Filtronic is one of 205 organisations nationally to be recognised this year with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise, of which 122 are for International Trade. Filtronic’s successful award entry focused on the outstanding short-term growth in export sales of its microwave and mmWave solutions over a three-year period.

Filtronic was founded in 1977, and specialises in RF, microwave and mmWave subsystems. Its E-band transceivers are used in 5G backhaul, and also find applications in test & measurement, and in High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO satellites). New markets continue to be nurtured, for example E-band transceivers have recently been supplied for a successful trial of a 10Gbps track-to-train backhaul solution in Asia.

“Filtronic’s award celebrates the global nature of our business. It specifically acknowledges the export success of our E-band mmWave transceiver products, of which we have shipped over 50,000 units to date with 99.9% destined for customers outside the UK,” said Walter Magiera, Chief Commercial Officer of Filtronic. “We are very proud to have been honoured with this award, and consider it an exceptional achievement for a company with a 40-year heritage to be growing exports at such a rate.”

“We continue to invest in both capability and research & development, to help us increase our share in the rapidly growing telecom market,” said Richard Gibbs, CEO of Filtronic. “Over the past 18 months we have invested over £1 million in new equipment, and have expanded our workforce, in our hybrid microelectronics assembly facility in Sedgefield, County Durham. This has enabled us to significantly increase capacity, keep production going throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and maintain a strong order book during the 2021 fiscal year.”

Now in its 55th year, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the UK, and are designed to acknowledge and encourage outstanding achievements in the fields of innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting opportunity through social mobility.

Applications for Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2022 open on 1 May 2021. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise.

Editorial contact details:

Fin Farrelly, Marketing Manager, Filtronic plc

Email: marketing@filtronic.com
Web: www.filtronic.com

PR contact:

Helen Duncan, MWE Media Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)7765 250610                 Email: helen.duncan@mwemedia.com

About Filtronic:

Filtronic plc is a designer and manufacturer of advanced RF communications products, supplying leading Original Equipment Manufacturers and Mobile Network Operators in the mobile telecommunications infrastructure, mission-critical communications and defence electronics markets.

Filtronic is AIM listed on the London Stock Exchange, with operations in the UK and the USA

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Filtronic plc (AIM: FTC), the designer and manufacturer of RF, microwave, and mmWave products for the wireless telecoms, mission-critical communications and defence applications markets, today announced that it has joined the HAPS Alliance, a non-profit association dedicated to building a High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) ecosystem that brings digital connectivity to everyone, everywhere.

As a member of the HAPS Alliance, Filtronic will collaborate with world-leading telecommunications, technology, aviation, and aerospace companies to accelerate commercial adoption, advocate for safety and regulatory standards, and help build a cooperative HAPS ecosystem. This cross-industry collaboration is designed to eliminate the ‘Digital Divide’, accelerating the development and adoption of HAPS technology, thus bringing better connectivity to areas globally not served by traditional telecoms infrastructure.

Filtronic has been a major mmWave technology provider to the HAPS industry for several years. Joining the HAPS alliance is an exciting opportunity to take Filtronic’s involvement to the next level, collaborating and innovating with other leading members.

“Our passion for innovation and connectivity is driving us to explore new markets,” said Richard Gibbs, CEO of Filtronic. “We recognise HAPS as a core element within the converging terrestrial and non-terrestrial telecoms ecosystem moving forward. We at Filtronic are excited to become a member and are enthusiastic about exploring the stratosphere as a viable solution to address the lack of broadband connectivity in developing countries.”

The HAPS Alliance members collaborate with other organisations to influence regulatory direction, while promoting the benefits of HAPS in the stratosphere. The HAPS Alliance working groups bring together industry leaders to develop product specifications and promote standardisation in the following ways:

• Telecom: Advocate for global harmonisation of HAPS spectrum at ITU and national level; influence emerging commercial standards, including 3GPP non-terrestrial networks.
• Aviation: Promote industry-managed cooperative separation in the upper airspace, including collaborative testing, simulations, and pilot programs.
• Commercialisation: Demonstrate the industry’s viability to potential customers and build a cooperative HAPS ecosystem.
• Interoperability: Develop product specifications and promote the standardisation of interoperable HAPS network elements.

Editorial contact details:

Fin Farrelly, Marketing Manager, Filtronic plc
Email: marketing@filtronic.com

PR contact:

Helen Duncan, MWE Media Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)7765 250610
Email: helen.duncan@mwemedia.com

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E-band spectrum offers OEMs wide bandwidth, enabling them to provide 5G mobile network operators with high-capacity backhaul, midhaul and fronthaul (collectively known as XHaul). Dell’Oro estimated the global market for E-band transceivers at 83,000 in 2018, which then accounted for around 7% of wireless links being installed. Since then it has been growing at over 35% year-on-year, and is forecast to reach around 370,000 units by 2023.

“When we first developed our Proteus transceiver modules ten years ago, E-band was an attractive but challenging new technology for backhaul applications, offering a much higher data rate than had been possible in the traditional licenced microwave bands. Also, the highly integrated, pre-calibrated architecture was the first to simply drop-in between the baseband modem board and the antenna, enabling an  extremely rapid time to market for our clients,” said Dan Rhodes, Director of Business Development ‒ mmWave Technology at Filtronic. “Since then, the use of E-band links for backhaul, and more recently for fronthaul and midhaul, has grown rapidly. Most recently this has been fuelled by the deployment of 5G networks, where more than 50% of the cells are being backhauled by wireless links rather than fibre.”

In February 2020 Filtronic launched Morpheus II, its latest generation of E-band mmWave transceiver modules, and in July 2020 it celebrated the milestone of having shipped a combined total of 50,000 units (including Proteus and its  successors Theseus, Orpheus and Morpheus II).

