Agreed. But is GEN-II based on this 'new' principle? Or a refinement of the previous system that does actually deliver the sound that was expected. I am all for getting a 'blow their socks off' chip. But whose technology will it be? Will this appear as GEN-III in a couple of years time? That may sound negative, but I don't think it is. If GEN-II does what had been expected it will still be an absolute ripper of a product - and it will be welcomed by the audio industry as ground breaking. If this 'nano-lighting' device does not appear as our GEN-II device at least let's all hope that it is AP's GEN-III device! From Danny Lewin's earlier comments about AP's relationship with EM I would be optimistic that either way
both company's will have a very commercially successful future.
HY Report 31/8/23
"... The demonstration was conducted using our prototype platform (MEMS GEN-I). As has been extensively reported, the company’s primary technical objective during this reporting period has been to evolve our technology and fabrication capabilities to a
commercial generation of our solid-state DSR MEMS chip (MEMS-GEN-II). MEMS-GEN-II is an
evolution of our prototype chip which includes certain design elements that provide greater stability, reliability, higher yield, cost efficiency as well as providing a
significant boost to the sound pressure level (SPL or “loudness”) of the chip.
It is of critical importance to note that the production version of the chip (MEMS-GEN-II) is fully compatible with all packaging, testing procedures, functional software, algorithms, hardware and electronics that were developed, tried, tested and used in our prototyping and demonstration MEMS-GEN-I platforms.
As has been announced, the company’s next significant milestone is the receipt and characterization of MEMS GEN-II chips, delivery of which has been incrementally updated by the vendor, now stated to be mid to late September. The roughly 3-week deviation from their prior projected delivery date (late August 2023, as previously announced to the market), is predominantly attributed to the cumulative precautionary measures the company and vendor have taken to characterize and optimize critical fabrication process steps associated with a first run of our MEMS-GEN-II wafers / chips. ..."
I cannot read backwards into anything said here that indicates that the GEN-II is based on a totally different technology, rather than an evolution of the original. It is suggestive that GEN-II represents the perfection of what went before to produce a commercial version of the current tech.
I just think how SH would all be feeling now had the timing been as expected!
4C Update 31/10/23
"... 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 forecasted to provide substantially higher sound pressure (SPL or “loudness”) when compared to MEMS GEN-I.
The performance introduced by MEMS GEN-I has quite literally astounded the industry. This is not solely for being the first single loudspeaker driver (of any size or cost), that can reproduce the entire audible spectrum (and beyond), but for its qualitative reproduction capabilities. Such capabilities include a near perfectly flat Frequency and Phase Response with practically no distortion. While this in itself represents a quantum leap in sound reproduction, nonetheless it does not quite meet the objectives set by management for the commercial version of our product; as each additional decibel provide by MEMS GEN-II will exponentially enhance the commercial appeal of the product by reducing the number of chips required per application thus saving customers considerable space, power and costs.
As has been reported the pioneering SPL design elements introduced into MEMS GEN-II require adjustments to the fabrication processes. These modifications have proven to be more challenging than originally anticipated by our vendor, as all 3 fabrication facilities required alteration to tools and techniques used in MEMS GEN-I. While our vendor has spared no expense or effort contending with these challenges, it has taken them more time then they originally anticipated, begrudgingly forcing them to adjust first delivery timelines from September-October to Nov- December of 2023. ..."
If we look back to the Annual Report of FY22 there is more info on the progression from the GEN-I to the GEN-II chip, and this was the basis of the 'secret sauce' that increases the SPL. This seems to be what was mentioned above. But there is more spoken of there than this secret sauce!
AR 31/3/22
"... Throughout development of the manufacturing process, we purposefully withheld from the chip design, certain structural features that provide a significant boost to the sound pressure levels (SPL or “loudness”) of the chip. There are a number of reasons for concealing this “secret sauce” extending beyond IP preservation and the maturing of our multiphysics simulation models. The most significant reason that these features were withheld from prior designs is they have a direct dependency on the manufacturing capabilities and tolerances and therefore these modifications must strictly adhere to, and remain within, the tightly defined process window (Other design elements that provide an even greater increase to the SPL but that require more radical changes to the fabrication process are being reserved for future generations of products).
During EarthMountain’s (EM) visit in September 2022 we mutually concluded that the defined objectives for MEMS GEN‐I were achieved, and that sufficient knowledge, experience and investment were made by EM to ensure success production and packaging of MEMS GEN‐II to spec. Consequently, the company has paid a prepayment of A$586K and issued a purchase order for 10’s of thousands of fully packaged MEMS GEN‐II pre‐production chips that will be fully tested for compliance to spec prior to shipment.
Also included in the production version of the chip is a refinement to the electromechanical characteristics of the structure that permit us to apply a software‐only solution able to contend with adverse acoustic effects resulting from reasonable inconsistencies in the manufacturing process.
During our extensive work with GEN‐I chips we discovered that during music play an audible high frequency component (for lack of better word “noise”) was produced when reconstructing certain frequencies. The root cause of this phenomena was traced to inconsistencies / lack of uniformity in fabrication. Specifically, the theories of Digital Sound Reconstruction dictate that when superimposing the time‐delayed sound pulses generated by our “pixels“, variances in the anticipated pulse magnitude caused by inconsistencies in manufacturing, can manifest into the improper reconstruction of sound and in certain cases produce an unwanted audible sound.
Industry methodologies involved in mass producing semiconductors indicate that overtime such variances can be drastically reduced if not eliminated, nonetheless the company decided to explore other possible means of negating this problem. The innovation ultimately conceived involves expanding the electromechanical characteristics of the devices, that when combined with a proprietary software‐only approach provide the capability of rendering any such noise inaudible. ..."
1. It would seem clear that the progression from GEN-I to GEN-II uses the original MEMS technology but with refinements and software adjustable controls to ensure the MEMS works as desired.
2. The pre-production chips are GEN-II and have all the bells and whistles of the software adjustable capability, as well as the secret sauce that boosts the SPL output.
3. The secret sauce pertains to current technology, not to the future tech design elements, that add even more SPL but that will be shown in future generations of devices.
I have to say this all suggests a lot of great outcomes are in the pipeline, not just for immediate term but way out into the future as well! I can hardly wait, but I most definitely will be doing so quite happily.
(20min delay)