Anokiwave: A True Growth Story and Standing Apart from the Noise
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Abhishek Kapoor |
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The excitement around mmW is understandable; its growth rate is like none other in our market. The convergence of an unprecedented demand for bandwidth and the continuing advancements being made in the silicon industry is driving a disruptive and refreshing change to the industry. An exciting market like mmW brings many new entries so we must always ask ourselves – how is Anokiwave differentiating ourselves in the market?
The answer comes down to three things:
Foresight and culture that no one can match. We saw this market coming, and we were called the “crazies” for investing in mmW silicon ICs for phased arrays, but we persisted because we saw the importance of this market. That speaks to the vision and to the choices we made in terms of technical architectures and key performance indicators to provide a solution that was and continues to be appropriate for the market. Our goal is not to just develop an IC just for the sake of developing it, integrating more functionality just because we can do it, but looking at what the market really needs, and that foresight is something that has differentiated Anokiwave and our ability to offer a solution even when the entire market is thinking differently. That is reflected in the type of products Anokiwave offers.
Unmatched products and performance with three released generations of ICs shipping and deployed in the field. The multiple generations of learning gained from our ICs have allowed an accelerated learning curve that most companies have yet to experience as they are just entering the market. Having gone through that learning curve and the operational structures of delivering such high volume, we are able to provide ICs with very high performance that meet the cost targets. Anokiwave already provides some of the highest performing ICs that are in production today instead of a promise of a future delivery. We have delivered, not promised, but delivered, more than a 95% cost reduction to our customers over these three generations and we have aggressive targets going forward. We introduce a new generation every year, we have finished gen-3 – we are on to our gen-4 and planning for gen-5; we are not stopping or slowing down our pace.
In addition to the superior RF performance, the IC families have a very rich digital core which enables functions such as Zero Cal, Kinetic Green and Fast Beam steering. A customer using Anokiwave ICs with Zero Cal enabled will not need array calibration – a revolutionary concept. Feedback from customers indicate this will change the way phased array designs are manufactured in the industry. Kinetic green is a very simple feature that enables a power dissipation saving in the antenna. Using the Kinetic Green function, we believe the total energy savings could be up to 33% - or enough energy to power 82,000 US homes for one year. The superior integration capability of silicon enables Anokiwave to embed power-saving green functionality into its mmW ICs, resulting in a substantial reduction in operating energy consumption.
Finally, the most important differentiator is reality vs. power point presentation. An exciting market like mmW brings many new entries to this market. A common phrase these new entrants use is “available next quarter” or “one spin away” from the product needed. Everything that Anokiwave offers is released and shipping today. We do not believe in offering something we do not currently have to keep customers interested but in delivering what we promise – going back to the Anokiwave value statement – make commitments, meet commitments. We encourage our customers not to get caught up in this game of spec-manship but to build an array and evaluate it at a system level and measure the performance. Look at who needs a fan to cool the system and who does not, how much calibration is needed, does the array meet expected performance. Some of our customers initially went with some of the bigger players because their names were more recognizable – but all of those customers have come back to us – it delays their design cycle, but they are all realizing the performance and cost advantages that Anokiwave provides. Anokiwave ICs work in phased array antennas. Finally, having delivered a 95% cost reduction is a big creditability factor when a company is making a long-term vendor choice. Anokiwave is the only company with ICs in all mmW 5G bands, all mmW SATCOM bands, and engaged in the A&D world all which allows us to leverage the economies of scale and the features and functionality from one segment to another.
Anokiwave has been delivering mmW ICs in commercial volumes for years vs. other products that are "releasing soon".
The excitement around the mmW market emergence is something we see in our careers maybe once or twice if we are lucky. Anokiwave saw it coming and enabled it. We were first to offer commercial mmW ICs and we will continue to lead with our solutions. Our portfolio of IC options enables intelligent, scalable antenna arrays that can be configured for different use cases, power levels, and frequency bands. Anokiwave is the trusted choice of Tier-1 and -2 OEMS worldwide.
