Atomera Inc (ATOM)

[Monksdream]

ATOM not looking good

[roadkilll]

November 16, 2023
Atomera Continues to Improve Our MST-SP 5V PMIC Power Switch

Our further optimizations have made the already best-in-class device even better, especially the PMOS device. We are demonstrating up to 30% lower N-device RSP, up to 40% lower P-device RSP, with LG 20%-40% shorter than competitive offerings. These improvements mean that MST-SP provides even higher cost savings and power reductions versus conventional technologies.

The Result: MST-SP enables a die shrink up to 20% for PMICs and other 5V device applications
Additionally, smaller dies also consume less power, generate less heat, and enable the manufacturing of chips at a lower cost per unit. Therefore, advancements in semiconductor technology that shrink the size of the die are instrumental in driving improvements in computing performance.
.
Additionally, smaller dies also consume less power, generate less heat, and enable the manufacturing of chips at a lower cost per unit. Therefore, advancements in semiconductor technology that shrink the size of the die are instrumental in driving improvements in computing performance.

[roadkilll]

Security STM / STMicroelectronics N.V. - Depositary Receipt (Common Stock)
Institution BlackRock Inc.
Latest Disclosed Ownership 76,018,157 shares
Ownership 8.30%
.
BlackRock recently filed as required when they went over 5% in Atomera.

[roadkilll]

Looked up Institutional holders for Atomera and STMicro
#1 for both is BlackRock

[roadkilll]

The timing of Jeff Lewis's departure is really odd.
Management changes based on retirement are usually announced at quarterly filings and 3 to 6 months is a minimum norm. Ask any salesman and you know it is all bout closing the deal to keep your job. Scott says the pace of customer interactions have really ramped since STMicro decided to take the scale production. The pressure on Jeff to close deals is probably higher than ever? Retirement or the two parties not seeing eye to eye?

[Theo]

So Jeffrey tenders his resignation BUT, it's not effective immediately. He's still employed (at least on paper) until March 29th. That tells me that there must be a process in place and he wasn't let go for cause. That was Monday the 11th. Starting Tuesday, at the open, Intermarket Sweep trades began and gained steam for the rest of the week along with large-block Cross-trades in conjunction with large block Form "T" trades both Pre-market and After Hours. As of Friday, the total pre and post market volume for the past 4 days is equal to the Avg Daily Volume. That's huge for a low volume and low float stock like ATOM. The question is who and why?

Just for clarity why the Sweep trades caught my eye;

Intermarket sweep orders (ISO) is a type of stock market order that sweeps several different market centers and scoop up as many shares as possible from them all. Sweeps are typically large blocks, meaning that the trader placing the order has some major financial backing. Sweep orders indicate that the buyer wants to take a position in a hurry, which could imply that he or she is anticipating a large move in the underlying stock's share price in the very near future.

What is the difference between a block order and a sweep order?

A block trade is a privately negotiated transaction, with variables such as shares and position balancing at play. A Sweep trade is an aggressive transaction broken up and sent across multiple exchanges.

In conclusion, I'm questioning the timing of Jeff's departure time-line (March 29th) and the sudden large block trades in a hurry the next 4 days after the 8K release of Jeff's resignation. There has been no sudden sell-off so that suggests to me that someone(s) are accumulating. For what reason are they accumulating and is the timing of the sudden rash of sweep trades and Jeff's resignation coincidental/related, is what I'm pondering. Short covering? Has/is there a buyout coming (and that's why Jeffrey is retiring?

Just things to think about imo...🤔

[roadkilll]

62 y.o. licensing Expert Jeff Lewis announced his retirement form Atomera
The big question being was it job performance related. Atomera is now entering a period where potential licensing should be ramping up if STMicro is seeing validation of the results in scale that the TCAD trials indicated. Lewis was hired in 2021 and Atomera likely knows by now if he the best man for what is about to become the most important position in the com[any if MST is taking the next step.
.
Not seeing anything on the Linked In page for Jeff Lewis.

