County Durham-based Filtronic plc, a manufacturer of “advanced RF solutions” for the space, aerospace, defence and telecoms markets, said on Tuesday it has secured its largest single order to date of £47.3 million from SpaceX, for the company’s “next generation, proprietary gallium nitride (GaN) E-band product.”
Filtronic shares rose as much as 5%. The stock has risen more than 80% in the past year.
“The first production units from this contract will ship in FY2027 and are expected to deliver material revenues in FY2027 and FY2028,” said Sedgefield-based Filtronic.
“In recognition of SpaceX agreeing to this substantial order of new technology, the warrants relating to the original Strategic Partnership agreement for next technologies (Tranche 2) have been extended to include E Band GaN alongside other bands in development.
“The vesting criteria has also been amended to double the volume of products required for full vesting and now vests on product delivery rather than on the placement of the purchase order, ensuring closer strategic alignment in the outlook period.
“The contract is the first GaN product from Filtronic’s next generation product lines, delivering more than double the output power of the existing gallium arsenide (GaAs) product line.
“GaN processes enable higher power, improved efficiency, and greater thermal performance-critical advantages for satellite communications and aerospace and defence applications.
“The successful development of this GaN solution reflects Filtronic’s technical leadership and ability to overcome complex design and manufacturing challenges associated with high-power mmWave systems, including advanced packaging and thermal management.
“The result is a high-performance product that sets a new benchmark for size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) in this frequency domain.”
Filtronic CEO Nat Edington said: “We are extremely proud to announce this landmark contract, which not only sets a new commercial record for Filtronic, but also reflect the success of our partnership with world-leading satellite company SpaceX, supporting the Starlink constellation.
“GaN represents a transformative opportunity for the ground segment of LEO communications, and this contract is further testament to the world-class engineering talent of both teams working together.”
Mike Nicholls, VP Engineering Starlink, said: “Filtronic is a valuable partner to SpaceX, and has been an important contributor to the rollout and success of the Starlink constellation. This next generation technology will provide further benefits to our system and our customers’ experience, and we’re excited to enter this next phase with Filtronic.”