh consecutive quarter of record sales as revenue growth in the June quarter was within our guided range of up 10% to 20% sequentially.
This was driven by a 41% sequential growth in filter products revenue with continuing WiFi 6E ramps across the enterprise market, increased activity in service provider and consumer markets, as well as shipments to our Tier-1 5G mobile RF component customer, for broad sampling of its multiplexer for 5G mobile devices.
Additionally, we experienced a rebound in our SAW filter, automotive and timing control business during the June quarter and we expect this business to show further gains moving forward as new products are introduced, which I will describe in greater detail shortly.
During the June quarter, we had 2 customers that made up greater than 10% of our revenue. XBAW-related sales accounted for the top 5 customers and 6 out of the top 10 customers. Our top 10 customers made up 63% of our revenue. Our top 25 customers made up 77% of revenue.
In terms of regional sales, 3 out of our top 10 customers were Asia-based. Finally, our top 2 customers in Q4 increased their sequential revenue with Akoustis by 18% and 3%, respectively.
We are experiencing the same challenging end-market environment that has been noted by many of our customers and industry peers over the past several weeks as high component inventory levels, weak consumer electronics demand, particularly in mobile handsets, and a slower return to office implementation have negatively impacted multiple segments of the consumer electronics industry.
This corresponds with a slower-than-expected rebound in the automotive, 5G mobile devices and network infrastructure and WiFi markets with focused weakness in both consumer and service provider markets. As a result, we expect revenue for the September quarter to be down approximately 15%.
Despite these macro challenges, we continue to receive new design wins and introduce new products that we expect will facilitate substantial revenue growth over the next 24 months.
I would now like to take a moment to discuss the recent developments involving the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Regarding CHIPS Act funding, the domestic manufacturing program is being implemented by the Department of Commerce or DOC. R&D investments in nanotechnology and the creation of regional high-tech hubs are being driven by the Department of Defense or DoD.
Akoustis' current activity includes, proposal activity with both the DOC and DoD-related programs for domestic semiconductor manufacturing, R&D and the commercialization of leading-edge nanotechnologies. As of today, we have submitted one DoD proposal with Akoustis as the lead contractor or hub, focused on electronic warfare or EW for defense applications. The proposed 5-year contract, if awarded, has an initial program budget of over $150 million. We currently expect the DoD to announce their award selections by the end of September.
Akoustis is seeking to expand its domestic manufacturing footprint, including both semiconductors and advanced packaging at our New York campus under the DOC CHIPS for America program. We are currently awaiting feedback on our pre-application from the DOC, and we expect to file a final application by the end of the calendar year and expect a program (technical difficulty) in calendar year 2024.
We continue to plan our CHIPS application around multiple semiconductor partners which intend to manufacture semiconductor materials, wafers and/or packaging on our New York manufacturing campus.
Next, I would like to discuss several compelling updates in our primary target markets, beginning with WiFi. One of our milestones during the June quarter was to deliver 2 additional WiFi design wins, and we received 4 new wins, all of which are expected to ramp over the next 12 months. These design wins include high-frequency WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 XBAW filter solutions as well as 2.4 gigahertz BAW filter solutions.
During the June quarter, we began sampling our new 5.6 and 6.6 gigahertz WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 filter solutions to multiple customers. These new parts offer approximately 4x size reduction compared to earlier generation parts and initial feedback has been positive.
We have received our first design win for these new filter solutions for our consumer-focused WiFi 6E platform with a multi-user, multiple-in, multiple-out or MU-MIMO architecture. We now have multiple catalogs in customer WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 XBAW filter solutions that are currently selling in the market.
While the overall WiFi market has been impacted over the past 12 months by excess inventory driven by component shortages in 2021 and 2022, and slowing WiFi AP demand post-COVID, we do expect improvement in the next 6 months with normalized inventory levels returning in calendar 2024.
With our continuing design win traction, as evidenced by the 4 new design wins in the June quarter, we expect strong growth in our WiFi business to continue in calendar 2024 and beyond. This will be driven by our expanding portfolio of catalog WiFi products in the spectrum covering 2.4 gigahertz to 7.1 gigahertz combined with our ability to rapidly deliver customized solutions.
Looking ahead, in the September quarter, we expect to receive a design win for next-generation WiFi 7 hardware with a consumer-focused OEM. Further, we also expect to receive a design win for our next-generation WiFi 7 solution with a Tier-1 U.S.-based carrier. And finally, we plan to secure design wins for our Tier-1 enterprise-class customers' WiFi 7 suite of routers and access points.