Systems containing Filtronic’s core E-band technology have been successfully demonstrated at data rates up to 40Gbps. The compact form factor of Morpheus II modules makes them suitable for use in all types of mmWave XHaul applications, and their readily reconfigurable architecture also provides the ideal basis from which to develop systems for application in High Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS) and ultra-high capacity trackside to train links.

Editorial contact details:

Fin Farrelly, Marketing Manager, Filtronic plc
Email: marketing@filtronic.com
Web: www.filtronic.com

PR contact:

Helen Duncan, MWE Media Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)7765 250610
Email: helen.duncan@mwemedia.com

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NETPark, Sedgefield, UK — 23 July 2020 — Filtronic plc (AIM: FTC), the designer and manufacturer of RF, microwave, and mmWave products for the wireless telecoms, mission-critical communications and defence applications markets, today announced that it has now shipped a total of 50,000 high-performance E-band transceiver modules targeted at the growing 5G backhaul market.

E-band spectrum (in the mmWave frequency ranges 71 – 76GHz and 81 – 86GHz) offers OEMs wide bandwidth, enabling them to provide 5G mobile network operators with high-capacity and high data rate backhaul, midhaul and front-haul (collectively known as XHaul). E-band has been identified as one of the critical wireless technologies required to address the demanding XHaul capacity requirements of 5G networks, and is now experiencing significant growth. Systems containing Filtronic’s core E-band technology have been successfully demonstrated at data rates up to 40Gbps.

“There has been a record demand this year for our flagship E-band transceiver module, Orpheus, which has been delivered in volume to a number of customers for integration into high-capacity mobile backhaul radio solutions,” said Reg Gott, Executive Chairman of Filtronic. “Earlier this year we added the new-generation Morpheus II to our product range, and demand for this module is beginning to take off as well, in particular for the high power option that is desirable for implementing carrier aggregation.”

Both Morpheus II and Orpheus have a highly-integrated architecture with an embedded diplexer and are 100% tested prior to despatch. They contain all the necessary RF transmit and receive functions for an E-band radio link, enabling the module to simply drop in between the antenna and baseband modem, and include a control board that calibrates the whole RF system. Morpheus II also incorporates a new generation of highly linear, high-power amplifier MMICs that have been developed in house by Filtronic. Both products have been qualified for deployment in the latest radio platforms specifically developed for 5G XHaul applications, and Filtronic transceiver modules have been widely deployed and field-proven in wide-bandwidth, high-capacity applications up to 10Gbps per channel.

Filtronic’s leading-edge E-band solutions feature a readily-configurable architecture, and provide an ideal platform to develop systems for other applications globally. These include long-range defence, enterprise, and both high-throughput Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS).

Editorial contact details:
Walter Magiera, Chief Commercial Officer, Filtronic plc
Email: marketing@filtronic.com
Web: www.filtronic.com
PR contact:

Helen Duncan, MWE Media Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)7765 250610 Email: helen.duncan@mwemedia.com

About Filtronic:
Filtronic plc is a designer and manufacturer of advanced RF communications products, supplying leading Original Equipment Manufacturers and Mobile Network Operators in the mobile telecommunications infrastructure and mission-critical communications markets.

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LEEDS, UK — 13 February 2020 — Filtronic plc (AIM: FTC), the designer and manufacturer of RF, microwave, and mmWave products for the wireless telecoms, mission-critical communications and defence applications markets, today announced the launch of Morpheus II, its new generation of mmWave transceiver modules for E-band (71 – 76GHz and 81 – 86 GHz) applications in carrier grade mobile backhaul.

Morpheus II is based on Filtronic’s proven E-band transceiver platform, of which over 36,000 units have already been shipped and deployed worldwide. Each fully-integrated Morpheus II transceiver module contains all the transmit and receive functions necessary for the RF section of an E-band radio link, and provides a simple connection to a high data rate full-duplex modem. They are designed for easy incorporation into outdoor units, giving original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) the advantage of a rapid time-to-market while requiring minimal engineering resource.

Demand for E-band mmWave radio links is growing rapidly, as they can provide high capacity and high data rate XHaul for the latest 5G networks that are being rolled out globally. In 2018 E-band accounted for around 7% of wireless links, and is forecast to continue with year-on-year growth rates of around 36%, according to Dell’Oro Group.

Standard modules have a linear transmitter power control range of -4dBm to +16dBm, with an output third order intermodulation product (IP3) of typically up to +34dBm at the top end of the range. An enhanced power option, extending the control range up to +25dBm, is also available. With a low phase noise of ‑112dBc/Hz at 1MHz, the transceiver modules support a channel bandwidth in excess of 2GHz. They have demonstrated system performance at data rates of 10Gb/s with spectrally efficient 256QAM, and are capable of supporting even higher order modulation schemes. The internal low phase noise VCOs can be adjusted via an SPI interface in 31.25MHz steps, to support ECC/ITU channel arrangements.

A single transmit/receive interface is provided by the integrated diplexer, which connects directly to an external antenna via a standard WR12 interface. The interface between the Morpheus II E-band module and the customer modem is via a single 50-way connector that supplies all communication between the module and the modem, as well as DC power, baseband data and control signals.

With a footprint of 90 x 80mm and weighing only 110g, the Morpheus II transceiver modules are 20% smaller and 50% lighter than the current Orpheus models, with which they retain interface compatibility.

“Morpheus II transceiver modules are 100% calibrated and tested, and are based on a platform that has extensive field-proven performance,” said Dan Rhodes, Director of Business Development ‒ mmWave Technology at Filtronic. “Their compact form factor makes them suitable for use in all types of mmWave XHaul applications, and their readily reconfigurable architecture also provides the ideal basis from which to develop systems for application in high throughput satellites and High Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS).”

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