Atomera Inc (ATOM) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Atomera's fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2023 update call. I'd like to remind everyone that this call and webinar are being recorded and a replay will be available on Atomera's website for one year.

大家好，歡迎參加 Atomera 第四季和 2023 財年更新電話會議。我想提醒大家，本次電話會議和網路研討會正在錄製中，並將在 Atomera 網站上提供為期一年的重播。

I'm Mike Bishop with the company's investor relations. As in prior quarters, we're using Zoom, and we will follow a similar presentation format with participants in a listen-only mode. We will open with prepared remarks from Scott Bibaud, Atomera's President and CEO; and Frank Laurencio, 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.

我是麥克·畢肖普（Mike Bishop），負責公司投資人關係。與前幾季一樣，我們正在使用 Zoom，並且我們將遵循類似的演示格式，讓參與者處於只聽模式。我們將以 Atomera 總裁兼執行長 Scott Bibaud 準備好的演講作為開場；和 Atomera 財務長 Frank Laurencio。然後我們將開始提問。如果您透過電話參加，您可以觀看幻燈片演示，並附上我們在我們網站投資者關係頁面的活動和演示部分的評論。

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 or during the Q&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-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2023, and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on November 1, 2023.

在開始之前，我想提醒大家，在今天的電話會議中，我們將做出前瞻性聲明。這些前瞻性陳述，無論是在準備好的發言中還是在問答環節中，都受到固有風險和不確定性的影響。這些風險和不確定性在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件的「風險因素」部分中有詳細說明，特別是該公司於2023 年2 月15 日向美國證券交易委員會提交的10-K 表格年度報告以及10- Q 於 2023 年 11 月 1 日向 SEC 提交文件。

Except as otherwise required by federal securities laws, Atomera disclaims any obligation to update or make revisions to such forward-looking statements contained herein or elsewhere to reflect changes in expectations with regards to those events, conditions, and circumstances.

除非聯邦證券法另有要求，Atomera 不承擔更新或修改本文或其他地方包含的此類前瞻性聲明的義務，以反映對這些事件、條件和情況的預期變化。

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 also posted on our website.

另請注意，在本次電話會議中，我們將討論SEC G 條例所定義的非GAAP 財務指標。這些非GAAP 財務指標與最直接可比較的GAAP 指標的對帳已包含在今天的新聞稿中，該新聞稿還包括發佈在我們的網站上。

And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to our president and CEO, Scott Bibaud. Go ahead, Scott.

說到這裡，我想將電話轉給我們的總裁兼執行長 Scott Bibaud。來吧，斯科特。

Good afternoon, and welcome to Atomera's fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 update call. I believe that when we look back at 2023, we will consider it the catalyst year, where our first major business deal that drove our success was announced. And our fourth quarter will be where the execution of that mission became most obvious. In addition, we've seen excellent results from customers and partners and strong advances in R&D that will ultimately result in more commercial licenses.

下午好，歡迎參加 Atomera 第四季和 2023 年全年更新電話會議。我相信，當我們回顧 2023 年時，我們將把它視為催化劑的一年，我們宣布了推動我們成功的第一筆重大業務交易。我們的第四季將是該使命的執行最為明顯的時候。此外，我們也看到客戶和合作夥伴取得了出色的成果，以及研發方面的強勁進步，最終將帶來更多的商業許可。

We will dive into the details. But first, let me give you a view of the industry status and how it affects Atomera. As you know, 2023 was not the strongest year in the semiconductor industry, characterized by negative growth, cutbacks in CapEx plans, and some slowdown in spending. As is usually the case in this type of environment, we saw increased interest in new design activity and plenty of fab capacity to run R&D lots.

我們將深入探討細節。但首先，讓我先向您介紹一下產業現況及其對 Atomera 的影響。如您所知，2023 年並不是半導體產業最強勁的一年，其特點是負成長、資本支出計畫削減以及支出有所放緩。正如這種環境中通常的情況一樣，我們看到人們對新設計活動的興趣日益濃厚，並且有足夠的晶圓廠產能來運行研發批次。

As we enter 2024, we are seeing much more optimism as growth prospects, driven by new artificial intelligence capabilities, start to emerge. We are happy to see this since our customers' cash flow will improve, but we still expect to see modest fab utilization rates, which benefits our business development prospects. This is really the ideal time for customers to adopt MST.

進入 2024 年，隨著新的人工智慧能力推動的成長前景開始顯現，我們看到了更樂觀的前景。我們很高興看到這一點，因為我們客戶的現金流量將會改善，但我們仍然期望看到適度的晶圓廠利用率，這有利於我們的業務發展前景。這確實是客戶採用MST的理想時機。

Obviously, the big news of the quarter was the installation of our technology at STMicro's fab in Agrate, Italy. In case you are new to the Atomera name, in April of last year, we announced a commercial license agreement with STMicroelectronics that was important for our company in several ways.

顯然，本季的重大新聞是意法半導體位於義大利阿格拉特的工廠安裝了我們的技術。如果您還不熟悉 Atomera 這個名字，去年 4 月，我們宣布了與意法半導體的商業許可協議，這對我們公司來說在幾個方面都很重要。

First, it validates our business model and the value that MST brings to customers when they truly appreciate its capabilities. Second, it is certainly an important signal to industry participants when a large, respected IDM decides to take MST to production. Although their decisions are primarily on technical criteria, engineering management always feels more comfortable if other leading companies are going down the same path that they are considering.

首先，它驗證了我們的業務模式以及當客戶真正欣賞 MST 的功能時 MST 為客戶帶來的價值。其次，當一家受人尊敬的大型 IDM 決定將 MST 投入生產時，這對產業參與者來說無疑是一個重要訊號。儘管他們的決策主要基於技術標準，但如果其他領先公司也走上他們正在考慮的相同道路，工程管理人員總是會感到更放心。

We have always represented our customers' route to production with MST in six phases, as shown here. For ST, Phase 4 includes both installation and productization. This slide shows a rough approximation of where we are in that process, with the grayed-out boxes representing items that have been completed.

我們始終將 MST 的客戶生產路線分為六個階段，如下所示。對於 ST，第 4 階段包括安裝和產品化。這張投影片顯示了我們在過程中的大致情況，灰色方塊代表已完成的項目。

Last year, we were waiting for some equipment modifications to happen at ST before we could start the install. We felt quite certain the installation would happen a short period after our last quarterly update call, and it did.

去年，我們在 ST 等待一些設備改造，然後才開始安裝。我們非常確定安裝會在上次季度更新後不久進行，而且確實如此。

Let's look at the remaining steps in more detail. Our progress since our last update call has been truly remarkable. Since last May, the ST engineering team has been developing their new manufacturing process using TCAD, which also includes our own simulation tool called MSTcad.

讓我們更詳細地看看其餘步驟。自從上次更新電話以來，我們取得的進展確實令人矚目。自去年五月以來，ST 工程團隊一直在使用 TCAD 開發新的製造工藝，其中還包括我們自己的名為 MSTcad 的模擬工具。

In early November, after their epi tool upgrades were complete, we provided ST with the critical IP necessary to start making MST wafers, which triggered the revenue milestone we announced on November 14th. Although we've always guided an installation can take up to three months, the ST epi team was able to get trained on our technology to the point that they could grow high-quality MST on their wafers, which allowed us to pass all their acceptance criteria before Christmas.

11月初，在他們的epi工具升級完成後，我們為ST提供了開始製造MST晶圓所需的關鍵IP，這觸發了我們在11月14日宣布的營收里程碑。儘管我們一直指導安裝可能需要長達三個月的時間，但ST Epi 團隊能夠接受我們的技術培訓，以至於他們可以在他們的晶圓上生長高品質的MST，這使我們能夠通過他們的所有驗收聖誕節前的標準。

This accomplishment completed the formal installation of MST technology at ST, which triggered a second revenue milestone. In January, we spent more time with their team, helping to optimize both the epi deposition process and the MST design integration.