[roadkilll]

Why a Soitec link? Nov 2023 Whitepaper
Using wafers from Soitec, Atomera has been able to demonstrate the unique dopant retention of
MST on ultra-thinned RF-SOI substrates. Regular RF-SOI (high resistivity, trap-rich) substrates
were thinned to 120A silicon on BOX thickness, and then blanket MST layers plus a 30nm capping
silicon layer were grown. After growth, and during regular device fabrication, the wafers were
implanted with boron. The as-implanted boron profile is quite broad as shown in the white open
circles in Figure 10. The MST oxygen layers then trap diffusing boron to create the steep profiles
as shown in blue (after RTA anneal) and red (after full thermal Dt of the RF-SOI manufacturing
process). Compared to the SSRW profile formed by selective epitaxial growth on the boron-doped
.
MST® for PMIC and RF-SOI Switches
Copyright © 2022-2023 Atomera Incorporated p. 10
SOI structure in Figure 9, MST enables greater than a10x steeper SSRW profile by implanting
boron into the SOI substrate after blanket MST epi growth.
.
Summary
MST provides doping engineering and mobility enhancement, enabling the further scaling of key
semiconductor switch devices. MSTcad is a silicon verified tool for Sentaurus users, which helps
optimize the integration of MST. We have used MSTcad to engineer MST-SP, an industry-leading
5V switch for PMIC applications. MSTcad is actively in use to improve higher voltage and RF-
SOI devices, and there are many further applications of the technology.

[roadkilll]

August 2023 White Paper:
MST-SP 5V PMIC Power Device
Pushing the Industry’s Leading Performance Higher
Hideki Takeuchi, Shuyi Li, and Robert Mears,

In 2022, we launched our MST-SP® (smart profile) product, an asymmetric 5V power device for
PMIC and other applications (details are available in the Atomera white paper, “MST® for PMIC
and RF-SOI Switches”).
Summary and Future Work
The MST-SP device was designed as a power switch for Li-ion battery applications, based on a
source engineering concept for LG scaling. MST’s unique dopant profile control feature enhances
the LG scaling while maintaining BV, HCI, and SOA requirements for scaled devices. Our results
in 2022 demonstrated that MST-SP was the industry’s best-in-class power switch device. Our
further optimizations have extended this lead, especially in the PMOS device – demonstrating up
to 30% lower N-device RSP, up to 40% lower P-device RSP, with LG 20%-40% shorter than
competitive offerings. These improvements mean that MST-SP provides even higher cost savings
and power reductions versus conventional technologies.
.
MST dopant profile control will be effective for drain engineering of higher voltage power switch
devices as well. Work is in progress and will be reported soon.
.
Takes patience as Atomera continues to deliver results that are moving from lab to application.

[roadkilll]

Presented oral presentation overnight at IEEE conference Bangalore
[5H-4]
SSROI (super-steep retrograde on insulator) substrates for RF switch and LNA device performance enhancement Hideki Takeuchi; Atomera Inc., USA. Atomera -Soitec- Hideki Takeuchi with San Jose State University.
.
The Soitec connection looks closer than what Scott can say?

[roadkilll]

Adding at a lower price on more good news.
Soitech does a lot of work with STM and the research out of San Jose State University throws in MST for a synergistic boost when deposited onto ultra-thin RF-SOI wafers. Anyone doubt STM is already using the combo in next generation wafers?

[Theo]

Just adding to my pile.

Ditto 🤑

[Theo]

And now they are going to present a joint paper...😏 HMmmmmmmmmmm....

[SSP]

https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/innovation---technology/RF-SOI.html

[SSP]

Media Alert
https://www.soitec.com/en/company

[SSP]

I did the same

[ktcougar]

Heaven help them if they’re thinking like me lol.

Time will tell but low 6’s seem like a good deal to me. Just adding to my pile.

[SSP]

15K volume buyer just now too, someone thinking like you.

[ktcougar]

Added a bunch today. Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment lol.

[derkampfer]

Nice investigative work 👏

[roadkilll]

Sonic and STMicro are partners in Silicon Carbide Wafers
From CC
Recently, we were invited to give a paper coauthored with Soitec and San Jose State University at the upcoming IEDM conference in March, which will provide details on how MST on an RF-SOI substrate can enhance performance of both RF switches and LNAs.
.
Scott mentions blanket wafers being a short path to royalties. Soitec's SIC solution is a thin wafer glued over the SC wafer. The industry is so secretive and Scott can only hint because partners do not even allow their names to be mentioned. Filling in the blanks is a huge part of investing in this sector. So my guessing continues as I dig.

