Atomera Inc (ATOM)

[Theo]

My synopsis of the CC 10/29/24
Part one
{MY comments are in BLUE}

Scott's opening statement points:

1. The last three months for Atomera have been the busiest and most positive in my memory. {If not hyperbole, It's a very nice development}
2. Atomera has been supporting ST in the development of their new process for over a year now.

a. The first is on MSTcad simulations to optimize silicon performance through integration of MST. This work has been underway for over a year and the correlation between modeling and hardware has been confirmed with real silicon multiple times.
b. Second area in which we are cooperating with ST is manufacturability by enhancing throughput of MST deposition on ST's factory production tools. I want to emphasize that this project is in great shape. Indeed, ST has authorized me to say that development is going well and that we are still on track to go to production as soon as development and qualifying are complete. {Two things strike me here- 1, ST & Atom ARE working on a "manufacturing" process. That, to me, suggests they really are advancing imo and 2., ST finally acknowledges, and Scott confirms, to allow him to give an update such as it is. Minor perhaps but still implies that ST is at least aware of Atom's current shareholder frustrations}
c. At that time, we expect royalties that will be compelling high gross margin revenue for Atomera. {We ALL are}
d. ST is not the only company we've been working with in this segment- it's interesting to many different players for a variety of applications 7 – 48 volts {"Many different players"?? Sweet!}

3. We are currently in discussions with multiple customers on proposals to either license the technology outright or to enter into a JDA that will ultimately lead to production. {"Currently" and "multiple customers" are the operative words here imo- Another good sign}

One part of this market is particularly hot right now and provides a compelling opportunity for Atomera.

1. Traditionally, server racks and data centers have been fed by a 12-volt power supply, but that standard is currently changing to 48 volts.
2. Atomera has finalized a 48-volt version of our SPX technology with dramatic performance improvements specifically to address this segment.
3. Next, we have the advanced node work for gate-all-around transistors at the leading edge, which represents about $150 billion market in 2023.
a. As device architecture shifts from FinFET to gate-all-around, the number of epi steps incorporated into the process flow is projected to more than triple. This trend makes it significantly easier to add MST to the primary epi steps… As epitaxy becomes a more critical component of device architecture, it opens the door to our MST technology being more easily slotted into the production flow. {"epitaxy". Pay attention to this in future PR's}

4. Today we are working with multiple customers in the advanced node area. The memory segment, valued at over $110 billion in 2023, has many characteristics in common with the advanced node segment {"Multiple customers"- always nice to hear, just need to convert them to paying customers}
a. Again, similar to advanced logic platforms, the memory platforms are beginning to introduce epitaxy into the device structure, MST becomes an incremental cost adder to the epi steps while delivering substantial device performance and cost benefits. {"epitaxy" again...}
b. And the opportunity here is huge at approximately 20% of the entire semiconductor industry, with very high volumes and long technology cycles. Again, we are working with multiple customers in this area. {"epitaxy" is the keyword here- To understand the importance of it in relation to MST, review the article available on Atomera's website Atomera/Sandia project to address GaN/Si challenges}

5. In each of these segments, we've made proposals to customers which we are optimistic will convert into JDAs or license agreements in the near future. Indeed, we are in active negotiations today on an agreement that we believe will be transformative for the company, and we are hopeful that we will be able to announce it within the next few months. {"Transformative" There's been a lot of buzz concerning that word Scott chose- I have to admit I'm curious (and admittedly a little stoked) as to what that infers...}

6. GaN on silicon will be the high-volume, low-cost substrate of the future for GaN devices, and if this technology works as expected, MST will be valuable to anyone who manufactures with it. Those wafers are experiencing stress that lead to lower yields and higher defects, which MST may help to alleviate. The rapidly growing GaN market is particularly interesting to us because we believe the technology can be converted to revenue faster than our traditional business, and we hope the work with Sandia will help speed up our time to market. {HINT: "epitaxy"}
a. We are engaged with a lot of very large customers, and I sense that the need for our technology is stronger than ever. {"A lot of very large customers"?? Gotta love that }

7. JDA 1 has recently requested additional data from us to validate MST's effectiveness in a specific application, and we are already planning wafer runs to demonstrate how MST can address their requirements.

8. Discussions with JDA 2 about a company wide license spanning multiple technologies and nodes is ongoing, although this negotiation is moving more slowly than we would like. {This one sounds more like a situation that will "domino" once someone else makes the first move}

9. Our fabless licensee has wafers coming out imminently. And if those results are strong, we believe it will lead to a production transition program with both them and their foundry partner. {Always "if". It would be nice if we had more clarity on what the time frame is with the word " imminently"...😒}

Scott's Summary:

" Beyond these engagements, we have proposals outstanding with several others in addition to the large transformative customer we are negotiating with today. {There's that word "transformative" again 🧐} Right now, without exaggeration, I believe the Atomera team is more excited about our prospects than I've ever seen. {Much like his opening statement "busiest and most positive" in memory- gotta be something to that...} The ST engagement, which is an enormous business with a long projected life, is moving nicely toward production, which ST has confirmed. Our potential in the outlined segments is even larger, {Larger than the ST deal??? 😲}} and I feel we are very close to announcing deals which will cement that position. The work we're doing in gate-all-around and memory is tied directly to the biggest driver of the semiconductor industry today, the rollout of AI infrastructure. And our GaN work is not only aligned with a major industry push, but we also believe it can be executed with faster time to revenue than our other segments."

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