Next, I would like to discuss our recent developments in the 5G mobile market. We continue to ship our initial 5G mobile filter to our Tier-1 customer in the June quarter. The customer has been sampling its multiplexer that uses our filter and has been waiting for its chipset reference design partner to launch its baseband into the China market.
During the June quarter, our 5G mobile customer brought a Tier-1 smartphone tablet OEM to our Canandaigua, New York fab to perform its own quality audit of our facility and manufacturing process. We successfully passed the audit, including 2 offshore assembly and test locations, further validating our technology and manufacturing capability. This was our first audit by a Tier-1 handset OEM. So this was a major milestone for our company.
We delivered 2 newly developed WiFi 7 filter samples to our Tier-2 mobile customer during the June quarter, and we continue to expect these filters to be qualified and ready for production in the first half of calendar 2024. These 2 new filters are being developed using our foundry process with the customer creating its own designs using our advanced machine learning-driven, AI product development kit, or PDK.
Our customers decide it would like to make minor changes to the first design, and we expect to begin redesign later this year. Our anticipated milestones for the September quarter include: we expect to receive an order for a 2.4 gigahertz WiFi filter for our Tier-2 5G mobile RF front-end module-making customer.
I will now discuss our progress in our network infrastructure business. During the June quarter, we continued XBAW filter shipments to our CBRS customers targeting the U.S. market. We are seeing the 5G Open Radio Access Network or O-RAN market slow along with the broader RAN market as operators take inventory of existing developments.
We do expect the small cell market to improve in calendar 2024 as carriers throughout the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Africa begin to deploy sub-5 gigahertz networks due to increased data demands. We expect carriers to deploy small cells in greater numbers in 5G networks to expand capacity and improve service.
We had several major developments in our network infrastructure business during the June quarter. First, we successfully delivered samples of 7 gigahertz XBAW filters to a Tier-1 European 5G network infrastructure OEM. We were also awarded a development order for a new high-band massive MIMO filter design from the same Tier-1 OEM aimed at the new 7 gigahertz spectrum for 5G base station applications.
For the September quarter, we expect to secure a fourth design win in 5G from a new massive MIMO customer. Furthermore, we are currently working to engineer new improved samples of our 5G band 41 and 5G U.S. 3.8 gigahertz network infrastructure filter solutions. We expect to finalize the design and provide samples in the December quarter.
And now finally, I would like to provide an update on our defense and other businesses. During the June quarter, we achieved several milestones in our Defense and other market segment. We successfully broadened the sampling of our new automotive CV2X XBAW filter solution to multiple customers, while we have been involved in the automotive market, delivering RFMI, SAW filter and crystal components. The introduction of our new XBAW solution for CV2X should significantly expand our potential TAM for the automotive market.
Our new CV2X filter operates between 5.855 gigahertz and 5.925 gigahertz and allows for device-to-device and device-to-network connections for multiple applications aimed at providing safe and effective communication within vehicles. Our new patented filter delivers low-loss performance and enables high-power handling capabilities that establish long-range connectivity for CV2X applications.
We also successfully delivered the second of 2 resonators for the timing control market after our customers asked for wider bandwidth performance earlier in the year. We are now working on qualifying this resonator and our customer is finalizing the development of its low jitter oscillator product that is aimed at multiple end markets. During the quarter, we were also able to secure a development order for a new millimeter wave XBAW filter for a Tier-1 defense customer.
Our biggest success in the Defense and Other Market segment was the introduction of our new XP3F technology, which incorporates a new revolutionary multilayer nanomaterial that incorporates our patented single crystal piezoelectric material. This new nanomaterial was developed with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to scale the XBAW technology to frequencies up to 18 gigahertz.
The new piezoelectric material stack and the accompanying manufacturing process enables high-Q micro-acoustic wide bandwidth filter solutions that will provide improved coexistence compared to competing high-frequency LTCC, IPD and PCB solutions.
We believe the XP3F technology could present Akoustis with significant opportunities in X-band radar, SATCOM, Ku band and upcoming 5G, 6G FR3 spectrum, and we are receiving significant customer interest in both defense and commercial markets.
For the September quarter, in the defense and other market segments, we are expecting to secure a design win of at least one of the following: crystal oscillator, BAW filter and/or SAW filter used in automotive wireless battery management systems or wBMS solutions used in a Tier-1 IC reference design, and we also expect to complete the qualification of the second XBAW resonator for a timing control customer.
And now, I would like to hand the call over to Ken to go through our financial highlights.