[roadkilll]

STMicro I Silicon Carbide (SIC) wafers
In 2023, ST plans to invest about $4 billion in capex. About 80% will be devoted to its 300-mm wafer fabs and SiC manufacturing capacity, including its SiC substrate initiative.
Last year, ST continued to ramp up its SiC front-end device production in Ang Mo Kio, Singapore, and announced a plan to build a $730 million integrated SiC epitaxial substrate manufacturing facility in Catania, Italy. Production is expected to start in 2023 and ramp up in 2024, said Merli....
In 2023, ST plans to invest about $4 billion in capex. About 80% will be devoted to its 300-mm wafer fabs and SiC manufacturing capacity, including its SiC substrate initiative.
- can MST help with a major problem, when it comes to yield rate, SiC sucks

[roadkilll]

Short path to royalties?
One of the interesting things about our solutions in those areas is that some of them can be implemented on a (blanket wafer), meaning that we can make an MST wafer that doesn't have to get integrated into the rest of the process flow.

[roadkilll]

Mass exodus of traders thinking they would see a pop after CC. A point I liked from CC
Scott Bibaud
"But as people will remember for ST, they did their phase 3 work a long time ago, kind of put it on the shelf. And now they're taking this, and they're doing it for a brand-new process node. So, they do have some work to try to -- I mean, I think they're going to get very good results on their first run, but their goal is to spread MST in a lot of places, so they can get good results across more and more components in their designs."

* My rose colored glasses on, company has been in right place and is now entering right time as shrinking chip = more benefit from MST. STM will be proving TCAD results with actual scale product. A long list of partners will be waiting to see outcome on scale production before taking their projects off the shelf.

[ktcougar]

Transcript of the earnings call:
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2024/02/13/atomera-atom-q4-2023-earnings-call-transcript/


kt

[ktcougar]

LOS GATOS, CA / ACCESSWIRE /­­ February 13, 2024 / ­­Atomera Incorporated (NASDAQ:ATOM), a semiconductor materials and technology licensing company, today provided a corporate update and announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.

Recent Company Highlights

Achieved revenue from commercial licensee for two milestones

Second customer completed installation of MST technology

Executed an MSTcad license with a large semiconductor manufacturer

Management Commentary

"There is clear evidence the company is executing on its strategy to commercialize MST. With our technology now installed at two customer fabs, we're focusing on moving additional customers along the engagement pipeline toward the royalty phase," said Scott Bibaud, President and CEO. "The semiconductor industry is currently in an ideal state to adopt new technology and the performance improvements enabled by MST are compelling to fabs and foundries seeking to gain cost-effective advantages in highly competitive markets."

Financial Results

Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $550,000. The Company incurred a net loss of ($4.6) million, or ($0.18) per basic and diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to a net loss of ($4.3) million, or ($0.18) per basic and diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP financial measure) in the fourth quarter of 2023 was a loss of ($3.8) million compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of ($3.5) million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

For fiscal year 2023, revenue was $550,000, compared with $382,000 in fiscal 2022. Net loss was ($19.8) million, or ($0.80) per basic and diluted share for fiscal 2023, compared to ($17.4) million, or ($0.75) per basic and diluted share in fiscal 2022. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2023 was a loss of ($16.6) million compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of ($14.1) million in fiscal 2022.

The Company had $19.5 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of December 31, 2023, compared to $21.2 million as of December 31, 2022.

The total number of shares outstanding was 26.1 million as of December 31, 2023.

Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results Webinar

Atomera will host a live video webinar today to discuss its financial results and recent progress.
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024
Time: 2:00 p.m. PT (5:00 p.m. ET)
Webcast: Accessible at https://ir.atomera.com

Note about Non­-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to the unaudited results presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, in this press release, Atomera presents adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Adjusted EBITDA is determined by taking net loss and eliminating the impacts of interest, depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation. Our definition of adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to the definitions of similarly-titled measures used by other companies. We believe that this non-GAAP financial measure, viewed in addition to and not in lieu of our reported GAAP results, provides useful information to investors by providing a more focused measure of operating results. This metric is used as part of the Company's internal reporting to evaluate its operations and the performance of senior management. A table reconciling this measure to the comparable GAAP measure is available in the accompanying financial tables below.

