is currently solvent and making every effort to stay that way.
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They moved it up a week... Atomera to Announce Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results and Host Webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023
LOS GATOS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2023 / Atomera Incorporated (NASDAQ:ATOM), a semiconductor materials and technology licensing company, announced today that it plans to release its third quarter 2023 financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023.
The company will host a live video Zoom webinar at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023, to discuss the results. The live webinar can be accessed through Atomera's investor relations website at https://ir.atomera.com. A replay of the webcast will be available for 12 months.
Appears things are happening- been kinda busy time for Atomera these past recent few weeks what with the webcast conferences/updates and new releases. 😉
OSTK Not sure if you're still in or interested but: (#msg-173041312)
$ACHR ...and Cathie continued today...
$EXAS $66 a share today- Wished Ida held it when my buy in average was $9...
"Oh crap... I've got a boat load of EXAS and they're awaiting phase III trial results sometime "middle of February" too..." (#msg-83947092)
NEWS: Oct 16, 2023 | Atomera’s dopant engineering reaches 50% of top chip makers
Atomera Inc. (Los Gatos, Calif.), a company founded by Robert Mears, the pioneer of the erbium-doped fibre amplifier, is making progress with its semiconductor dopant engineering technology.
The company is now engaged at an R&D level with about two-dozen chip manufacturers and recently signed a full commercial exploitation license allowing STMicroelectronics to use its Mears Silicon Technology (MST) manufacturing process.
ST will use the technology to improve smart power products although the claimed benefits for using MST extend much more broadly. Benefits can be seen across applications from conventional logic to analog, RF and RFSOI, and sense-amplifier peripheral circuitry for DRAM and for MRAM and ReRAM. The technique is also effective in improving the performance of high-K metal gate insulation. There are also benefits in CMOS image sensors.
The company’s progress so far has been slow and painstaking. But the company reckons that with the development of nanometer-scale processes and such techniques as gate-all-around transistors, the market is moving towards the company.
In 2001, after his work on the erbium-doped fibre amplifier, Mears founded Nanovis LLC to exploit the nanometer-scale engineering of materials. Subsequently there was a name change to Mears Technologies before the company changed again to become Atomera in 2016 and closed an initial public offering of shares. ST took an initial R&D license to investigate the technology in 2018 (see ST licenses Atomera manufacturing technology).
Half of the best
“These things take time. We are engaged with a number of companies,” said Mears, CTO of Atomera, in an interview with eeNews Europe. Although almost all of Atomera’s engagements are still in the R&D stage they represent about 50 percent of the world’s top chip manufacturers, the company claims.
MST is typically used to deposit partial monolayers of oxygen on the silicon wafer surface. The introduction of these layers can be used to help enhance mobility and current flow in the x-y plane and reduce it in the z-direction – which would typically be leakage current in transistors. The technique is also used to control doping profiles. This control is not just in the z-direction but can also be used to control lateral diffusion. Thus, the introduction of structured monolayers of oxygen within crystalline silicon can be used to create highly precise doping profiles.
The introduction of partial monolayers of oxygen (dark lines in silicon cross-section) allows precise control of carrier mobility and dopant diffusion. Source: Atomera Inc.
“Typically, a number of oxygen layers are all part of the process tailored to a particular application,” said Jeff Lewis, senior vice president of business development and marketing at Atomera.
Improved mobility and precise dopant control can then translate into higher performance transistors and smaller logic die sizes. In power applications improvements typically include lower “on” resistance, higher breakdown voltages, and die size reductions of 20 percent or more.
Given these advantages why hasn’t Atomera made more progress, sooner?
Mears acknowledges that trying to retrofit MST to semiconductor manufacturing processes with established doping profiles has not been easy. MST adds an additional process step or steps in manufacturing and in the past may have then required multiple R&D iterations to characterize the dopant profiles.
In at the beginning
“There’s no doubt the easiest point of adoption is at the beginning of a development cycle,” Mears said. In the past, the greater part of node development was a geometry shrink with minimal readjustment of doping profiles, he added.
Also, there was some distrust of Technical CAD (TCAD) tools to model these things but there’s now more precision in TCAD tools, Mears said. “Increasingly different process technologies are hitting a wall. So, simple scaling doesn’t apply anymore.”
The needed to use an epitaxial deposition tool was also an inhibition on the uptake of MST. “Historically what people wanted to do was shrink without requiring new tools,” said Mears. An epitaxial deposition tool is required to lay down the oxygen monolayers but the MST process is now supported on epi tools from Applied Materials, ASM and Kokusai Electric.