這項成就完成了MST技術在ST的正式安裝，引發了第二個收入里程碑。一月份，我們花了更多時間與他們的團隊合作，幫助優化外延沉積製程和 MST 設計整合。

ST has now started manufacturing MST wafers in their own fab, which will be used for electrical lots providing silicon validation. Because this entire process is in-house, their cycles of learning in this stage should be quick. When ST is satisfied that they've created a fully optimized transistor and manufacturing process development kit, or PDK, they will freeze it. Just to be clear, we consider this entire effort from installation through PDK to be part of Phase 4.

ST 現在已開始在自己的工廠生產 MST 晶圓，該晶圓將用於提供矽驗證的電氣批次。因為整個過程都是在內部進行的，所以他們在這個階段的學習週期應該很快就會。當 ST 確信他們已經創建了完全優化的電晶體和製造製程開發套件（PDK）時，他們將凍結它。需要明確的是，我們認為從安裝到 PDK 的整個工作都是第 4 階段的一部分。

For a chip designer, a new PDK is like getting the latest and greatest software with all the newest features. In my experience, engineers will hold off on new chip designs until this PDK becomes available, creating a pent-up demand for new design starts.

對於晶片設計人員來說，新的 PDK 就像獲得具有所有最新功能的最新、最好的軟體。根據我的經驗，工程師將推遲新的晶片設計，直到該 PDK 可用為止，從而對新設計開始產生被壓抑的需求。

So, in this case, we expect that multiple chips will be developed in parallel with process qual, and some may even tape out prior to the qual being complete. For the next several years, new chip designs will be taped out based on this PDK and will enter production and start generating royalties.

因此，在這種情況下，我們預計多個晶片將與製程品質同時開發，有些甚至可能在品質完成之前流片。未來幾年，新的晶片設計將基於該 PDK 進行流片，並投入生產並開始產生專利費。

It's difficult for us to forecast the volume of these designs because they will be in many different applications and market sectors and will ramp at different rates. But as you can imagine, over time, the percentage of MST-based designs in their fab will increase significantly. When we first announced this transaction, we believed STM could get to commercialization in a 1.5 years to 2 years.

我們很難預測這些設計的數量，因為它們將應用於許多不同的應用和市場領域，並且將以不同的速度成長。但正如您可以想像的那樣，隨著時間的推移，其晶圓廠中基於 MST 的設計的比例將會顯著增加。當我們第一次宣布這筆交易時，我們相信STM可以在1.5年到2年內商業化。

Despite the delay in starting installation, we believe that timing still holds. Although much of this execution is out of our control, we are laser-focused on doing everything we can to ensure ST's production ramp of MST is as successful and as rapid as possible.

儘管開始安裝有所延遲，但我們相信時機仍然正確。儘管執行過程中的大部分內容是我們無法控制的，但我們會全力以赴，並竭盡全力確保 ST 的 MST 生產進度盡可能成功、盡可能快。

Our other top priority as a company is getting more customers onto the same path to production. So now let me provide some updates there. As you can see from our customer pipeline, we are showing growth in Phase 4, reflecting the ST installation, but there's a lot more going on under the hood.

作為一家公司，我們的另一個首要任務是讓更多的客戶走上相同的生產道路。現在讓我提供一些更新。正如您從我們的客戶管道中看到的，我們在第四階段顯示了成長，反映了 ST 安裝，但在幕後還有更多的事情發生。

In the last call, we spoke about the excellent results we had with our JDA 1 customer and its applicability to one of their largest BUs. Development efforts continue, but we are still working on putting together a business arrangement which will meet both our needs. I can assure you this is a very high priority for us, but the end-of-year holidays slowed down those discussions, and we are working to get this program moving more quickly.

在上次電話會議中，我們談到了與 JDA 1 客戶取得的出色成果及其對他們最大的業務部門之一的適用性。開發工作仍在繼續，但我們仍在努力製定能夠滿足我們雙方需求的業務安排。我可以向您保證，這對我們來說是一個非常重要的優先事項，但年終假期減慢了這些討論，我們正在努力讓該計劃更快地進行。

We continue to be excited about the experiments with our JDA 2 customer, which are still making their way through the fab. Good results here should pave the way for a license agreement in this area. In addition, we're also in discussions with this customer about starting work in another area as well.

我們仍然對 JDA 2 客戶的實驗感到興奮，這些實驗仍在工廠中進行。良好的結果應該為該領域的授權協議鋪平道路。此外，我們也正在與該客戶討論在另一個領域開始工作。

A trend we are seeing in the higher-voltage semiconductor area is providing a tailwind to our MST offerings. Chinese companies have started to enter into the low end of this segment, which has caused some of the more established players to focus on differentiating their technology to be higher performance.

我們在高壓半導體領域看到的一個趨勢是為我們的 MST 產品提供輔助。中國公司已經開始進入這個細分市場的低端市場，這導致一些較成熟的參與者專注於差異化他們的技術以獲得更高的性能。

MST is uniquely suited to deliver performance improvements with our SP and SPX technologies, and in Q4, we signed an MSTcad license agreement with a large manufacturer to start working on it, which shows our momentum for both MST-SP and SPX is growing. Interest in our RF-SOI technology also remains strong, and we have multiple different customer wafer runs underway.

MST 非常適合透過我們的 SP 和 SPX 技術實現性能改進，在第四季度，我們與一家大型製造商簽署了 MSTcad 許可協議，開始研究它，這表明我們對 MST-SP 和 SPX 的勢頭正在增長。人們對我們的 RF-SOI 技術的興趣也仍然濃厚，並且我們有多個不同的客戶晶圓生產正在進行中。

Recently, we were invited to give a paper coauthored with Soitec and San Jose State University at the upcoming IEDM conference in March, which will provide details on how MST on an RF-SOI substrate can enhance performance of both RF switches and LNAs. The IEDM conference, which happens every December, is a great forum for us, and it is focused on the latest gate-all-around and nano sheet transistors. Interest in the use of MST for these devices has been spreading and has created excellent opportunities for new engagements and partnerships.

最近，我們受邀在 3 月即將舉行的 IEDM 會議上發表與 Soitec 和聖荷西州立大學共同撰寫的論文，該論文將詳細介紹 RF-SOI 基板上的 MST 如何增強 RF 開關和 LNA 的性能。每年 12 月舉行的 IEDM 會議對我們來說是一個很好的論壇，重點是最新的全柵電晶體和奈米片電晶體。人們對在這些設備上使用 MST 的興趣不斷蔓延，並為新的合作和夥伴關係創造了絕佳的機會。

At the geometries being used in these advanced nodes, new challenges are being raised which demand more control at the atomic level than has ever been necessary. Atomera's diffusion control, reduction of random dopant fluctuation, and improvement in surface roughness scattering are viewed as potential to provide the control needed for these nodes.

在這些先進節點中使用的幾何結構中，出現了新的挑戰，需要在原子層級上進行比以往更多的控制。Atomera 的擴散控制、隨機摻雜波動的減少以及表面粗糙度散射的改進被視為提供這些節點所需控制的潛力。

In Q1, our team has been busy working with multiple advanced node manufacturers, which should ultimately lead to new business. The same features driving interest in advanced nodes is also stimulating demand in the memory space, and our work with those customers continues to be active and exciting.

