The Weebit Nano Ltd (ASX: WBT) share price is all over the map today.
The ASX tech share, which develops next generation computer memory technology for the global semiconductor industry, is currently down 1.8% after posting gains of more than 4% in early morning trade.
So, what's going on with the Weebit Nano share price?
Well, the company released two separate price-sensitive announcements today. Namely, its quarterly results for the three months ending 30 June, as well as a report that its demonstration chips have been released to manufacturing.
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Weebit Nano share price fails to lift off on tape-out of demonstration chips
Turning to the demo chips first, Weebit reported it had taped-out (released to manufacturing) demonstration chips integrating its embedded Resistive Random-Access Memory (ReRAM) module to SkyWater Technology's foundry.
The company labelled this first tape-out of demo chips as "a major milestone toward commercialisation".
Commenting on the milestone, Coby Hanoch, Weebit Nano CEO said:
This successful tape-out concludes the technology transfer to SkyWater's US production fab, and once the chips are back from the fab, we will proceed with technology qualification. We're in discussions with early-adopter customers looking to leverage our faster, more efficient memory technology to increase their competitiveness in the market.
Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater CEO added:
Weebit ReRAM is a rich building block our customers can leverage to create innovative, highly differentiated SoC designs. Given the technology's ultra-low power consumption and integration flexibility, we are already seeing enthusiastic interest from customers in areas such as IoT, power management and mixed-signal designs.
What results were reported for Q4 FY22?
Turning to the quarterly results that look to be sending the Weebit Nano share price on a bit of a rollercoaster today, atop the taped-out demo chips, the ASX tech share reported:
- Its demonstration chips completed functional testing
- The company publicly demonstrated its ReRAM IP module for the first time
- It commenced technology qualification at Leti with very good initial results
- Weebit continued bolstering its marketing and sales activities
Commenting on the Q4 results, Hanoch said:
Weebit Nano achieved several significant technical milestones during the quarter and is steadily progressing towards volume production at SkyWater and first customer orders…
Our ReRAM will first be available on SkyWater's 130nm CMOS process and discussions with additional fabs are ongoing. Our technology also has the capability to scale to smaller geometries for more advanced applications, having already demonstrated production level parameters at 28nm. We continue to work on scaling to 22nm as well as other development priorities that include a solution for the discrete memory market.
Fourth quarter research and development expenses came in at $1.8 million.
Looking ahead the company said by the end of December it's on track to receive the wafers from SkyWater and progress with technology qualification, as well as continuing to scale its embedded ReRAM to 22nm.
Weebit Nano share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months, the Weebit Nano share price has outperformed the benchmark, gaining 5% compared to a 7% loss posted by the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO).