“Analog and power chipmakers were familiar with using ‘epi’ for bipolar transistors but when we started with CMOS, epitaxial deposition was not used,” said Mears. But increasingly it is being adopted at the leading-edge for compressive strain in source and drain and for silicon-germanium in the [transistor] channel, Mears stated. As a result, epitaxial deposition is becoming mainstream for transistor devices. This has removed another barrier to adoption.
Above all, the benefits from enhanced mobility and precision dopant positioning are becoming greater as geometries shrink. Reportedly the potential benefit in mobility from the use of MST in FinFETs is 10 percent. In GAA it advances to 15 percent or more. The potential performance benefit from dopant engineering in FinFETs is 15 percent but is 20 percent in GAA.
GAA and DRAM
“We are working with half of the world’s top semiconductor producers today and we have been doing work in GAA and in DRAM,” said Mears. In these two fields the number of players is small, but Lewis said: “There’s nothing we can announce.”
The company’s business model is based on technology licensing and royalties. As such the extended period gaining traction with the market has allowed Atomera to build an extensive patent portfolio with which to protect its technology. Since 2016 the company has filed more than 200 patents. This compares with 107 patents the company filed in the 13 years from 2003 to 2015. This should provide Atomera with patent protection into the 2040s.
The company has a set of white papers available from its website covering the advantages of MST in gate-all-around processes at 3nm/2nm, for switches in PMIC and RFSOI and in sense amplifiers for DRAM. There are also links to numerous peer-reviewed technical papers presented at conferences over many years.
“We’re working on some of the biggest problem areas that face logic and memory,” said Lewis.
In addition to the previous:
"...they doubled down on their position in q2, can't tell what their avg cost is but one can assume they have a lower average than most. They started their position in q3 2022, 13f filings really only tell what is owned on the last day of the quarter,..."
Apparently, they doubled their position a few months ago after initiating a position one year ago.
FWIW- Interesting post on ST:
"Jacob Asset management has 1.67% of their portfolio in Atom. While that is probably less than anyone reading this, it's pretty big for an institutional investor. They have a few different funds, their ownership in Atom is not index related. They own Atom in their "Jacob Internet Fund" described as: The Jacob Internet Fund seeks to provide its investors with above average total returns from a select group of companies within the Internet and technology sector that the Fund believes has significant growth potential. To achieve this goal, the Fund looks to own companies with, in their opinion, sustainable competitive advantages that may allow them to generate above average returns on capital over long periods of time. "
The following observation is also somewhat compelling:
"Atom is the ONLY pre revenue company in this fund. Seems like they are pretty confident that will change in the not too distant future."
Disclaimer: I have not verified the claims nor done any DD on Jacob Asset Management- I have, however, no reason to doubt the poster as previous posting have been considered reliable to my satisfaction.
Cathie (ARK investments) bought more $ACHR today (#msg-173022354)
Touring the world... it's been GREAT!😁
Looking forward to some sun now... cya in Florida!😎
No, have thought about it numerous times over the years- (I have clubs and played when I was a "kid"- bro-inlaw owned a golf course), just haven't taken the time or effort to get my swing back.
Btw, I NEVER really had a swing to begin with, but, wth- right?😏
Heading to Florida 3 weeks from today 😎
$ATOM to release Q3 earnings on November 8th after market close (per TDAmeritrade/Schwab)
Ditto again today 🤔 (Ark bought more $ACHR )
$ACHR News: Cathie Wood Pours Millions Into These 2 Stocks, Analysts Say They Have Strong Upside Potential — Here’s Why You Should Pay Attention
"...
...In fact, Wood is not alone in thinking these are worthwhile additions to a portfolio. According to the TipRanks database, certain Street analysts see big gains ahead for the pair. Let’s see why investors should pay attention here.
Archer Aviation (ACHR)
Speaking of disruptive innovation, let’s delve into the realm of urban air mobility. Archer Aviation is an innovative electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer and technology company. Archer is a key player in the emerging urban air mobility (UAM) industry, with a mission to revolutionize urban transportation by developing sustainable and efficient electric aircraft designed for short-distance, urban air travel.
It’s still early days for this pre-revenue firm, but Archer has some big backers behind it and recently obtained a $215 million investment from a consortium that featured Stellantis, Boeing, and United Airlines.
The backlog for its eVTOL vehicle, Midnight, includes U.S. airlines United and Mesa, both of which are considered strategic partners, and so is Stellantis, the auto giant responsible for being the exclusive contract manufacturer for the mass production of Midnight. Archer has set its sights on achieving certification in 2024 and launching commercial operations the following year.
