Listed semiconductor company Weebit Nano (ASX: WBT) has reaffirmed it is on track to secure first commercial agreements in the embedded memory chip market this year, despite delays due to COVID-19 shutdowns in Israel and France.
In a quarterly update to the ASX, Weebit also outlined recent progress on its new development program for the standalone memory chip market and confirmed it had received €868,000 (A$1.45 million) through the French Government’s R&D incentive, for research and development work carried out in France during 2019.
While resources for development of the embedded memory module were temporarily reallocated last quarter to enable Weebit to carry out external validation activities with XTX technology for the standalone market, the company said development of the embedded market memory module remains a key priority and a first commercial or strategic agreement is likely before the end of the calendar year.
In addition to a potential South Korean customer in the embedded market, Weebit has signed a Letter of Intent with Chinese semiconductor company SiEn (QingDao) Integrated Circuits Co. (SiEn) to investigate the use of Weebit’s ReRAM technology in products manufactured by SiEn.
Based on a Communal Integrated Device Manufacturer (CIDM) model, SiEn aggregates companies with similar target markets, technologies, production lines and customers to share common manufacturing technology production goals.
SiEn will finish constructing two fabs of 200mm and 300mm wafers this year, bringing together design and fabrication processes. Weebit’s ReRAM technology would add significant non-volatile memory (NVM) capability to SiEn’s products.
The SiEn production line is based on technology similar to current research partner Leti, which will simplify the transfer of Weebit’s technology and is expected to reduce the time required to bring products to market. The company believes this will enable it to progress to production even faster than with the Korean partner.
Weebit also used the update to outline progress on its new development program with Leti, which accelerates its entry into the standalone memory chip market. This broadens Weebit’s development work with Leti and follows the successful external verification of its silicon oxide ReRAM technology by XTX Technology late last year.
While we are focused on delivering the memory module to the embedded market, we had a unique opportunity to leapfrog our standalone memory development, enabling us to address this market sooner than we planned. This segment provides significant long-term growth opportunities for the company,” said Weebit Nano CEO Coby Hanoch.
“As standalone memory chips have larger memory arrays, they require a smaller more sophisticated ‘selector’ to isolate memory cells. This enables writing only to the specific cells needed, without impacting other cells. Leti has been developing a selector for this market for several years and will enable Weebit to significantly fast-track its development of a standalone memory chip.
“The ‘selector’ in standalone memory chips is technically much more challenging than the one used in embedded modules and is a critical element for this market. Our increased partnership with Leti will save us years of development time and significant costs, allowing us to reach productisation within the standalone market significantly faster than anticipated.
“There is strong interest in our ReRAM technology from potential customers and partners, including XTX Technology, who recently validated our technology. They are looking to integrate next generation memory technology into their products, and we are now working with them to identify the next stages of development.
“Weebit initially aimed to demonstrate the ReRAM cell for the standalone memory market by mid- 2021. This is now being extended by three months due to the temporary shutdown of Leti as part of COVID-19 containment measures in France. The next two stages over 12 months will lead to a demonstration of Weebit’s ReRAM cell working with the selector. Weebit will be working with Leti to find ways to make up for some of the delay.”
