Thanks for your watchful eyes @caredes, this is all very helpful...

Thanks for your watchful eyes @caredes, this is all very helpful to SH as we wait for further developments.

Both of these 'inventions' deal with problems that are directly pertinent to AKP's MEMS chips, so it makes perfect sense that EM would be working through all of the prototyping of processes that have presumably been required to actually manufacture the MEMS devices and to assemble and package them into working chips.

I recall that electrical conductivity for the 6" wafers was the problem that first stopped progress on those wafers, followed by the inability of the FAB to continue working on them as they waited for problem solving to be completed, as this presumably was threatening to run over into time booked for future manufacturing time for other customers.

"... On 31 August 2023 management informed the market that EM’s 6” Fab had encountered specific fabrication challenges and consequently had to delay its original estimated delivery for first GEN- II wafers, from October to December of 2023.

On the 28 Nov 2023 EM informed the company that the lead wafers produced by the 6” fab failed basic electrical testing. Failure Analysis conducted by the company upon receipt of the wafer, revealed the root cause to be a faulty etch process in one of the earlier fabricated layers of the device, an easily correctable problem.

On 24 Jan 2024 the 6” fab informed the vendor that it must temporarily suspend advancing the backup batches of our wafers due to an unanticipated increase in demand by a very significant Fab customer. To resolve their production bottleneck, the fab acquired additional equipment which they anticipate bringing online in mid to late February. Once they are able to resume fabrication it is estimated that 5-6 weeks will be needed to bring the lead backup batch to completion. ..."

That mid-April timeframe did not eventuate, but it now sounds like it is progressing currently.

It is inevitable with the changes of design to the MEMS that there could be potential engineering problems with manufacturing a new design. It looks like the same goes for the packaging of these same devices too. These patents sound like they specifically address the issues experienced and that have now led to manufacturing continuing.

"... 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 fabsto overcome these fabrication challenges and establish a reliable mass production process flow. In recent months [EM] have achieved significant progress and currently anticipates being able to begin shipping device characterization wafers from all 3 fabs during the month of August. ..."

I would like to think that thistime the timeframes will actually come to pass. But I think we have to realise and accept that the wheels of manufacturing at this level do not work at the kind of pace that making ordinary widgets takes. The processes involved take months, and delays add more months. And if we lose our manufacturing time slot we end up even more months behind schedule. It is just a fact that anything to do with precision manufacturing takes care and attention that cannot be rushed. In a working fabrication plant the work is allocated out very carefully to ensure profitable operation - its has to be. Most of my working background (I'm retired now) has been in high-tech scientific instrumentation, and waiting for a new more advanced model always takes just these kind of times. Delays typically put marketing departments back a year or more pretty often, to the great irritation of the guys and girls trying to sell a promised instrument, when their prospective customers get their funding, and their promised new model is not yet available when their customers money is. I understand now that we were by no means on our own. I expect it is pretty much the norm.

GLTAH. Grit your teeth!