About Atomera Incorporated
Atomera Incorporated is a semiconductor materials and technology licensing company focused on deploying its proprietary, silicon-proven technology into the semiconductor industry. Atomera has developed Mears Silicon TechnologyTM (MST®), which increases performance and power efficiency in semiconductor transistors. MST can be implemented using equipment already deployed in semiconductor manufacturing facilities and is complementary to other nano-scaling technologies already in the semiconductor industry roadmap. More information can be found at www.atomera.com.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/atomera-provides-fourth-quarter-fiscal-210100298.html

https://ir.atomera.com/download/companies/270138a/Presentations/Q423%20Update%20Call%20deck%20FINAL.pdf

[roadkilll]

ARM finished today up $33 billion. Wall Street pumping other people's money into nose bleed big tech valuations.
Nvidia is up from $450 Billion to start 2023 to $1.8 Trillion as of today.
Sellers on the end of those buys are now loaded with cash and tend to have interest in finding the next technology companies with big upside. If a big Wall Street firm is on Tuesday's CC the upside will be explosive.

[roadkilll]

ARM valuation is currently up $26 billion. ATOM valuation moves $26 million on a $1 move.
Atomera not a "breakthrough technology" that Wall Street loves to pump. It does have widespread upgrade potential for the chip industry that is currently being validated at scale by STMicro. A little boring but if chip design sees end customer adoption and value I think it is an easy sell for widespread adoption as it is a cheap and easy installation.
.
2024 has the potential to be a very big year

[ktcougar]

ARM up another 40% today. Wow.

kt

[roadkilll]

ARM's 50% move today shows investors are moving beyond the Magnificent 7. Atomera has a fast developing story of boosting chip performance as chips become smaller and more demanding. CC coming this Tuesday. Hope to see Scott double down on STM will go to production.
Also expect to hear JDA1 seeing more value in the MST performance boost with latest chip designs.

[derkampfer]

Scott Bibaud “very confident we’ll get to royalty revenue with STM” in QA session Needham Conference

[roadkilll]

The focus on coming earnings and conference call
When will MST be qualified by STMicro rather than will it be adopted. A huge de-risking event if STMicro confirms scale production validates benefits they saw with TCAD.

[derkampfer]

Agreed. Patience. Thanks for posting a reminder of his achievements and fact MST been in development 20+ yrs. Its time is coming. STMicro first license signed last year. Revenue stream from production eminent.

[roadkilll]

Robert J. Mears
Dr. Mears is a recognized pioneer and leading expert in nano-scale material science and engineering. In the mid-1980’s, Dr. Mears re-engineered silica optical fiber by adding atoms of erbium (rare earth element) to silica to invent the Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA), a transformative technology for long-distance optical networks.
.
In optical telecommunications this happened between the mid-1980s and 1990s when a device called the erbium-doped fibre amplifier was born, grew up and went to work. It revolutionized telecommunications and is nowadays a vital part of the global optical fibre network that is the backbone of the information age.
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Patince folks as the MST play out is a long term big payday.
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Took a few years but Atomera's is now sitting in the right spot at the right time.
2022 -Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Our transistors are going to find limits, and we’re at atomic scales. And so [this problem] is a place where material science is really going to come in handy.”
.
MST being a material science a lot of companies are now have a more serious interest in.

[roadkilll]

Lou Baseness - found this from his pay site
No nonsense. No fluff. Just vital intelligence to connect the dots on the market's next major tech trends and top investments, based on patent filing activity.

[roadkilll]

Found this old news from Lou Basenes
Atomera has developed patented technologies that extend Moore's law, facilitating transistors at sizes as low as 2nm and 3nm. The company has already announced several "Joint Development Agreements," which are essentially time- and cash-intensive agreements with semiconductor manufacturers to create the next wave of chips of all sorts, primarily for mobile, EV, 5G, etc. The JDA partners have not been announced, but the fees paid by the JDA partners were taxed at the same rate as South Korea, so it is widely speculated that the first JDA partner is either SK Hynix or Samsung.

The company is extremely capital-light. It has few employees and an annual cash burn under $10M. It has more than $20M cash on hand and no debt.

The stock itself is kind of a marvel. Only 23M shares outstanding. The company has generated no significant revenue yet, so there are 4.3M shares held short. With average volume of about 200k, we're looking at more than 20 days to cover.

However, the company is set to generate revenues primarily from its extensive patent collection. This means that if and when the chips that use its patented MST technology pay royalties, nearly 100% of that revenue will go to the company.

The current stock price is about $14. If given a P/E comparable to other semiconductor companies, even $50M in revenue (!) would mean a stock price above $100. Literally any meaningful revenue from even a single fab would put the stock price north of $250.

Given the current market cap (under $350M), and the high level of institutional ownership (more than 6M shares), practically any decent effort could cause this to squeeze like few have seen.

