Earnings Call: Q2 2021

Aug 3, 2021

All right. Why don't we go ahead and get started? Hello, everyone, and welcome to Atomera's Q2 fiscal year 2021 earnings call. I'd like to remind everyone that this call and webinar are being recorded and a replay will be available on Atomera's IR website for 1 year. I'm Mike Bishop with the company's Investor Relations. We are again using Zoom and we will follow a format similar to prior quarters with participants in a listen only mode. We will open with prepared remarks from Scott Bibaud, Atomera's President and CEO and Frank Florencio, Atomera's CFO. Then we will open the call to questions. If you are joining by telephone, you may follow a slide presentation to accompany our remarks on the Events and Presentations section of our Investor Relations page on our website. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that during today's call, we will make forward looking statements. These forward looking statements, whether in prepared remarks during the Q and A session are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in the Risk Factors section of our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically in the company's annual report on Form 10 ks filed with the SEC on February 19, 2021. Except as otherwise required by federal securities laws, Atomera disclaims any obligation to update or make revisions to such Looking statements contained herein or elsewhere to reflect changes in expectations with regards to those events, conditions and circumstances. Also, please note that during this call, we will be discussing non GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. Reconciliations of these non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press release, which is posted on our website. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to our President and CEO, Scott Bibaud. Go ahead, Scott. Thanks, Mike. Good afternoon, and welcome, everyone, to our Q2 update call. Atomera has had some very strong behind the scenes accomplishments this past quarter, which I'd like to share with you. Well, let's start first by talking about the industry. The semiconductor space has never been more tumultuous. Not only do we have the pandemic playing out around world, we have ongoing supply shortages, unprecedented sales and profitability, widespread consolidation or rumored consolidation, And giant geopolitical forces at play. I can tell you that Atomera has been witnessing all of these events up close and personal. Customer visits are Still out of the question in Asia, but are starting to become more possible in Europe and the Americas. New wafer starts have been somewhat limited, but remarkably The delays we've experienced in ongoing wafer runs have been minor and we've even been able to get approved for some new starts. Considering the constraints in our industry, I view this as a strong endorsement of our technology's potential. Overall, we are weathering this storm quite well with inbound customer interest and no major disruptions to development projects underway. In this environment, we're not surprised that the number of customers and engagements in our pipeline has not changed. New customer growth is being held back by COVID travel restrictions and the capacity limitations in customers' factories. Our JDA partner, existing licensees and other Phase 3 customers continue to advance their efforts with us, Undaunted by the industry's communications and logistics challenges, we are making headway every day towards the goals our customers established at the beginning of our projects. So although this chart is unchanged from last quarter's, there's a lot of good progress hidden within the phases And our JDA is on track. Here's another positive phenomenon that I'd like to address and it's related to TCAD. We have had a lot of inbound questions about how our TCAD product is doing and its success with customers. The first cohort of customers who've adopted MST Cat are finding it is assisting them greatly in narrowing down the wafer runs needed before achieving success. I think this is best illustrated with an example. 1 of our customers has a wafer run underway with the integration steps we mutually agreed we're best suited for their devices. About 2 months after the wafer started, MSTCAD helped us identify an Even better way to integrate our technology that would add to the device's performance. We shared it with the customer We got very excited and contributed some of their own ideas about how it could be improved even further. So we ran TCAT again and sure enough their idea did make Better. Then last week, we found another innovation to optimize the device yet again that was subsequently proven on MST Cat. We are now talking with our customer about starting wafers to demonstrate these latest innovations. Why is this remarkable? Well, just a few years ago, each of these three innovations would have needed silicon runs that typically take 6 to 9 months. We ran these 3 TCAD simulations in just a month and a half. As a matter of fact, we still haven't even gotten the results from the first wafer run And we already have a very specific plan for making the next wafer run much more successful. This is the