Kenneth E. Boller

Thank you, Jeff. For the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2023, the company reported revenue of $8.3 million, which is an increase of more than 13% over the prior quarter ended March 31, 2023, and represents an increase of 60% year-over-year.
On a GAAP basis, operating loss was $17.9 million for the June quarter, driven by revenue of $8.3 million, offset by labor costs of $8.6 million, depreciation and amortization of $3.3 million and other operational costs totaling $14.3 million. As a result, GAAP net loss per share was $0.25.
On a non-GAAP basis, operating loss was $15 million and non-GAAP net loss per share was $15.2 million. Reconciliation of these amounts to the corresponding GAAP measures is available in the press release issued this morning available on the Investors Section of our corporate website.
CapEx spending for Q4 was $1.2 million, a decline from $2.1 million in the prior quarter as we placed into service the last of our ordered equipment of the company's New York fab expansion.
Cash used in operating activities was $8.7 million, which represents the second quarter in a row of double-digit improvement as operating cash spending is down another 12% from $9.9 million in the prior quarter. The company exited the June quarter with $43.1 million of cash and cash equivalents versus $52.7 million at the end of the previous quarter.
In the September quarter, we expect revenue to be down approximately 15% given the broader market weakness along with associated inventory correction. Despite these challenges, we continue to receive design wins and introduce new products that we expect will help us grow our revenue substantially moving forward.
I will now turn the call back over to Jeff for his closing comments.

Jeffrey B. Shealy

Thank you, Ken. Before I wrap up the call, I would like to provide a brief update on pending litigation matters with respect to the lawsuit Qorvo filed against Akoustis in Delaware in 2021, work on the case continues. The company continues to develop its defenses and mitigation strategies and intends to proceed in defending itself vigorously against claims asserted by Qorvo.
Turning to the patent infringement case filed by Akoustis against Qorvo in the Eastern District of Texas, Qorvo has filed a motion to dismiss the case as well as a motion to strike Akoustis' infringement contentions. These motions are typical tactics used by defendants at this early stage of litigation.
For example, in its motion to strike, Qorvo argues that Akoustis should be required to provide individual claim charts for each of the 1,015 Qorvo products accused of infringement in the case. One key takeaway from these updates is the complexity and evolving nature of Akoustis' disputes with Qorvo.
Although, we can provide no assurance as to the outcome of the disputes with Qorvo, Akoustis remains focused on advancing the interest of the company and its shareholders in both cases to obtain the best possible outcome.
And now, I would like to finish by stating that notwithstanding a persistent challenging macroenvironment for the broader semiconductor industry, we are positioned to continue to deliver top-line revenue and unit growth over the next 24 months and beyond driven by 5G mobile, WiFi, automotive, defense and other markets.
During the June quarter, we sampled new products, including our 5.6 gigahertz to 6.6 gigahertz WiFi 6E and 7 filters as well as our new CV2X filter, and introduced a new resonator for the timing control market. We successfully passed a major milestone with a successful audit at our New York fab facility from one of the largest handset and tablet manufacturers in the world, along with our OSAT provider.
In conclusion, we believe the market opportunity for our patented high-frequency XBAW and XP3F filters is substantial. As of August 25, 2023, we have 104 issued patents and 108 patents pending as we continue to build a substantial IP moat around our technology. We continue to work diligently to achieve each of our stated objectives, and we will continue to provide updates on our execution against these objectives going forward.
Finally, I would like to once again thank our employees for their hard work, passion, and dedication, which account for multiple design wins across the WiFi, 5G, network infrastructure, automotive, and defense markets. We have also experienced exceptional momentum in the 5G mobile market, driven by our industry-leading XBAW filters that operate above 3 gigahertz and our new and expanding wafer-level packaging capabilities. 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.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today is from the line of Anthony Stoss with Craig-Hallum.