More in the here and now, earlier this month, the company announced that the U.S. Air Force had delivered the company’s initial payment, totaling nearly $1 million for a mobile flight simulator. It amounts to the first payment of the recently disclosed contracts that have a value of up to $142 million.
The stock has been one of the year’s biggest success stories, even after a recent pullback, delivering year-to-date gains of 180%. Meanwhile, Wood has been loading up. She bought 6,005,798 shares over the past 2 months via her ARKK, ARKQ, and ARKX ETFs. These ETFs now hold 15,798,848 shares combined, which currently command a market value of more than $82 million.
While there are plenty of unknowns ahead for this disruptor, Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth thinks the company offers a unique value proposition.
“Archer continue[s] to lead on certification among companies under coverage, albeit FAA timelines are far from certain, and the industry continues to move forward with certification-conforming aircraft coming in 2024 (with pilot-on-board flights likely at Archer and Joby in 1H24), which we believe should build momentum in sentiment among investors and the public,” Syth explained. “While we are generally constructive on the prospects and opportunity for the group, ACHR stands out as particularly compelling at current valuation combined with the progress to date and a balanced approach to commercialization.”
These comments underpin Syth’s Outperform (i.e., Buy) rating while her $9 price target implies shares will gain 71% over the coming year. (To watch Syth’s track record, click here)
Overall, the bulls are definitely running for ACHR, as the stock’s Strong Buy consensus rating shows – it is backed up by 4 unanimously positive analyst reviews. The shares are trading for $5.21 and the $9.5 average price target suggests a one-year upside potential of ~81%."
Today's action looks like a little covering taking place. (Spike on low volume)
Company is active on media all of a sudden- shorts smelling news?
Ark bought more $ACHR today too (#msg-172990353) 😉
News (from Atomera's website): Boosting Semiconductor Performance With Quantum-Engineered Materials
Atomera-a semiconductor materials and technology licensing company, is the newest member of the ESD Alliance. In welcoming Atomera to our membership, I spoke with Atomera CEO Scott Bibaud to learn more about its atomic-level technology that enhances transistors to improve performance in electronic products. We also discussed quantum-engineered materials and their impact on chip performance, recruiting and industry trends.
Smith: The Atomera website highlights quantum-engineered materials. Can you elaborate on what a quantum-engineered material is and why it is different than other materials?
Bibaud: We consider a material to be quantum-engineered when it is first designed using quantum-mechanical ab initio simulations that identify the required material properties. This is in contrast to most materials in use in the semiconductor industry, which are either known in nature or developed empirically. Atomera’s MST® (Mears Silicon Technology™) is an example of a bottoms-up quantum-engineered material as are others such as ReRAM/MRAM memory elements, quantum wells/dots, and high-K metal gate (HKMG) metal stacks.
Smith: How do quantum-engineered materials improve chip performance? What steps does a fab need to take to integrate quantum-engineered materials?
Bibaud: Quantum-engineered materials are used in a variety of applications and can provide benefits in chip power, performance, area, and cost (PPAC) and memory storage performance. Integration into the fabrication process depends on where the material is used. In each case, the overall system benefit must be assessed against the change in manufacturing cost – significant changes are only merited if they provide significant benefits.
HSIf the physical and electrical properties of the quantum-engineered material closely resemble the baseline semiconductor material such as silicon, there is often a straightforward integration path into conventional manufacturing processes. However, the quantum-engineered features may subtly alter the interactions with electrical dopants and semiconductor point-defects. In a material such as MST, this enables high-precision control of doping profiles and reduces surface roughness scattering at adjacent dielectric interfaces. The improved dielectric interface further facilitates improvement in wafer-level reliability.
To take advantage of these parametric benefits, an epitaxial* step must be inserted into the flow, either as a blanket deposition on the starting substrate (for a restricted set of flows) or selectively during the front-end process steps. Typically, implants also need to be re-optimized.
Smith: Design and fabrication have been unconnected parts of the semiconductor flow. Do you see that changing or evolving?
Bibaud: This has been changing for several years now. Nearly all FinFET nodes were designed using a DTCO (Design and Technology Co-Optimization) technique whereby design experts work in parallel with the process development team to determine the PPAC benefits of the process and suggest critical optimizations to improve this metric.
The introduction of quantum-engineered materials such as Atomera’s MST works in a similar way in that it requires close collaboration between the material vendor and the customer’s process development team. This ensures that the customer can derive the maximum benefits and ROI by employing quantum-engineered materials.