power of MST Cat. In the hands of smart integration engineers, this tool can help us do fewer wafer rounds that will be more successful and So therefore, get us to production more quickly. So how does this relate to the engagement chart? Well, Today, it's becoming standard that our Phase 1 customers want to develop a detailed TCAD simulation before finalizing a plan to run MST wafers. So customers are staying in Phase 1 longer than in the past, But we believe this will lead to customers going through Phase 2 and Phase 3 faster than ever before. This should also make engagement contracts easier Since both sides will be able to exactly define what success looks like, it may appear that additional work in the planning phase will add time, But a more focused set of targets established upfront will lead to faster progress through Phase III and II production. And that's great news for our customers, for Atomera and for our investors. Since we're talking about customers, I'd like Clarify our JDAs in general and our current engagement in particular. By now, you're all familiar with our standard customer flow. Usually this involves one process node where we work with customers to achieve a targeted performance spec by integrating MST in Phase 3 leading to a decision to go to production. MST is then installed in their fab, which is Phase 4, and then We go through process qualification in Phase 5 before production begins. I'd like to emphasize that this phase Approach is a model and many customers do not follow 1 through steps the 1 through 6 steps in order, But they do have to perform all of the functions shown here before they can go to production. JDAs are done differently. So I've removed the phase numbering to avoid some confusion. Generally speaking, we believe most JDAs will involve integration beginning and continuing while MST is installed at a customer fab. By combining installation and integration at the same location, Development efforts will be expedited since the logistics of MST wafer handling are much more efficient. Also, Because we believe the customer will understand MST better and have more buy in and urgency on the program, it's our belief that MST JDA engagements like the like the one shown here are more likely to get to production quickly. That being said, The JEA we're working on today is somewhat unique. 1 Central Engineering Group is prequalifying MST so they can confirm it meets the company's specifications and will subsequently make it available to their various business units for adoption. At that point, a business unit will integrate MSD into their products and then complete process qualification on that product line when they're ready to go to production. Because the technology is already installed, they will be able to move directly from integration to qualification. As in the prior JDA example, the integration work should definitely be much quicker than a typical engagement And MSD will be offered to multiple different product lines simultaneously creating a much bigger revenue opportunity than a single process node engagement. We would love to replicate this type of unique JDA with large customers throughout the semiconductor industry. Today, Atomera is in discussions with multiple customers about both types of JDAs. Our development organization has accomplished a lot during the last quarter, especially in our MST technology focus areas. Having demonstrated industry leading performance in several critical specifications for power analog devices using MST SP, Our attention shifted to optimizing for device reliability and manufacturability. In the last few months, we've completed that task, Making it easier for designers to adopt these technologies and bring them to production. This is a very large opportunity Because the initial focus for MST SP is in power management, which is the largest market segment of general purpose analog ICs. We can now start the process of rolling this technology out to a wider set of users, not just foundries and IDMs, but also to the many fabulous semiconductor companies in this space. This quarter, we have also demonstrated significantly higher performance using MST on RFSOI wafers, which will enable more advanced and efficient implementations of the next generation of 5 gs cellular RF chips. But our technology clearly applies to areas beyond the more than more market segments. This quarter, we put the industry on notice that our capabilities span to the bleeding edge with our white paper on MST for advanced nodes. I recommend looking over the white paper. Although it covers some sophisticated transistor concepts, it's not a difficult read and give some good insights into the type of discussions we have with customers at the advanced nodes. The executive summary is this. As the industry goes to smaller and smaller process geometries like 2 or 3 nanometers or below, The need to control dopant diffusion becomes even more critical. The industry has tried to use carbon, But our white paper makes the case that MSD is a significantly more effective method of controlling diffusion across a number of different interfaces even for very thin MSD film implementations. And although the paper is targeted at