Wouldn't you know it. The day of this release from AKP and my trusty Mac has had problems with its browser! It never rains as they say, but when it does it pours!
For once I think this is a very good announcement, very positive info, and very upbeat in its wording.
Firstly from the last announcement:
"... As has been extensively reported, the company’s primary technical objectives and milestones are currently focused on the fabrication and characterization of MEMS GEN-II chips. As has been previously described, a number of novel design elements have been incorporated into MEMS GEN-II chip design, that are forecast to provide substantially higher sound pressure (SPL or “loudness”)when compared to MEMS GEN-I.
As has been reported our pioneering SPL design elements introduced into the design of MEMS GEN-II required certain adjustments to the fabrication processes that have so far proven to be considerably more challenging than originally anticipated by the fabs.
Our vendor EarthMountain has and continues to spare no effort or expense working with the fabs to overcome these fabrication challenges and establish a reliable mass production process flow. In recent months that have achieved significant progress and currently anticipates being able to begin shipping device characterization wafers from all 3 fabs during the month of August. ..."
So these have led to wafers that have presumably been right through the fabrication process, and include all the above mentioned adjustments, and have been QC'd by EM all the way through the FAB. So these wafers (device characterisation wafers) have now presumably been sent to AP Israel for evaluation. My assumption is that using the wafer probers for both wafers and dies that the AP lab has available to them, they can exercise the MEMS devices directly from an ASIC emulator on their computer and feed them digital audio signals. At EM we saw from their patents that the pixels' movements can be assessed during the production as soon as they are finished to an adequate stage. They are unlikely to need to have the prober and ASIC emulator in the FABs. That is why they get sent to Israel. AP then presumably characterises all their functions and properties against their own specifications of what they are required to be able to do, and how, and for how long.
Having satisfied their specs AP will presumably be able to say to EM, "Excellent! these devices on wafer meet all of our requirements and have a good yield. We will accept these and others like them as finished product, and you may take them through to packaging into chips."
Following this event we can look at the latest announcement and see how that story has progressed:
So we are now up to 19 August and these things are confirmed pretty clearly.
"... Company announces validation of the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) performance of its Gen-II MEMS transducer.
The company is thrilled to announce that the sound pressure levels (“SPL” or “loudness”) attained by MEMS-GEN-II have been validated to meet the ambitious commercial objectives of its revolutionary Digital Sound Reconstruction (DSR) loudspeaker platform.
This milestone, coupled with the exceptional sound quality already demonstrated, marks a significant digital revolution in sound reproduction—a long-sought achievement in the estimated 20-billion-unit annual market for both single and multichip applications.
As has been previously reported, a number of proprietary design elements were incorporated into MEMS GEN-II chip design. These innovations were designed to complement the incomparable sound quality demonstrated in our Gen-I prototype chips, by offering a substantial increase to the chip’s sound pressure levels. Measurements conducted on both 6” and 8” wafers in our cleanroom, fully validate the accuracy of our multiphysics simulation models. These measurements confirm the commercial performance objectives established for our DSR platform.
While some engineering tasks remain to complete commercialization efforts, the Company’s patented DSR platform, which is substantially different to ANY other in the market (MEMS or otherwise); has now been confirmed to be capable of delivering a transcending audio experience to the overwhelming majority of consumer and pro applications for both micro and macro speakers.
The company and its vendor network now shift focus to advance from sample wafers, to packaged chips and upgrading the peripheral circuitry required to maximize product performance and effectively scale chip manufacturing. Initial chips will serve to repeat (and publish) performance specifications when conducted in accordance with loudspeaker industry standards, as well as to serve our demonstration systems and customer engineering samples.
Management intends to convene a Shareholder meeting upon availability of demonstratable chips and systems. ..."
The tenor of these statements ought to clarify the
continuity of this announcement with all previous announcements. For those who did not believe the earlier ones, these will undoubtedly be considered to be equally false and deceptive. Well I have to say that I find them pretty convincing, and rather reassuring. And others like me will not care now what a handful of naysayers think.
Essentially this says that Audiopixels has
almost got
working chips. My guess is that there will soon be an AGM/EGM at which chips will be demonstrated to shareholders, so I look forwards to hearing them for myself relatively soon.
I am also guessing that there will be more updates before the stock resumes trading, and that the company will likely seek a fairly non-dilutive cash raise to cover its ongoing needs for the next period. By non-dilutive I am basically assuming that it will be at a significantly higher price than that at which it last traded ($6.20), so that they do not have to sell a huge pile to raise the cash they are likely to need for this last phase of it being pre-revenue. The less shares they have to sell, the more, proportionately, that existing holders's shares, large and small, will end up being worth. The last time it was at this point it was
considerably more expensive than after all this time it has spent in the doldrums.
GLTAH, especially to those who have hung on through these very discouraging years, despite the taunts of so many scoffers (who of course do not hold.)
(20min delay)