在第一季度，我們的團隊一直忙於與多家先進節點製造商合作，最終應該會帶來新的業務。同樣的功能推動了人們對先進節點的興趣，也刺激了記憶體領域的需求，我們與這些客戶的合作繼續積極而令人興奮。

Finally, we get a lot of questions about how MST is related to the fast-evolving developments in artificial intelligence, and I can tell you it's extensive. Last quarter, I spoke about how AI will drive demand for more and different kinds of memory, which MST can help deliver. Another area where MST will bring huge value is in chiplets.

最後，我們收到了很多關於 MST 與人工智慧快速發展的關係的問題，我可以告訴你它的範圍很廣泛。上個季度，我談到了人工智慧將如何推動對更多不同類型記憶體的需求，而 MST 可以幫助滿足這些需求。MST 將帶來巨大價值的另一個領域是小晶片。

As you may know, AI algorithm demands have become so huge it's difficult to meet them with single-chip solutions. The industry has reacted to this problem by creating a new architecture which collects a number of smaller chiplets on a silicon interposer. The beauty of this architecture is that each chiplet can be developed in the optimum process technology for its role, and the fact that MST provides performance boosts at all these different nodes brings enormous value, which should become a new driver for MST adoption.

如您所知，人工智慧演算法的需求已經變得如此巨大，單晶片解決方案很難滿足它們。業界透過創建一種新架構來應對這個問題，該架構在矽中介層上收集了許多較小的小晶片。這種架構的優點在於，每個小晶片都可以根據其作用採用最佳製程技術進行開發，而MST 在所有這些不同節點上提供效能提升，這一事實帶來了巨大的價值，這應該成為MST採用的新驅動力。

I believe we will look back at 2023 as the year when we turned the corner commercially. Our first production license with ST, followed by the great progress we've made in Q4, will be looked upon as the trigger for Atomera's success. In addition to ST, we made serious customer and technical advances in each of our target product segments.

我相信，當我們回顧 2023 年時，我們會發現這是我們在商業上走出困境的一年。我們獲得 ST 的第一個生產許可，以及我們在第四季度取得的巨大進展，將被視為 Atomera 成功的觸發因素。除了 ST 之外，我們還在每個目標產品領域都取得了重大的客戶和技術進步。

One thing that has become even more apparent this quarter is that as customers start to understand our technology more, they come up with new ways of using MST that we haven't even imagined, which would become a strong growth driver for our technology horizontally across existing customers as our penetration increases. MST is truly an amazing tool, and the brilliant team here at Atomera is hard at work uncovering its potential and delivering it into the hands of future licensees every day.

本季變得更加明顯的一件事是，隨著客戶開始更多地了解我們的技術，他們想出了我們甚至沒有想像到的使用 MST 的新方法，這將成為我們技術橫向成長的強大動力隨著我們滲透率的增加，現有客戶。MST 確實是一個了不起的工具，Atomera 的優秀團隊每天都在努力發掘其潛力並將其交付給未來的被授權者手中。

This is the type of execution that leads to a successful enterprise, and I can tell you I'm more optimistic than ever about our potential.

這種執行方式可以帶來企業的成功，我可以告訴你，我對我們的潛力比以往任何時候都更樂觀。

Now, Frank will review our financials.

現在，弗蘭克將審查我們的財務狀況。

Thank you, Scott. At the close of the market today, we issued a press release announcing our fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2023. This slide shows our summary financials. Revenue in 2023 was $550,000, all of which was recognized in Q4 and resulted from installation and acceptance of our MST technology at ST's fab.

謝謝你，斯科特。今天收盤時，我們發布了新聞稿，宣布了 2023 年第四季和全年業績。這張投影片顯示了我們的財務摘要。2023 年的收入為 550,000 美元，所有這些收入均在第四季度確認，是由於 ST 晶圓廠安裝並接受了我們的 MST 技術而產生的。

Our GAAP net loss for the year ended December 31, 2023, was $19.8 million or $0.80 per share, compared to a net loss of $17.4 million or $0.75 per share in 2022. GAAP operating expenses were $21.2 million in 2023, which was an increase of approximately $3.4 million from $17.8 million in 2022.

截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的年度，我們的 GAAP 淨虧損為 1,980 萬美元，即每股 0.80 美元，而 2022 年的淨虧損為 1,740 萬美元，即每股 0.75 美元。2023 年 GAAP 營運費用為 2,120 萬美元，比 2022 年的 1,780 萬美元增加約 340 萬美元。

The biggest driver of the year-on-year increase was a $2.5 million increase in R&D expenses, approximately $1.4 million of which was due to higher spending on foundry services, metrology, and other outsourcing and $739,000 of which was due to higher payroll and related costs. General and administrative expenses increased by approximately $634,000, reflecting higher payroll expenses, as well as higher legal fees.

年成長的最大推動因素是研發費用增加 250 萬美元，其中約 140 萬美元是由於鑄造服務、計量和其他外包支出增加，其中 739,000 美元是由於工資和相關費用增加成本。一般和行政費用增加了約 634,000 美元，反映了工資費用以及法律費用的增加。

Sales and marketing expense increased by approximately $251,000. Other income, net, in 2023, increased by $802,000 as compared to 2022 mainly due to the higher interest rates on cash and short-term investments. Turning to our quarterly results, Q4 2023 GAAP net loss was $4.6 million or $0.18 per share, compared to a net loss of $4.3 million in Q4 2022, which was also $0.18 per share.

銷售和行銷費用增加約 251,000 美元。與 2022 年相比，2023 年其他淨收入增加了 802,000 美元，主要是由於現金和短期投資利率上升。轉向我們的季度業績，2023 年第四季 GAAP 淨虧損為 460 萬美元，即每股 0.18 美元，而 2022 年第四季的淨虧損為 430 萬美元，即每股 0.18 美元。

In the third quarter of 2023, GAAP net loss was $5 million or $0.20 per share. The lower net loss in Q4 compared to Q3 was due to our Q4 revenue, while GAAP operating expenses were basically flat at $5.3 million in Q4 in 2023, compared to $5.4 million in the preceding quarter, as R&D expenses declined due to the winding down of activities at TSI, offset by increases in G&A and sales and marketing.

2023 年第三季度，GAAP 淨虧損為 500 萬美元，即每股 0.20 美元。與第三季相比，第四季的淨虧損較低，這是由於我們第四季的收入，而2023 年第四季的GAAP 營運費用基本持平，為530 萬美元，而上一季為540萬美元，因為研發費用因TSI 的活動被一般管理費用以及銷售和行銷的增加所抵消。

Non-GAAP net loss for 2023 was $16.6 million in comparison to a loss of $14.1 million in 2022. And as with our GAAP results, this was primarily due to increased R&D expenses. The differences between GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses in all periods presented are primarily due to noncash stock compensation expenses, which were approximately $4 million in 2023 and $3.4 million in 2022.

2023 年非 GAAP 淨虧損為 1,660 萬美元，而 2022 年為 1,410 萬美元。與我們公認的會計準則結果一樣，這主要是由於研發費用增加。所有期間的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 營運費用之間的差異主要是由於非現金股票補償費用，2023 年約為 400 萬美元，2022 年約為 340 萬美元。

Our balance of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments on December 31, 2023, was $19.5 million, compared to $21.2 million at the end of 2023 and $20.4 million at the end of Q3. During the last year, we used $14.6 million of cash in operating activities, and we sold approximately 1.8 million shares under our ATM facility at an average price of $7.97 per share. Of those amounts, approximately 320,000 shares were sold in Q4 at an average price of $7.37. As of December 31, 2023, we had 26.1 million shares outstanding.