*Not able to find the Fox Business mention today

[SSP]

[Theo]

Lost my trading shares at $7.75 today

I started using my trading shares profits to buy long-dated OTM Calls a couple of months ago...

[Theo]

Notice the April $12.50 Call strike action (volume and open interest) past couple of days? Another 300+ contracts today although I'm not sure whether they were sold or bought...

Catalyst or a hedge? April is the pivot point regardless...🤔

[roadkilll]

Why STMicro is advancing with MST into scale in 2024?

2022 -Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Our transistors are going to find limits, and we’re at atomic scales. And so [this problem] is a place where material science is really going to come in handy.”

.

Atomera’s MST is a semiconductor material technology, typically used to improve the performance of transistors. All of these material innovations help the industry to keep moving forward to achieve cost effective, higher performance and lower power solutions for tomorrow’s electronics.

[SSP]

Lost my trading shares at $7.75 today

Used for covered calls? Edit, no, I should have checked before posting. I just checked the options available, 7.50 and they don't expire until 02/16/24.

[roadkilll]

Wall Street talking to STMicroelectronics insiders? The Boys would probably be buying ATOM for their personal accounts and loading up before starting coverage. Potential for a 10 bagger getting in at this stage. Read where DRAM use has the potential to be massive.
.
Lost my trading shares at $7.75 today and hope to reload on a pullback. Holding a core position for long term and not sure what bid I would take.

[Theo]

Scott seemed frustrated that partners were sitting on news and Atomera is unable to talk specifics

I get the same vibe- Scott over time has gone from seemingly appearing to be reluctantly accepting of their partners insistence of remaining silent to this last CC where he sounds to me like he's beginning to get a little "chippy" and irritated...

[roadkilll]

Needham conference now available for playback.
Scott seemed frustrated that partners were sitting on news and Atomera is unable to talk specifics on what is happening because of the secretive nature where partners don't want to let competition know about advances. Specifically mentioned STMicro news being significant and well known by the industry and not Wall Street.
Noted on the Q&A nobody asking questions.

[Theo]

If a Wall Street Big House asks some questions it will be a big statement about the investing world starting to take an interest in the latest developments

Yup, and dovetails what Craig-Hallum stated yesterday:

[roadkilll]

Going to be interesting to see if this conference gets headlines. More interesting will be who is on the CC when earnings are released. If a Wall Street Big House asks some questions it will be a big statement about the investing world starting to take an interest in the latest developments

[Theo]

Another (AI produced) news piece on the back of yesterday's NR:

LOS GATOS, CA - Atomera Incorporated (NASDAQ:ATOM), a company specializing in semiconductor materials and licensing technology, announced today an increase in its fourth-quarter 2023 revenue forecast to approximately $500,000. This revised figure surpasses the company's previous revenue guidance, which ranged from $300,000 to $350,000.

The upward revision comes after Atomera achieved a key revenue milestone in late December under its first commercial license agreement. This milestone was reached when the customer approved the MST (Mears Silicon Technology™) process following the successful validation of MST film deposition on an Epi tool within their facility. This acceptance indicates that the customer can now independently manufacture wafers with MST, which is expected to expedite development and shorten the timeline to mass production and subsequent royalties for Atomera.

Scott Bibaud, President and CEO of Atomera, stated, "Our first commercial licensee was able to complete installation of our technology and independently validate MST film quality just weeks after receiving our recipe." He noted that this development brings the licensee closer to the commercial distribution of MST-enabled products and demonstrates Atomera's role in enhancing transistor performance and advancing the semiconductor industry.

[Theo]

Just us small investors interested enough to understands the $500,000 in revenue is all about validating what Atomera is offering.

Exactly!
I will be glued to the screen during the conference webcast on the 16th. It will be very interesting to not only see the current Investor Deck slides they show, but, to see what changes have been made to those slides- as well as to listen for and maybe catch some "tells" from Scott or Frank...😉

[roadkilll]

Theo, great share. Just us small investors interested enough to understands the $500,000 in revenue is all about validating what Atomera is offering. Wall Street sees $500,00 as insignificant and not turning up on their screens.

[roadkilll]

The second milestone payment came earlier than expected or even speculated on by Atomera. STMicro must like the cost effective MST solution to better chip performance and ramped the project into a higher gear. The focus for the next CC? "Our customer can now manufacture wafers with MST on their own which should speed development and shorten the time to mass production"