manufacturers of 3 d transistors like nanosheets and gate all around structures. The benefits we described also apply to work going on in memories, CMOS image sensors and in other advanced products. Development in the most advanced nodes require operation in an ultra clean environment along with the state of the art EPI tool. Although we have been depositing MST using The EPI tool for months, the facility has struggled to meet their contamination specifications. Now new support equipment is being added that will finally resolve this issue. Within this quarter, we expect to reach formal acceptance and start paying for the lease on our new FE tool facility. This tool and the advances we've demonstrated in the last quarter will allow us to promote MST to a wider market And we're working to do so much more aggressively. Therefore, I'm pleased to welcome Jeff Lewis, who has taken the reins of our business development and marketing efforts. Jeff is a long time semiconductor veteran and brings strong expertise in transistors, memory and EDA. He already is implementing strategies which will increase Atomera's visibility and drive faster conversion from integration to revenue. As you can see, Atomera has accomplished a lot during the last 3 months, and I believe we are positioned for continued strong execution over the second half of the year. As COVID restrictions lift around the world, we will be getting on the road and strengthening our personal contact with customers to make sure we're at the forefront of every company's mind. Since industry profitability is at an all time high, customers are looking to spend that money Building up a competitive advantage and Atomera is offering very compelling solutions to do that using MST. So the potential for some very big wins is excellent. Now Frank will review our financials. Thanks, Scott. At the close of the market today, we issued a press release announcing our Q2 2021 results. This slide shows our summary financials, which I'll discuss now in more detail. Our GAAP net loss for the In the Q2 of 2020, GAAP net loss was $3,800,000 or $0.21 per share. Each of the components of our OpEx were basically unchanged from the same period in 2020 with total GAAP operating expenses declining by 60 We did not recognize revenue in either of those periods. Weighted average shares outstanding were 22,500,000 in Q2 Q2 2021 compared to $17,800,000 in the prior year period. Sequentially, our GAAP net loss in Q2 increased $3,700,000 from $3,600,000 in Q1 due to revenue declining by $400,000 which more than offset a $296,000 quarter on quarter decline in GAAP operating expenses. Lower expenses resulted from the timing of changes in our executive team. Net loss per share increased to $0.17 per share in Q2 compared to to $22,100,000 in Q1. The press release and this slide contain a reconciliation between GAAP and non GAAP results. Non GAAP adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $2,900,000 $0.13 per share in both Q2 and Q1 of this year, reflecting non GAAP operating expense of $2,800,000 in Q2 and $3,300,000 in Q1, or a total of $6,100,000 of non GAAP operating expenses in the first half of twenty twenty one. In Q2 of 2020, non GAAP adjusted EBITDA as well as non GAAP OpEx were $3,000,000 Our cash balance at June 30 this year was $34,300,000 compared to $36,700,000 at March 31. The $2,400,000 decline reflects $2,700,000 of cash used in operating activities, offset by cash inflow of $354,000 from financing activities. During the first half of this year, Our cash used in operating activities was $6,600,000 and total cash balance declined by $3,600,000 as operating cash use was partly offset by $3,100,000 of cash from financing activities. As of June 30, 2021, we had 23,100,000 shares outstanding. As Scott mentioned in his remarks, work with our JDA customer remains on track and we hope to successfully complete the milestones remaining in that contract in the next few quarters. However, we don't have enough visibility to forecast the timing of achieving those milestones or the timing of closing on other customer agreements that were negotiated. So our guidance is for 0 revenue in Q3. And consistent with past practice, we're not providing revenue guidance beyond this current quarter. Our $6,100,000 of non GAAP operating expenses in the first half of this year indicate a run rate below the plan on which I based My earlier annual expense guidance. The lower run rate is primarily due to the delay in commencing payments on the new ebb tool. However, we do expect to begin making those payments this quarter and we have not changed our plans to add engineering headcount this year. We also expect that sales and marketing expenses will increase going forward as we roll out our offerings to a broader set of customers. I had previously guided that non GAAP operating expenses would be in the range of $14,000,000 to $14,500,000 for the full year, which would imply about $8,000,000 in the second half of this year. We don't expect to reach that level. So we're reducing the range of our full Our full year non GAAP operating expense to a range of $13,250,000 to $13,750,000 With that, I'll turn the call back over to Scott for a few summary remarks