截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日，我們的現金、現金等價物和短期投資餘額為 1,950 萬美元，而 2023 年底為 2,120 萬美元，第三季末為 2,040 萬美元。去年，我們在營運活動中使用了 1,460 萬美元的現金，並透過 ATM 設施以每股 7.97 美元的平均價格出售了約 180 萬股股票。其中，第四季大約出售了 32 萬股，平均價格為 7.37 美元。截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日，我們有 2,610 萬股已發行股票。

As Scott mentioned, we met the first two milestones under the ST license agreement during Q4, resulting in $550,000 of license revenue. The next grant of licensed rights to ST will be our distribution license, which will enable them to both manufacture and sell products with MST. Those sales will result in royalty payments to Atomera.

正如 Scott 所提到的，我們在第四季度實現了 ST 授權協議下的前兩個里程碑，並獲得了 55 萬美元的授權收入。ST 下一次授予的許可權將是我們的分銷許可，這將使他們能夠使用 MST 製造和銷售產品。這些銷售將導致向 Atomera 支付特許權使用費。

While we are not able to share the financial details of the ST contract, the terms are consistent with our target model. Under this model, total upfront license fees have a list price of over $3 million, with payments increasing as we grant customers additional rights. As Scott explained in his remarks, timing of entry into Phase 5, which is when we will recognize revenue on the grants of the distribution license, is largely under ST's control. Accordingly, I'm not providing guidance on the timing for recognizing that revenue. I expect that our Q1 2024 revenue will consist only of ratable recognition of MSTcad licensing.

雖然我們無法分享 ST 合約的財務細節，但條款與我們的目標模型一致。在這種模式下，預付許可費總額的標價超過 300 萬美元，隨著我們授予客戶額外的權利，支付的費用也會增加。正如斯科特在演講中所解釋的那樣，進入第五階段的時間，即我們將在授予分銷許可證時確認收入的時間，很大程度上由意法半導體控制。因此，我不會就確認該收入的時間提供指導。我預計我們 2024 年第一季的營收將僅包括 MSTcad 授權的可評級認可。

Moving to our expense guidance. Our non-GAAP operating expenses for 2023 were $17.1 million, and we expect that in 2024, our non-GAAP OpEx will be in the range of $17 million to $18 million. While this is a wider range than I've provided in previous calls, this is due to the uncertain financial impact of moving from TSI Semiconductor to a new foundry.

前往我們的費用指南。我們 2023 年的非 GAAP 營運支出為 1,710 萬美元，我們預計到 2024 年，我們的非 GAAP 營運支出將在 1,700 萬美元至 1,800 萬美元之間。雖然這個範圍比我在之前的電話會議中提供的範圍更廣，但這是由於從 TSI Semiconductor 轉移到新代工廠的不確定的財務影響。

Our work with TSI wrapped up in January of this year, and as a result, our R&D expenses in Q4 declined from prior quarters in 2023. We're making good progress in talks with possible replacement providers for foundry services, but nothing has been finalized yet. While the interruption in foundry work will cause Q1 2024 R&D expense to decline further from Q4, we expect to incur some one-time fees as we transition to a new foundry, and we will update our guidance when we have more visibility.

我們與 TSI 的合作已於今年 1 月結束，因此，我們 2023 年第四季的研發費用較前幾季有所下降。我們與可能的代工服務替代供應商的談判取得了良好進展，但尚未最終確定。雖然代工工作的中斷將導致2024 年第一季的研發費用較第四季度進一步下降，但我們預計在過渡到新的代工廠時會產生一些一次性費用，並且當我們有更多的了解時，我們將更新我們的指導。

With that, I will turn the call back over to Scott for a few summary remarks before we open up the call to questions. Scott?

這樣，在我們開始提問之前，我會將電話轉回給史考特，讓他做一些總結性發言。史考特？

Thanks, Frank. As you can see, we made great progress toward commercialization this past quarter and in 2023. We are doing everything in our power to get ST to production quickly. But we also have an incredibly valuable portfolio of other potential customers who we are working to take into the commercial stage.

謝謝，弗蘭克。正如您所看到的，我們在上個季度和 2023 年在商業化方面取得了巨大進展。我們正在盡一切努力讓 ST 盡快投入生產。但我們也擁有非常有價值的其他潛在客戶組合，我們正在努力將他們帶入商業階段。

Our team is confident that it's only a matter of time before we can announce license deals that will further solidify the potential of Atomera's business for the future.

我們的團隊相信，宣布許可交易只是時間問題，這將進一步鞏固 Atomera 未來的業務潛力。

Mike, we will now take questions.

麥克，我們現在開始提問。

Okay. Thanks, Scott. (Event Instructions) And right now, our first question comes from Richard Shannon of Craig-Hallum. Richard, please go ahead.

好的。謝謝，斯科特。（活動說明） 現在，我們的第一個問題來自 Craig-Hallum 的 Richard Shannon。理查德，請繼續。

Thanks, Mike. And thanks, Scott, Frank, for hitting me on your call here, and congratulations on the great success ending last year here. Maybe a couple of questions related to STMicro here, about the time frame to product prioritization of 1.5 years to 2 years here. It sounds like you're talking about some very interesting work with them.

謝謝，麥克。感謝史考特、法蘭克打電話給我，並祝賀去年在這裡取得的巨大成功。也許有幾個與 STMicro 相關的問題，關於 1.5 年到 2 年產品優先順序的時間框架。聽起來你正在和他們談論一些非常有趣的工作。

I don't want to get out ahead of my skis here, but is there any reason to think that that time frame could be at the lower end of that just because of all the engagement that you've been having? I don't want to read too much into it, but I just want to get your thoughts there, Scott.

我不想在我的滑雪板之前離開這裡，但是有什麼理由認為僅僅因為你們一直在參與的所有活動，這個時間框架可能會處於最短的時間？我不想讀太多，但我只是想了解你的想法，斯科特。

Yeah. As I say, we can't predict the timing of it. They haven't actually given us a schedule that they're trying to hit. However, I will say the progress we've made in just the last couple of months, and we did -- since we did the installation is really quick in our experience, and they have the possibility of moving very fast.

是的。正如我所說，我們無法預測它的時間。他們實際上並沒有給我們一個他們想要達到的時間表。然而，我要說的是，我們在過去幾個月中取得了進展，我們確實做到了——因為根據我們的經驗，安裝速度非常快，而且他們有可能進展得非常快。

Once MST is installed inside someone's fab, they can literally crank up the engines and turn out these new wafer experiments very quickly. So, there is some chance, I would say. I would say I'm still holding to the 1.5 years, 2 years from our announcement date last May, but there's a chance it could be on the earlier end.

一旦 MST 安裝在某人的晶圓廠內，他們就可以真正啟動引擎並非常快速地進行這些新的晶圓實驗。所以，我想說，還有一些機會。我想說，我仍然堅持從去年 5 月宣布日期算起的 1.5 年、2 年，但有可能會提前結束。

Sure. You say you haven't gotten a schedule from STMicro, when do you expect that? And are there any way you can characterize what that means? Is that a normal process of bringing up any semiconductor process, or is there any specifics to Atomera that create, I don't know, deviations from the normal, I guess?

當然。您說您還沒有收到 STMicro 的時間表，您預計什麼時候會收到？有什麼方法可以描述這意味著什麼嗎？這是提出任何半導體製程的正常過程嗎？或者 Atomera 是否有任何細節導致（我不知道）與正常情況的偏差，我猜？

I don't think there's anything that's a deviation from the normal in this case. That being said, I am not privy to what they consider a normal development time frame for an analog product like this. I know that for some of our customers, they may have done a lot of that development work in Phase 3. And when they get to Phase 4, they have most of it done.

我認為在這種情況下沒有任何偏離正常情況的地方。話雖如此，我並不了解他們認為此類模擬產品的正常開發時間框架是多少。我知道對於我們的一些客戶來說，他們可能已經在第三階段完成了大量的開發工作。當他們進入第四階段時，他們已經完成了大部分工作。

But as people will remember for ST, they did their Phase 3 work a long time ago, kind of put it on the shelf. And now they're taking this, and they're doing it for a brand-new process node. So they do have some work to try to -- I mean, I think they're going to get very good results on their first run, but their goal is to spread MST in a lot of places, so they can get good results across more and more components in their designs.