Anthony Joseph Stoss

Hey, Jeff, congrats, I guess, on all the activity surrounding and the progress. 3 questions I wanted to hear from you today. On the WiFi 7 side, just can you paint a picture when do you expect kind of volume revenues? Similar question on the smartphone tablet customer that just passed your -- audit of your facilities and I have a follow-up.

Jeffrey B. Shealy

So as we said, we've seen despite the WiFi slowdown that we're seeing in the carrier and enterprise, we've seen a significant pickup in the WiFi 7 activity, which is a real bright spot. So in terms of the specific customer activity, let me let Dave kind of articulate what's going on there and also kind of what level we got and what he sees in the mobile space.

David M. Aichele

On the WiFi 7, where I see the activity of that picking up is Q2 of next year. We've got engagements, both in the carrier sector and also in the enterprise sector, active designs that are starting their development runs, and then they'll start working through qualifications later this year. So I expect WiFi 7, both of those sectors to pick -- start in Q2 of next year. There's other activities as well with other customers that may trail quarter after that and these are 2 of our top-tier customers that we deal with right now.
On the smartphone tablet, as we highlighted a successful major milestone of passing the audit. And we've had multiple Tier-1 audits from other market segments. This is the first one we had in the smartphone side. So a huge accomplishment on the Akoustis side and also with OSAT provider. So that one, it's an engagement that we're going to track and watch. We'll be able to give better guidance in later quarters as we see, obviously traction with this customer.

Jeffrey B. Shealy

And Tony, let me add to that. On the mobile front, that's an area where that's -- in the other segments, we actually engage directly with the OEM. This one is one where we engage with a third party. So as we previously stated that our part goes into a more complex module, which then has to be -- is sold into a reference design, which we previously stated that, that's targeting the China market. That China market has limited visibility and also some pretty significant headwinds in it as outlined by others in the space.

Anthony Joseph Stoss

And then lastly, probably a bigger question. Gross margins remained negative even while revenues have grown. Can you give us a sense of where you expect gross margins to pass over to being positive? What kind of metrics you need to get them above 30%? And maybe if you can update us on when you now expect kind of the cash flow breakeven on a quarterly basis?

Jeffrey B. Shealy

Good opportunity to bring Ken in. So Ken, why don't you start it?

Kenneth E. Boller

For gross margins, we are undertaking a number of initiatives to improve our margins to switch over, as you said, to positive. Those are predominantly increasing utilization of our New York fab being one of them as well as decreasing a lot of our back-end costs. Our initial products were larger sizes, mostly 3.5 by 3.5. Our laminate sizes are coming down in size, which dramatically reduces the cost, as well as some cost savings with our providers, the OSATs.
And our new products are also much smaller size and much lesser back-end costs associated with those products as they come online. So we expect, as we improve our laminate reductions and other measures in bringing on new projects that those margins will come down and you'll start to see them become positive in the next few quarters.
And then, as you mentioned, operating cash flow breakeven. We expect that to occur in the October 2024 quarter and still with the same guidance as before when we get to about $15 million to $18 million of revenue per quarter. But also of note, I will say that we've seen operating cash flow decline 12% each quarter for the last 2 quarters. And we have undertaken a number of prudent, but necessary cost-saving initiatives recently, which includes expense controls and aligning our resources to our current customer -- to our current business model. So I expect that operating cash flow to continue to decline, and we're taking measures to make sure that happens and then margins will improve as we see new products come online.

Jeffrey B. Shealy

And Tony, this is Jeff. Just to add to that, I think Ken has previously stated and just to kind of complete the picture. As we transition those gross margins with these cost savings plans, we expect at the time of cash flow breakeven, the gross margins will be in the roughly the 30% range is what we're projecting in how we're modeling it.

Operator

Our next question is from the line of Craig Ellis with B. Riley Securities.

Craig Andrew Ellis

And Jeff and Ken, congratulations on all the customer progress in the most recent quarter. I wanted to follow up on the color for September revenues down 15% quarter-on-quarter. Can you talk a little bit about the gives and takes by the different product groups for the September quarter?
And then, Jeff, can you talk about your confidence that the September quarter would be the bottom in quarterly revenues or the potential for there to be a further decrease out in the fiscal second quarter time frame ending in December?