Smith: Staffing shortages are a huge problem for the semiconductor industry. How are you addressing the recruiting and hiring challenges?
ImageBibaud: Since our material is applicable to a wide variety of processes from legacy 180nm to the latest gate-all-around and DRAM, we seek people who are experienced with both the intricacies of semiconductor processing as well as the impacts on the device and the end products. Therefore, we typically hire extremely experienced people from the major IC companies as well as from the EDA and IP companies focused on transistor-level design. Like the rest of the semiconductor industry, we see the critical need for workforce development to support our industry.
Smith: What technology trends are you seeing?
Bibaud: The major trend we see is the enormous power needs of AI running up against the slowdown in device scaling.
The rate of AI adoption is accelerating the proliferation of expensive, power-hungry GPUs, high-bandwidth DRAMs, and other data center devices. Unfortunately, this is coupled with the end of the easy scaling era of Moore’s Law, whereby PPAC improvements are becoming much more difficult and expensive to achieve. This is especially true in gate-all-around (GAA) devices, which have become so difficult to develop that an ecosystem of suppliers is emerging to provide tools, materials, and process modules to enable these devices. The result is that AI-based workloads are consuming a measurable part of the world’s total electric production.
HSThis would be (marginally) acceptable if this power consumption was all doing useful work. But it isn’t – there is a lot of waste. And one of the primary causes of the waste is the little-understood issue of random dopant fluctuation, or RDF. RDF is the primary cause of transistor variability, and this variability determines how much voltage scaling can be applied to GPUs, CPUs, and nearly all other processors. It also degrades the refresh interval in DRAMs. DRAM refresh accounts for 10%-15% of total server power today and is increasing; halving the RDF in the sense amps could cut refresh power by more than 2x.
A relatively easy solution for RDF-caused power waste might be to make device sizes larger. This would reduce mismatch but it is the opposite of scaling.
The industry needs a better solution to minimize RDF. Currently, alternative methods such as carbon pinning, counter-doping, and lower-temperature processing steps are being deployed to mitigate the issue. While they do offer some improvements, these approaches aren’t effective enough. The good news is that advanced quantum-engineered materials are showing very promising results in addressing RDF.
*Epitaxy is a type of material deposition in which the deposited layers maintain the same orientation as the crystalline seed layer.
About Scott Bibaud
Scott Bibaud is President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Atomera, a role he assumed in 2015. Bibaud has been active in the semiconductor industry for more than 25 years and successfully built a number of businesses in his career that grew to generate over $1 Billion in revenue at some of the largest semiconductor companies. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Altera’s Communications and Broadcast Division. Prior to that, he was Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Mobile Platforms Group at Broadcom. Bibaud holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Robert (Bob) Smith is executive director of the ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community.
Topics: Atomera , ESD Alliance , semiconductors , semiconductor design , quantum engineered materials , Workforce Development , talent , FinFET , Design and Technology Co-Optimization , Atomera Mears Silicon Technology , Atomera MST , AI , Artificial Intelligence , gate-all-around devices
Today's (10/09/23) latest blog post- Atomera joins SEMI, SOI Consortium, and ESD Alliance
ARK bought even more $ACHR yesterday (#msg-172979404)
Sorry for the double post- I know I cancelled the first one, and confirmed it was cancelled, before replying to a previous post of my own. (It was the reason I cancelled it because I wanted to make sure I was referencing a post of the same topic instead of simply a new post).
I'm tellin ya, Ihub is NOT running smooth on my 'puter the past few weeks...
I'd be concerned it was me 'cept, I haven't had a problem with any other website...(at least that I'm aware of)
Cathie still buying $ACHR (#msg-172972239)
Cathie still buying $ACHR (#msg-172972239)
$ATOM LD Micro webcast replay from 10/3 is now available.
Recommend if you are in, or, interested in $ATOM
LD Micro Virtual event The RePlay of Scott's presentation this past Tuesday is now available.
Sign up like you would for any webcast-
ST integration "Imminent" (Scott's word 😉)
I was pretty sure your question was more rhetorical in nature 🧐😁
Yeah, I thought so to, at first. I've tried to match it to other words in the post to see where it's truncated and sometimes there's no such words ending with some of those letters. It's been intermittent and it seems to affect newly posted content. It never lasts. But it can be on there for several minutes even after refreshing the page.
I also see it on my phone so it doesn't seem logical to be a browser issue...????
Lol, THAT, I can relate to 😁
Kudos! Very well handled. I admire your tact.
A trait I do NOT possess 😏