before we open the call up to questions. Scott? Thanks, Frank. As I shared earlier, we have a very we've had a very strong quarter of execution. We're making great progress on our key focused technologies with assistance from our increasingly sophisticated MST Cat. Customers continue to show strong interest and start wafer runs with us even in the face of severe capacity restrictions in their fabs. Our new white paper on dopa blocking for advanced 3 d applications is gaining interest in the industry and we are bringing those ideas They realized the huge benefits MST can bring the industry. The enthusiasm and fresh ideas from our new executives Are sure to help us gain even more traction in upcoming quarters leading to more commercialization opportunities around the industry. Mike, we can now take questions. Thanks, Scott. So, we will now open the call to the Q and A session. If you have a question, you may click on raise hand on the raise hand button at the bottom of the Zoom window. Alternatively, you may type in your question on the Q and A window also at the bottom of the Zoom window. All right. So, why don't we go to Questions and it's Richard Shannon from Craig Hallum. Did you have a question? Go ahead. Yes, I did, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes. Got you. Excellent. Probably two questions here. First one, Scott, I jumped on the call just as it was starting, so I may have missed your specific language here. But it sounds like one of the issues here in the industry about getting access to R and D wafers, it sounds like you've seen a little bit of loosening there. Can you expand on that? And is there any consistent theme around those customers where you're seeing these restrictions loosening a bit by node, by Customer type by phase of customer, etcetera. Can you just give us some more flavor there, please? Yes. I think For all of our customers, it's in we're talking about customers in integration phase. As we mentioned, The interesting thing is that for projects that are ongoing, the fabs, they're seeing benefits, they're seeing really good potential and So they're more willing to start new wafers and definitely to continue wafers that have been running in the fab, but starting up new programs has been much harder. So it's not so much related to the process node or the wafer size or anything. It's more related to When we have programs that have been underway and they're starting to see the good results Of those, they get excited. They want to keep them moving even if they have to fight for the wafers to get them in the factory. So that's kind of what we're seeing out there. Okay, fair enough. Another question for me on JDAs. I think last call you said that you weren't in any What do you think the specific language users, late stage discussions with any new JDAs out there, I didn't hear you say anything regarding that In these prepared remarks, can you kind of is there any way any statements you can make regarding progression with any customers who you've been in discussions with any JDAs? Yes, I think it's always challenging for us to talk about timing. I think long time investors lived through the very difficult Negotiations that we had before we finalized this last JDA. And so I don't really want to make any predictions, but I will say, Yes, we do have discussions ongoing with a number of companies. I think some pretty interesting projects with some large companies that we really hope that will We're not predicting timing, but they could happen anytime. Okay, fair enough. One more question and I'll jump out of line here. And before I ask that, I'll say that your comments on the TCAB, very interesting. I'll probably follow-up with you offline on that one. The one I did want to ask about is related to the leading edge Work that you've been doing here, your blog post and paper were interesting to the extent to which I can actually understand it as not being a device engineer. But it kind of begs the question of how long have you been in work on this node and is there any thought process investors should have that it's going to come to fruition faster than what we've seen with other product areas, nodes, etcetera, that you've been working on? Right. Yes. I mean that's a good question because, so when we talk about our focus technologies and we're not only working in focus areas, but in the focus areas that's where we're Specifically taken a product or a process and tried to do something especially innovative there and bring that as more of a full solution to the customers as opposed to just Using MST to improve a process that a customer has. So on our Focus areas, we're working with customers at all different stages. And it will really The timing for them going to production will depend on really when they want to take that thing to production because they in the legacy nodes, they're It's kind of they take them on a schedule that's different with every customer. On the more advanced nodes, you know that everyone Today there's only 3 leading foundries that are semiconductor companies that are developing in those advanced nodes. And they have a lot of incentives to get them to market As fast as humanly possible. That being