An announcement just out from WBT - there were hints of this in your conversation with Coby during your recent @Strawman meeting with him. Given the bump in SP yesterday perhaps the market knew before this public announcement
Weebit Nano licenses ReRAM to DB HiTek, a global top-10 foundry
DB HiTek to manufacture Weebit’s embedded technology in customers’ analog and power designs
Weebit Nano Limited (ASX:WBT, Weebit or Company), a leading developer of advanced memory technologies for the global semiconductor industry, and DB HiTek, one of the world’s largest foundries, have signed a commercial agreement whereby DB HiTek has licensed Weebit ReRAM for its customers to integrate as embedded non-volatile memory (NVM) in their systems on chips (SoCs)
Headquartered in South Korea, DB HiTek is a global top-10 foundry with annual revenue of more than $2 billion
Under the agreement, Weebit ReRAM will be available in DB HiTek’s 130nm Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process – ideal for many analog, mixed-signal, and power designs in consumer, industrial, and other IoT devices. For these applications, Weebit ReRAM provides a low-power, low-voltage, cost-effective NVM that is easy to integrate and has proven excellent retention at high temperatures. As a back-end-of-line (BEOL) technology which does not require process tuning, ReRAM offers significant advantages over flash for BCD processes. Weebit ReRAM also provides higher density and endurance than conventional Multi-Time Programmable (MTP) technologies
The agreement includes technology transfer, qualification, and licensing. In addition to its 130nm BCD process, DB HiTek has the option to use Weebit ReRAM technology for other process nodes
Coby Hanoch, CEO of Weebit Nano, said: “DB HiTek is one of the world’s top-tier foundries for analog and power integrated circuits. As one of the world’s largest contract chip manufacturers, DB HiTek’s extensive customer base can gain significant advantage from using Weebit ReRAM in their new product designs, including improvements to retention, endurance, and power consumption. Our collaboration with DB HiTek is commencing immediately, beginning with the transfer of our technology to the company’s production fab. We are seeing increasingly strong market demand for Weebit ReRAM and expect to sign further commercial agreements, including many of the top- tier foundries and integrated device manufacturers as well as fabless design companies, in the coming months”
Ki-Seog Cho, CEO, DB HiTek, said: “Weebit ReRAM will provide customers using our 130nm BCD process with a very low-power, high-density and cost-effective NVM. Given Weebit’s high-quality technology and unique combination of design and process engineering, we believe the technology transfer and qualification processes will proceed quickly. Looking ahead, we’re delighted to see Weebit’s strong commitment to continued roadmap innovation”
Under the technology transfer and qualification agreement, Weebit and DB HiTek will immediately cooperate in transferring Weebit’s embedded ReRAM technology to a DB HiTek production fab and then continue to qualify the technology towards volume production
The technology licensing agreement grants DB HiTek a non-exclusive license to manufacture Weebit ReRAM as embedded NVM in designs from customers globally. DB HiTek will add Weebit’s memory module to its BCD 130nm Process Design Kit (PDK). DB HiTek customers can use the standard modules in the PDK or have modules customised for their needs. Weebit will receive manufacturing license fees, project use fees and royalties based on production volumes, with these license fees and royalties determined by Weebit when delivering the relevant modules to customers and may differ for each module
The economic materiality of this agreement is not known at this time due to the contingent nature of the license fees and royalties, as they depend on the number of customers who sign up to use Weebit’s technology and on the number of chips those customers produce using Weebit’s technology. However, Weebit views this commercial agreement as strategically important given DB HiTek is a global top-10 foundry, and further validates Weebit’s cutting-edge technology
DISC: Small position Held in RL & SM