但人們會記得 ST，他們很久以前就完成了第三階段的工作，有點把它擱置了。現在他們正在採用這個，他們正在為一個全新的工藝節點做這件事。所以他們確實有一些工作要做——我的意思是，我認為他們在第一次運行時會得到非常好的結果，但他們的目標是將MST 傳播到很多地方，這樣他們就可以在各個地方獲得良好的結果他們的設計中的組件越來越多。

Okay, fair enough. And the follow-on question on the topic of STMicro here, and we've talked about this since the day that you announced this back in April of last year when you talked about -- I guess I'll refer to it as a halo effect of driving other companies to want to adopt MST. Maybe you can just characterize any of the discussions that you're having.

好吧，很公平。關於 STMicro 主題的後續問題，自從您去年 4 月宣布這一點以來我們就一直在討論這個問題，當時您談到了——我想我會將其稱為光環推動其他公司想要採用 MST 的效果。也許您可以描述您正在進行的任何討論。

And I guess the key for me is, do people need to see this in production and actually chips coming out the factory before they pull the trigger? Or do you think this can be an accelerator and a catalyst before then?

我想對我來說關鍵是，人們是否需要在生產中看到這一點，並且在扣動扳機之前實際上看到晶片從工廠出來？或者您認為這可以成為在此之前的加速器和催化劑？

It's definitely already an accelerator and a catalyst. In conversations with customers now, we're discussing our business model and what we'd like to see from them, they say, yes, I recognize that ST is doing it. And then we go on from there. But that's great because in the past, they could say to us, nobody's ever done this before, so why do you think we should do it? So it's really a big game changer.

它絕對已經是加速器和催化劑。現在在與客戶的對話中，我們正在討論我們的業務模式以及我們希望從他們那裡看到什麼，他們說，是的，我認識到 ST 正在這樣做。然後我們從那裡繼續。但這很好，因為在過去，他們可以對我們說，以前沒有人這樣做過，所以你認為我們為什麼應該這樣做？所以這確實是一個重大的遊戲規則改變者。

Okay. Well, great to hear that. You talked about this last quarter in terms of -- and now you have a -- I think you used the word license for MSTcad with a large analog manufacturer. Is this an example of this halo effect, or is it separate and even started before ST was publicized?

好的。嗯，很高興聽到這個消息。您在上個季度談到了這一點，現在您有一個，我認為您使用了 MSTcad 與大型模擬製造商的許可證一詞。這是這種光環效應的一個例子，還是單獨存在甚至在ST公開之前就開始了？

I think it's definitely an example of the halo effect. Of course, we were trying to convince these guys before we announced ST, and we actually did do work with them, but seeing ST has caused them to take it to the next level. And I hope that the MSTcad is the first step in kind of moving along to doing an actual installation and license, although we haven't announced that yet, but that's what we hope is the trajectory.

我認為這絕對是光環效應的一個例子。當然，在我們宣布 ST 之前，我們試圖說服這些人，我們實際上確實與他們合作過，但是看到 ST 使他們將其提升到了一個新的水平。我希望 MSTcad 是實際安裝和授權的第一步，儘管我們還沒有宣布這一點，但這就是我們希望的軌跡。

Okay. Well, you kind of co-opted my follow-on question on this topic, which is, what are those next steps here, both internally that you could characterize, plus any public events, so to speak, like a license, as you just mentioned?

好的。好吧，你有點採納了我關於這個主題的後續問題，即接下來的步驟是什麼，你可以在內部描述，再加上任何公共事件，可以這麼說，就像許可證一樣，正如你剛才所說提及？

Yeah. I mean, if you look at what I talked about for the productization effort for ST, they are starting all of their work with TCAD. And MSTcad is an add-on to a standard TCAD that adds the MST stuff into it. So for any of our customers, it would be -- in the semiconductor industry, I would say the majority of manufacturers are a -- they want to see actual physical results on a piece of silicon before they make a decision.

是的。我的意思是，如果你看看我所謂的 ST 產品化工作，你會發現他們的所有工作都是從 TCAD 開始的。MSTcad 是標準 TCAD 的一個附加元件，將 MST 內容加入其中。因此，對於我們的任何客戶來說，在半導體行業，我想說大多數製造商都希望在做出決定之前看到一塊矽片上的實際物理結果。

But for some of the players in the industry, they want to run simulations first and then make their decision to move to silicon. And so, I think it's really good that they're doing both paths. We're prepared to support them on both paths, and it shows a seriousness. It's not a small deal to dedicate a few engineers and a few very expensive Synopsys TCAD seats to working exclusively on integrating MST into your process technology. And so we hope that goes someplace good.

但對於業界的一些參與者來說，他們希望先運行模擬，然後再決定轉向晶片。所以，我認為他們兩條路都走真的很好。我們準備在這兩條道路上支持他們，這表明了我們的認真態度。投入一些工程師和一些非常昂貴的 Synopsys TCAD 席位來專門致力於將 MST 整合到您的製程技術中並不是一件小事。所以我們希望這一切能夠順利進行。

Okay. And I'm assuming that since you described this as a large analog manufacturer, that this is something they would install and use internally as opposed to working with somebody else, like perhaps a current engaged Atomera customer. Is that fair?

好的。我假設，既然您將其描述為大型模擬製造商，那麼他們將在內部安裝和使用該產品，而不是與其他人（例如當前參與的 Atomera 客戶）合作。這樣公平嗎？

Yeah. I don't think they would work with an engaged Atomera customer. I think every company in the globe today is -- even if they're an IDM, they're probably fab-light, so they use some outside foundry as well as inside capacity. So these guys could go in either direction, but yeah.

是的。我認為他們不會與積極參與的 Atomera 客戶合作。我認為當今全球的每家公司都是——即使它們是 IDM，它們也可能是輕晶圓廠，因此它們使用一些外部代工廠以及內部產能。所以這些人可以朝任何一個方向發展，但是的。

Okay, two quick questions, and I'll get in line here. I'm sure there's a couple of others that want to ask questions here. But just related to JDA 1 here, it sounds like you've made some progress in discussions with some business units there, but it didn't detect anything that was imminent, and you're just hopeful.

好的，兩個簡單的問題，我會在這裡排隊。我確信還有其他一些人想在這裡提問。但就這裡的 JDA 1 而言，聽起來您在與那裡的一些業務部門的討論中取得了一些進展，但它沒有檢測到任何即將發生的事情，您只是充滿希望。

I don't want to put words in your mouth, so maybe you can just characterize the dynamics there. Or do you think you've gotten past this point in certain other learning cycles, you've gone through them with them, I think, over the last two -- I think it's been more than two years. Correct?

我不想把話放在你嘴裡，所以也許你可以描述那裡的動態。或者你認為你在某些其他學習週期中已經過了這一點，你已經和他們一起經歷了這些，我想，在過去的兩年裡——我想已經兩年多了。正確的？

Yeah. I mean, we've done a lot of stuff with them. We've shown them a lot of data. And by the way, we are continuing to do technical work with them to show them even more results of things that can be done with MST.

是的。我的意思是，我們和他們一起做了很多事情。我們向他們展示了很多數據。順便說一句，我們正在繼續與他們一起進行技術工作，向他們展示更多使用 MST 可以完成的事情的結果。

We started in discussions with them on the business side in the fourth quarter. And no, we haven't completed that yet. I don't think that's that unusual. And obviously, we can't give details of exactly where we are on those discussions.