said, when they start working with a new material, they typically will They'll put it in a node that they're working on at the time and That might be out a generation or it might be out 2 generations. So I can't really give much insight into where Potential customers are looking at this technology. But I would say the thing we've always been excited About getting integrated into the bleeding edge is that it tends to be something that's adopted by all the companies in the industry and then you become a part of the standard semiconductor roadmap that every company implements in the future. That's what happened with Hi k Metal Gate back in Around 2010 or 2011 and that's what happened with the strained silicon back in 2000 or 2,001. And today, all companies run those Okay. That's helpful perspective. That's all for me, Scott. I'll jump on the line. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Richard. Thank you, Richard. And there's some questions coming in on the Q and A chat here. And there a little bit of an echo talking about the JDA partner and how long the phases are going to take. So, I'll just go ahead and ask some of the questions is that, how long will Phase 4 take? And once it's up and running, how long do you anticipate each run of wafers to take in the customer's fab? In the past, we've said that each run would be about 6 to 9 months. So once it's installed in the customer's fab, how long do you anticipate that take? Yes. And actually, it's a good insightful question because So, logistically, when someone would run wafers with us 6 to 9 months, so let's talk about I think the fastest run we ever had anyone do was 6 months from when they started the wafers until we actually got the test data. And in the middle of that process, they had to take the wafers out of their factory, package them up, send them to us. We had to specially clean and prepare our tools to be able to deposit onto those wafers, package them up and send them back on their side. They had to Go through a lot of procedures to make sure there's no contaminants on those wafers and then get them in line. And that probably took a month and a half of that 6 month period To happen. Now if, our JDA partner has this installed in their tool, so literally that whole month and a half, They would just take the wafer, put it in the tool, takes 20 minutes or so to do the MST deposition, Maybe a half an hour and then they have them back out running in the line. So at a minimum, you're talking about a month and a half of improvement in the time to flow through the fab. So that's really attractive. But I would think That because they can schedule the wafers much more reliably, right, they'll know exactly when the wafers are coming into line to go on the next step, They'll be able to schedule to get it down to maybe 4 months or so. So talking about a 30% improvement in throughput to be able to get those wafers out before they have silicon results. For the JDA, in particular for the JDA we have right now, they're going to the first part of the JDA is about characterizing MST to meet kind of Company goals and company goals will help them to figure out the best way of integrating MST inside their particular fab. It will also help them really their engineers to understand how to run it Better and faster for that particular situation. And so I believe there'll be even more advantages that they get Then the 4 months that I talked about before. So once they are ready to start integrating it into the products that would go into production, I think that process will happen Much faster than we normally would expect. Maybe it will be 1 year or I still think about a year to a year and a half for that last part of integration and process qualification to be completed. And then, we're getting some questions about how long Phase 4 is going to take and when into when do you anticipate going into Phase 5. And I know we Yes. Phase 4, I'm very constrained about what I can talk about the timing on that, that would fall underneath the customer's confidential They're very sensitive and understandably so that they don't want their plans shared with the industry. I would say that, as I mentioned, the JD is on Track, and we're hopeful that the Phase 4 will be completed in a very reasonable timeframe, but I really give a lot more insight into what that would look like. Okay. Well, it appears at this time, we don't have anybody to ask any further questions. And if you want to go ahead and make the closing comments, Scott. Thanks so much. Well, Thank you, Mike. Well, let me just say I want to thank everybody for attending today's presentation. We're pleased to be able to share with you the results of the last 3 months and to get a feel for some of the excitement we're feeling here inside Atomera. Please continue to look for our news, articles, blogs and things on our website to keep you up to date on our progress. You can sign up for them along with investor alerts on our website atamerit.com. And should you have any additional questions, please feel free to follow-up with Mike Bishop, who will be happy to help you. So thanks again for your support and we look forward to speaking with you again on our next update call.