Jeffrey B. Shealy

So let me just outline and just provide some contrast over what we're seeing relative to Q4. So we expect the September quarter or Q1 to experience the following. We're seeing some slowdown in mobile and WiFi, as I mentioned, particularly the carrier and enterprise-class offset by the WiFi 7 activity pickup. So we see that softness in the WiFi for a period of 1 to 2 quarters.
We are seeing and experiencing a seasonal slowdown in some of the foundry services. We have, as some of -- as part of our foundry services, we also connect in some of the R&D government contracts that we have. We're right in the middle of transitioning from a first or a Phase I program to a Phase II program. So we're certainly seeing that hit in the September quarter as we make that transition.
I will point to that DARPA program that I'm referring to. We were extremely successful. And I think out of the 7 participants, we hit every milestone the customer put in front of us related to that P3F technology we were developing. So we're very bullish on that approach going forward.
And then finally, also in the Q1 September quarter, we see some lead time in supply chain constraints, particularly in the -- in one of our particular Asia OSAT. So those are -- that's really the kind of the puts and takes. But that's really the macroenvironment that we're navigating now.
In terms of confidence, to your second question, in terms of the confidence that September will be a bottom, what we're projecting is 1 to 2 quarters. We're seeing -- I think we mentioned in the script, particularly in WiFi, there has been some inventory buildup in the channel, which needs to clear, and we're projecting 1 to 2 quarters.
So I think internally if you look how we model it is, I would say, we're going to see some softness certainly in the December quarter. That's probably comparable to what we're seeing in the September quarter. But then March quarter began picking back up with the programs that we're currently delivering our products to. There's several in the WiFi space. And we see those picking up and see some nice design wins already coming together for those quarters. So I think I've addressed your question. Any follow-up, please go ahead.

Craig Andrew Ellis

The follow-up question may be for Dave, and it's digging into mobile and the potential for some of the successful activity with different customers to move into a production ramp. And I'll just use the China market as an example. So if we look out at key China selling seasons where the leading players would be developing new product, we've got Golden Week early in October; Singles' Day, November; Lunar New Year in the January-February time frame. And then May Day further out in mid-2Q. As you're engaging with your module partners and other players, when does it look like it would be reasonable for investors to expect more of a volume production ramp if we take those selling seasons as a proxy?

David M. Aichele

Thanks for the question, Craig. I think the -- and Jeff touched on this, our component customer that we've engaged with this, we've made some shipments last quarter and it's into a multiplex that's going into the China market on a reference design. So we've seen limited activity. Right now, I think everybody is aware, obviously, of the depressive state that the China mobile market is in. So we do not have a direct finger on the pulse to the OEMs there. It's something that we have to go through our customer, obviously, to get those visibilities. And so, we're getting updates quarterly on the take rates and the traction. So we'll watch that closely. It's hard to really give any strong guidance until we start seeing some positive trends in that mobile market in China.
The other part is, the other engagements we have with the RF front-end module guys, is mainly focused. I think we've guided in the past focusing on later-year models. And that is one that we've been validating the technology. We've shipped, as we've said in previous quarterly calls that we've shipped solutions that have been validated by them, and it's really navigating a strategy of implementing our technology into those modules. So that's still underway. So the guidance right now has been the out-years on when we would see that take rates. Obviously, as we have better visibility to the platforms to be integrated, we can provide more concrete updates.

Jeffrey B. Shealy

And Craig, let me just add to that from the mobile segment, I just want to emphasize -- reemphasize the quality audit we passed. We actually -- we did continue making shipments to that customer during the June quarter. And also would add, our WLP was part of the supply chain, that's the packaging -- critical packaging for that. That was part of the audit that we passed. And so we're prepared to ship the pieces from our end. There's been no delay on our end, and that supply chain is working really well. So I just want to emphasize how we're positioned, at least to service that market as we've already demonstrated with shipments for the last 2 quarters.

Craig Andrew Ellis

So certainly, it seems like you're executing well on the things that you can control, and it's been very well publicized that the Android market is unusually weak, especially in China. If I could sneak a last one in. Jeff, nice update on your specific plans with both the CHIPS Act and DoD, and you mentioned some milestones. Are there any intermediate update points that investors could look to as it relates to potential funding for either source?