我們從第四季開始與他們就業務方面進行討論。不，我們還沒完成。我認為這沒什麼不尋常的。顯然，我們無法詳細說明我們在這些討論中的具體進展。

But these are the types of things that take some time. And over the Christmas holidays, we certainly didn't slow down. But every big company has got a lot of things happening at the end of the year with goal setting and reorgs and conversation, discussions, and everything. And so I definitely feel like they were a bit distracted at the end of the year.

但這些都是需要一些時間的事情。在聖誕節假期期間，我們當然沒有放慢腳步。但每家大公司在年底都會發生很多事情，包括目標設定、重組、對話、討論等等。所以我確實覺得他們在年底有點心煩意亂。

And so in January, we started to really try to get it ramped back up, and hopefully, we'll make better progress now.

因此，在一月份，我們開始真正嘗試讓它恢復正常，希望我們現在能取得更好的進展。

Okay, fair enough. And the last question, and I'll jump on the line here. You signed a license with an unnamed fabless RF customer I think back in like 2018 or something like that. I haven't heard much about them since. Yet you talk every quarter about what sounds like some great engagement in RF-SOI in general. Maybe just characterize what the specific customer has been doing since that announcement or recently. And does that overlap with any of the commentary in RF-SOI that you have mentioned today in the past?

好吧，很公平。最後一個問題，我會在這裡插話。您與一位未透露姓名的無晶圓廠 RF 客戶簽署了許可證，我想是在 2018 年左右。從那以後我就沒怎麼聽過他們了。然而，您每個季度都會談論聽起來像是 RF-SOI 總體上的一些重大參與。也許只是描述自該公告以來或最近特定客戶一直在做什麼。這是否與您今天提到的 RF-SOI 中的任何評論重疊？

Yeah. Sorry. It definitely overlaps. We're still working with that customer. We're still doing development with them, and we hope that that turns into something very good in the future. I probably could have done a better job in my prepared remarks of connecting that particular customer with our RF-SOI work, but that is something that is continuing and we're quite excited about.

是的。對不起。它肯定是重疊的。我們仍在與該客戶合作。我們仍在與他們一起進行開發，我們希望這在未來會變得非常好。我可能可以在準備好的評論中做得更好，將特定客戶與我們的 RF-SOI 工作聯繫起來，但這是一件正在持續的事情，我們對此感到非常興奮。

Okay, fair enough. I will jump on the line, Scott. Thank you.

好吧，很公平。我會立即接通，斯科特。謝謝。

All right. Thanks, Richard.

好的。謝謝，理查。

Thanks, Richard.

謝謝，理查。

Cody Acree, Benchmark.

科迪·阿克里，基準。

Yeah. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on the progress this year. Frank, if we can just be real clear on your guidance for Q1, you said ratable STMicro license. Can you just be clear on what you're expecting for the first quarter?

是的。感謝您回答我的問題，並祝賀今年的進展。弗蘭克，如果我們能真正清楚地了解您對第一季的指導，您說的是可評估的 STMicro 許可證。您能否明確說明您對第一季的預期？

Oh, yeah. No, I was not referring to STMicro. I was talking to licensed revenue from MSTcad. So yeah, that's -- and then those are not large amounts. So I didn't go into details, but I think in the past, the largest we've had of revenue from a single in a quarter from MSTcad was under $10,000. So this is a larger engagement, but it's still kind of in that range. Yeah, that's separate from STMicro.

哦耶。不，我指的不是 STMicro。我說的是 MSTcad 的授權收入。是的，那就是──而且這些金額並不大。所以我沒有詳細說明，但我認為在過去，我們從 MSTcad 獲得的單季最大收入不到 10,000 美元。所以這是一個更大的參與度，但仍然在這個範圍內。是的，它與 STMicro 是分開的。

Okay, thank you for that clarification. Any impact on your delay with TSI? I understand the R&D push, the lumpiness that will come in next year or later this year. But is there any business impact on that delay?

好的，謝謝您的澄清。對您延遲 TSI 有何影響？我理解研發的推動，以及明年或今年稍後將會出現的混亂。但這種延遲會對業務產生影響嗎？

We don't see any business impact from the delay. None of our wafers that would go to a customer of any kind, whether it be -- certainly, with ST, they're now installed and doing everything in quick turns in their fab. But for customers that would have been sending wafers to us for MST deposition, that never flows through TSI, either. TSI was solely a vehicle for us to be able to do internal R&D testing.

我們認為延遲不會對業務產生任何影響。我們的晶圓不會提供給任何類型的客戶，無論是——當然，對於 ST，它們現在都在其晶圓廠中快速安裝並完成所有工作。但對於那些本來將晶圓送給我們進行 MST 沉積的客戶來說，這些晶圓也永遠不會流經 TSI。TSI 只是我們能夠進行內部研發測試的工具。

And so it has no impact on customers. In terms of longer-term R&D, yeah, prolonged inability to work with the foundry would have some impact on us, but we're not seeing that. We actually had much higher spend in the first three quarters of 2023 than we had had in previous years with TSI. Now, part of that was price increases and kind of faster turnaround.

所以它對客戶沒有影響。就長期研發而言，是的，長期無法與代工廠合作會對我們產生一些影響，但我們並沒有看到這一點。事實上，我們在 2023 年前三個季度的支出比前幾年在 TSI 上的支出要高得多。現在，其中一部分是價格上漲和更快的周轉。

But we were able to, as we kind of got into Q4, anticipate that they were winding down and run quite a few wafers that we can use for additional internal testing and for TCAD calibration. And so, that's keeping us plenty busy now. And we are very close in discussions with signing up a new foundry. So we don't anticipate that that's going to hurt us commercially at all.

但當我們進入第四季度時，我們能夠預期他們正在逐步關閉並運行相當多的晶圓，我們可以將它們用於額外的內部測試和 TCAD 校準。所以，這讓我們現在很忙。我們正在非常接近地討論簽約一家新的代工廠。因此，我們預計這不會對我們的商業造成任何損害。

Excellent. Thank you. And Scott, maybe can you talk a bit more about this engagement with MST, SP, and SPX, the new engagement that you mentioned in your prepared remarks?

出色的。謝謝。Scott，也許您能多談談您在準備好的發言中提到的與 MST、SP 和 SPX 的合作嗎？

Yeah. I'm not sure what else I can say about it. Yeah, so maybe we can just talk about what it means to license MSTcad. So our MSTcad is a software package that sits on top of Synopsys' TCAD software, and it gives people to analyze the performance that MST could bring.

是的。我不知道我還能說些什麼。是的，所以也許我們可以談談獲得 MSTcad 許可意味著什麼。所以我們的MSTcad是一個軟體包，位於Synopsys的TCAD軟體之上，它讓人們能夠分析MST可以帶來的效能。

This particular customer wants to do kind of a comprehensive analysis of how MST could get added into their product line. And so, that means it's a fairly big installation for them. And so we're charging them on a monthly level to be able to use it, and we're providing quite a bit of support to them.

該特定客戶希望對如何將 MST 添加到他們的產品線中進行全面分析。因此，這意味著這對他們來說是一個相當大的安裝。因此，我們按月向他們收取費用，以便他們能夠使用它，並且我們為他們提供了相當多的支援。

Now that -- what's frequently the case for customers who are experts in higher-voltage technology is they aren't going to use our MST, SPX, or SP packaged product, but they will look at how we do that, and then they'll use the tricks we've figured out to how -- so that MST can make their product better.

現在，對於高壓技術專家的客戶來說，通常的情況是他們不會使用我們的 MST、SPX 或 SP 封裝產品，但他們會看看我們如何做到這一點，然後他們會使用我們已經找到的技巧，以便MST 能夠改進他們的產品。

So we'll train them on how to put all of the tricks and the trade into their development, and then they can change their existing designs to get higher performance levels out of those. I talked a little bit about this trend where higher-voltage chips is going to China. We're seeing that more and more. And so, definitely, many of the players are trying to either make their existing portfolios higher performance or lower cost, so they can compete better with those -- with the Chinese fabs.

因此，我們將培訓他們如何將所有技巧和交易融入他們的開發中，然後他們可以改變現有的設計以獲得更高的性能水平。我談到了高壓晶片流向中國的趨勢。我們越來越多地看到這種情況。因此，毫無疑問，許多參與者都在努力提高其現有產品組合的性能或降低成本，以便他們可以更好地與中國晶圓廠競爭。

I see. Thank you for that, Scott. And then lastly, just you mentioned some increased interest in DRAM around the chiplet strategy. Are you seeing engagements in DRAM that are material or is this just more road map plausibility?

我懂了。謝謝你，斯科特。最後，您剛才提到圍繞小晶片策略，人們對 DRAM 的興趣增加。您是否認為 DRAM 方面的參與是實質性的，或者這只是路線圖的合理性？

No, we've been talking to DRAM manufacturers for a little while now. We don't have anything to announce there yet, but we definitely are still in discussions with a number of companies there. It's not specifically related to chiplets, but it is something that I think would be used in chiplets, just like any memory technology.

不，我們已經與 DRAM 製造商交談了一段時間。我們還沒有任何消息要在那裡宣布，但我們肯定仍在與那裡的許多公司進行討論。它與小晶片沒有特別關係，但我認為它會像任何記憶體技術一樣在小晶片中使用。

But we're talking to people about DRAM. We're talking to people about other memory architectures, and we're even doing some work on how MST could help to change memory architectures to make them more responsive to the needs of AI memory demands. So, again, a number of things that we're working on in R&D that we haven't announced yet but that we hope will turn into something soon.

但我們正在與人們談論 DRAM。我們正在與人們討論其他記憶體架構，我們甚至正在做一些關於 MST 如何幫助改變記憶體架構的工作，使它們能夠更好地響應 AI 記憶體需求。因此，我們在研發方面正在進行的許多工作尚未宣布，但我們希望很快就會實現。

Would you characterize these as fairly early stage yet?

您認為這些還處於相當早期的階段嗎？

Our work with DRAM manufacturers is not early stage, but some of the other work, I would say, is earlier stage, yes.

我們與 DRAM 製造商的合作還不是早期階段，但其他一些工作，我想說，是早期階段，是的。

Okay. Thank you, guys.

好的。感謝你們。

All right. Thanks, Cody. And a couple questions on the Q&A line here. Scott, you mentioned Soitec in the prepared comments. Are you -- the question that came in is, are you involved with Soitec's technology SmartSiC into production with STMicro this year?

好的。謝謝，科迪。這裡還有一些關於問答的問題。Scott，您在準備好的評論中提到了 Soitec。問題是，今年您是否參與將 Soitec 的 SmartSiC 技術與 STMicro 一起投入生產？

Yeah. So we have been working with Soitec for a number of years. As you guys know, we've been talking about RF-SOI and the benefits we bring there for a long time, and most, I would say, a good percentage of that RF-SOI that's delivered to the market is delivered by Soitec. So we have been working with them to ensure that our product works well with theirs.

是的。因此，我們與 Soitec 合作多年。如你所知，我們長期以來一直在談論 RF-SOI 以及我們為該領域帶來的好處，而且我想說的是，交付到市場的 RF-SOI 中很大一部分是由 Soitec 提供的。因此，我們一直與他們合作，以確保我們的產品與他們的產品配合得很好。

We have not announced any kind of a partnership with them or any kind of engagement with a joint customer, like the question you're asking about STMicro. But we certainly hope that any customer who would be using RF-SOI would be very interested in working with both us and Soitec.

我們尚未宣布與他們建立任何形式的合作夥伴關係，也沒有宣布與聯合客戶進行任何形式的合作，就像您所問的有關 STMicro 的問題。但我們當然希望任何使用 RF-SOI 的客戶都會對與我們和 Soitec 合作非常感興趣。

All right. And one for you, Frank. There was a comment about the increase in sales and marketing expense in the fourth quarter. Do you want to address that?

好的。法蘭克，還有一份送給你。有評論稱第四季度銷售和行銷費用增加。你想解決這個問題嗎？

Yeah. I think -- and this kind of applies, actually, across all areas of operating expense. But as you saw, we have the $550,000 of revenue in Q4, which is an important milestone. One of the things that impacts our expenses across all departments is the annual bonus that we accrue as we achieve certain milestones.

是的。我認為——實際上，這種情況適用於所有營運費用領域。但正如您所看到的，我們第四季的收入為 550,000 美元，這是一個重要的里程碑。影響我們所有部門支出的因素之一是我們在實現某些里程碑時獲得的年度獎金。

And so, with an important milestone like that in Q4, that certainly increased the amount of bonus accrual in the quarter. Otherwise, though, sales and marketing can be very spotty. There's a lot of travel, and we certainly spent a lot of time this year traveling to customers. But I wouldn't read anything more into that other than just travel and overall, across the company, accrual of bonuses, which is not always linear every quarter.

因此，有了像第四季度這樣的重要里程碑，本季的獎金應計金額肯定會增加。但除此之外，銷售和行銷可能會非常不穩定。有很多旅行，今年我們當然花了很多時間去拜訪客戶。但除了旅行和整個公司的整體獎金累積之外，我不會對此進行更多的解讀，而獎金並不總是每個季度都是線性的。

Okay. And there's a request for an update about the CHIPS Act and the news that we put out last year. And I was wondering, Scott, if you could provide an update on the CHIPS Act.

好的。還有人要求提供有關 CHIPS 法案和我們去年發布的新聞的最新資訊。Scott，我想知道您是否可以提供有關《CHIPS 法案》的最新資訊。

Yeah, of course. We talked last year about what -- I mean, we think the CHIPS Act really provides a tailwind for us in many ways and especially the establishment of the new National Semiconductor Development Center that they're talking about. So we have gotten involved in a lot of that. As you know, our announcement is about our involvement out in Arizona with Arizona State University.

嗯，當然咯。我們去年討論過——我的意思是，我們認為《CHIPS 法案》確實在很多方面為我們提供了順風車，尤其是他們正在談論的新國家半導體開發中心的建立。所以我們參與了很多這樣的事情。如您所知，我們的公告是關於我們與亞利桑那州立大學在亞利桑那州的合作。

But the other thing about CHIPS Act is to -- in the early rounds of RFQs that CHIPS Act has been putting out, it's been about people building fabs first, the big companies building fabs and then some medium-sized companies. We weren't really eligible for those, but we are doing a lot of work to get engaged with the government at different levels, so we could be eligible for work on the CHIPS Act in other areas. And so, again, nothing to announce there, but I will tell you that that's something that we're working on.

但《CHIPS 法案》的另一件事是——在 CHIPS 法案推出的早期詢價中，首先是人們建造晶圓廠，大公司建造晶圓廠，然後是一些中型公司。我們實際上沒有資格參與這些活動，但我們正在做大量工作來與不同級別的政府接觸，因此我們可能有資格參與其他領域的 CHIPS 法案工作。所以，再說一遍，沒有什麼可宣布的，但我會告訴你，這是我們正在努力的事情。

Okay. And I see Richard Shannon has his hand up. Richard, did you have a follow-up question?

好的。我看到理查德·香農舉起了手。理查德，您還有後續問題嗎？

I did, Mike. Thank you. Scott, I'm going to reask Cody's last question on a different topic. He asked the kind of maturity of work in the DRAM space, and thanks for that answer here.