Jeffrey B. Shealy

So if you look historically, when -- from the time that we've been notified of an award decision, that's -- we have to negotiate a contract and the company's position is until we're under contract, we don't make any public announcements because those have to be negotiated and some of the terms of those have to be worked through. So I think the -- we certainly will have an update. We'll provide another update. Just being the year-end for us, it's kind of a short cycle until we're back on with investors after the September quarter. So certainly, we think in the early October when we report again that -- excuse me, in the early November time frame when we report again, we'll have an update. And I would not anticipate we'd be under contract before then.

Operator

Our next question is from the line of Suji Desilva with ROTH MKM.

Suji Desilva

Congrats on the progress here. So can you give us a sense of the WiFi 7 ramp that's coming? Maybe how to size that opportunity to think about it relative to prior WiFi ramps, perhaps attach rate, penetration metrics, or content per access point device or whatever way to think about it, that would be helpful.

Jeffrey B. Shealy

Thanks for your comment, Suji. So we did mention we delivered 2 newly developed WiFi filter samples to a Tier-1 mobile customer during the quarter. But in terms of the some of the market dynamics, I'll let Dave comment on those for WiFi 7.

David M. Aichele

So I think a couple of comments there. As Ken mentioned earlier that we're releasing a new family of WiFi 6E, WiFi 7 products that are better than previous generation in response, but also in smaller form factor. So we're making it more attractive, both from a size and also a performance standpoint, particularly for these higher MIMO count architectures.
So the dollar content per system is actually increasing in the WiFi 7, both with the enterprise sector that we're seeing and also with the carrier side. And I expect the demand to be as same or if not, higher in system unit sales. So overall, the revenue should be increased for Akoustis in these WiFi 7 platforms.
Some examples is that the filter count can go up 50%, almost 100% based on the architectures that we're seeing right now and how they're developing. So they are fairly complex to previous ones. I think you guys are all aware of the WiFi 7 advantages, particularly this high-band selectivity or what they call MLO, multi-link operation is requiring higher performance filters to be able to enable that in the WiFi 7.
So this definitely plays in our favor, and we're keeping a lead as best as we can from a performance technology-wise based on the XBAW technology. So we're very bullish about the WiFi 7 market and all the activity is moving in the right direction as far as what we're seeing from customer deployments.

Suji Desilva

And then my other question is on the auto market. You mentioned it in the prepared remarks. I'm just trying to get a sense of the number of customers you may be engaged with kind of in order of magnitude. Is it handful, is it more than that?
And what is the -- are they semis companies, systems companies, module companies Tier-1s, or auto OEMs directly? And what's the timing of revenue ramp opportunity there just to level set expectations for auto?

David M. Aichele

Suji, I will take the question. Yes, I've been actually out on the road visiting with some of the automotive customers and pretty excited about the opportunity that is presenting to us. It will take several years before you see these platforms rolled out. But we're actually -- so example is the wireless battery management system.
We've got 3 components on our reference design with a Tier-1 IC manufacturer. And so we've got good activity going on in Asia. And that is starting to move into Europe and we expect some of that pickup in North America. So we're pretty excited about the opportunities there. And I think we said that we'd be announcing some design wins.
And then in the CV2X, we've got better than 5 customers that we've been sampling to and CV2X is starting to pick up activity-wise, including in Asia, the ETC, so toll collection. So those are things that we're looking at closely.
And then we've been working with recently some North America OEMs on the automotive side that have more traditional ways of going about building their systems, not using subcontractors, doing it more in-house and we see a lot of activity from discrete components, both from the RFMi on oscillators and SAW filters to our BAW technology for TCUs and other spectrum that we're going after. So there's a lot of activity, and we've got greater than 5 customers that we're selling to into production and obviously, in Tier-1s to smaller companies. But these new opportunities won't really be panning out for another couple of years.

Operator

At this time, I'll hand the call back to Jeff Shealy for closing remarks.

Jeffrey B. Shealy

I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone for your time today. We look forward to speaking with you on our next update call to discuss the current quarter execution against our milestones and future expectations. And with that, I want to wish everybody a very pleasant day. Thank you for your time.

Operator

This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.