我做到了，麥克。謝謝。史考特，我要在另一個主題上重新問科迪的最後一個問題。他詢問 DRAM 領域的工作成熟度如何，並感謝您的回答。

But I'll turn it around and throw it at the advanced nodes. And I want to get your update and ultimately characterizing the situation there relative to DRAM or other dynamics and how their -- how that workflow is consistent with work you've done in other areas like power and RF-SOI, et cetera.

但我會把它轉過來，把它扔到高級節點上。我想了解您的最新情況，並最終描述與 DRAM 或其他動態相關的情況，以及它們的工作流程如何與您在電源和 RF-SOI 等其他領域所做的工作保持一致。

Yeah. I think it's interesting. It's not exactly the same type of work that we're doing in power and RF-SOI. Let me address a few things.

是的。我認為這很有趣。這與我們在電源和 RF-SOI 領域所做的工作並不完全相同。讓我談談一些事情。

First, in the advanced nodes, the sizes that you're working with are so small that it really has required us to do new R&D to prove our capabilities, to prove that we can develop a film and deliver it at the tiny process geometries that they have and, when we do that, if it can still be effective. And so, we have done that, and we did that working in conjunction with some of the advanced node customers who've really guided us towards what they would need if we were able to bring them some solutions.

首先，在先進節點中，您正在使用的尺寸非常小，以至於我們確實需要進行新的研發來證明我們的能力，以證明我們可以開發薄膜並以微小的工藝幾何形狀交付它，他們已經這樣做了，當我們這樣做時，它是否仍然有效。因此，我們已經做到了這一點，並且我們與一些高級節點客戶合作，如果我們能夠為他們帶來一些解決方案，他們就會真正引導我們滿足他們的需求。

We've also, I think in the past, we've put some papers out and maybe even some white papers about some other things that are very useful, one of which is the surface roughness scattering improvements. This is quite technical, but there are different scattering mechanisms that happen in transistors when they're sending electrons across them, and they impede the mobility of electron flow.

我認為過去我們也發布了一些論文，甚至可能發布了一些關於其他非常有用的事情的白皮書，其中之一就是表面粗糙度散射的改進。這是相當技術性的，但是當電晶體發送電子穿過電晶體時，電晶體中會發生不同的散射機制，並且它們會阻礙電子流的遷移率。

As you get to very, very small process geometries, one of the most difficult scattering mechanisms that's gotten very -- that's gotten a lot worse is the surface roughness. And we actually proved that MST is a very rare solution, or at least improvement, to surface roughness scattering. And so, that's something that's garnering attention from a lot of industry participants.

當你達到非常非常小的工藝幾何形狀時，最困難的散射機制之一變得非常 - 變得更糟的是表面粗糙度。我們實際上證明了 MST 是一種非常罕見的解決方案，或至少是表面粗糙度散射的改進。因此，這引起了許多行業參與者的注意。

And then, actually, earlier in the fall, we put out a white paper, and I talked a little bit on the earnings calls about random dopant fluctuation, again, at very small process nodes. You can imagine if you have a feature on your transistor that's only several silicon atoms wide and you have dopant fluctuation, and a few dopants moving into the wrong place is a real problem.

然後，實際上，在秋天早些時候，我們發布了一份白皮書，我在財報電話會議上再次談到了非常小的工藝節點的隨機摻雜波動。您可以想像，如果您的電晶體上有一個只有幾個矽原子寬的特徵，並且存在摻雜劑波動，並且一些摻雜劑移動到錯誤的位置是一個真正的問題。

So one of the big advantages of MST is that we can help to tamp down that surface roughness scattering -- I mean, sorry, that random dopant fluctuation.

因此，MST 的一大優點是我們可以幫助抑製表面粗糙度散射——抱歉，我的意思是隨機摻雜劑波動。

Dopant fluctuation.

摻雜劑波動。

And that is also true for -- I mean, almost all of those things are also true for the memory makers. Now, the memory makers are not dealing with the same incredibly tiny geometries that they're working with at advanced nodes, but they are having similar problems with the areas that I just talked about.

這對於記憶體製造商也是如此——我的意思是，幾乎所有這些事情對於記憶體製造商也是如此。現在，記憶體製造商不再處理他們在先進節點上處理的同樣令人難以置信的微小幾何形狀，但他們在我剛才談到的領域遇到了類似的問題。

So let me answer one other little part of your question. One of the interesting things about our solutions in those areas is that some of them can be implemented on a blanket wafer, meaning that we can make an MST wafer that doesn't have to get integrated into the rest of the process flow. It would be kind of on the starting wafer that they use to run things.

那麼讓我來回答你問題的另一個小部分。我們在這些領域的解決方案的一個有趣之處在於，其中一些解決方案可以在覆蓋晶圓上實施，這意味著我們可以製造不必整合到其餘製程的 MST 晶圓。它就像是在他們用來運行東西的起始晶圓上。

When we start talking about something like that, first of all, it has the potential to be easier to integrate and, therefore, faster time to revenue. Secondly, it gives us an opportunity to partner with some players in the industry who are wafer providers. And if we were able to do that, then that might give us a real easy channel into getting success at some of the semiconductor manufacturers.

當我們開始談論類似的事情時，首先，它有可能更容易集成，因此可以更快地實現收入。其次，它使我們有機會與業內一些晶圓供應商合作。如果我們能夠做到這一點，那麼這可能會給我們一個真正輕鬆的管道，讓我們在一些半導體製造商中取得成功。

So where people use much lower-temperature manufacturing processes, they can use this type of solutions. And that's true for the most advanced nodes and, sometimes, in RF-SOI as well.

因此，當人們使用溫度低得多的製造流程時，他們可以使用這種類型的解決方案。對於最先進的節點也是如此，有時在 RF-SOI 中也是如此。

Okay. Great color there, Scott. I think I'll absorb that one and get out of the queue again. Thank you.

好的。那裡的顏色很棒，斯科特。我想我會吸收這一點並再次退出隊列。謝謝。

Okay.

好的。

All right. So one last question from the Q&A line here, and that is about MST at STMicro and if it's going to be used in more than the smart power products.

好的。這裡的問答系列的最後一個問題是關於 STMicro 的 MST 以及它是否會用於智慧電源產品以外的其他產品。

Yeah. Nothing to announce there yet obviously. STMicro is a big company. I think they're learning about our technology, and one of the things they can do with this new installation in their fab is just try it out on other technologies. So we would be delighted if they tried something else out and decided that it was good for them. And we will certainly be encouraging that type of behavior.

是的。顯然還沒有什麼可宣布的。意法半導體是一家大公司。我認為他們正在了解我們的技術，他們可以在工廠中使用這個新裝置做的事情之一就是嘗試其他技術。因此，如果他們嘗試其他方法並認為這對他們有好處，我們會很高興。我們肯定會鼓勵這種行為。

All right. Well, if you want to proceed with any closing comments, Scott.

好的。好吧，如果你想繼續發表任何結束語，斯科特。

Sure. All right. Well, I want to just thank you all for joining us today. I'm pleased to have shared with you our efforts toward commercialization and technology development this past year.

當然。好的。好吧，我只想感謝大家今天加入我們。我很高興與您分享我們去年在商業化和技術開發方面所做的努力。

Please continue to look for our news, articles, and blog posts, which are available, along with investor alerts, on our website, atomera.com. Should you have additional questions, please contact Mike Bishop, who'll be happy to follow up. Thank you again for your support and we look forward to our next update call.

請繼續在我們的網站atomera.com 上查找我們的新聞、文章和部落格文章，以及投資者警報。如果您還有其他問題，請聯絡 Mike Bishop，他將很樂意跟進。再次感謝您的支持，我們期待下次更新電話。

Thank you, Scott. And this concludes the Atomera conference call.

謝謝你，斯科特。Atomera 電話會議到此結束。