The 4DS Memory Ltd (ASX: 4DS) share price is plummeting after the company exited a trading halt and released a technical update this morning.
While much of the update was positive, the market might be reacting to news the company's second platform lots experienced a technical issue during fabrication.
Right now, the 4DS share price is 17 cents, 20.93% lower than its previous closing price.
Let's take a closer look at today's news from the memory technology development company.
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What's weighing on the 4DS share price?
The 4DS share price is in the red after the company announced news of its third non-platform wafers and its second platform lot wafers.
While there was plenty of good news within 4DS' release, the market might be focusing on some technical issues faced by its second platform lot wafers.
Second platform lot wafers
According to 4DS, all of its second platform lot wafers had fabrication issues. However, the company stated the issues can be corrected and won't cause delays.
Additionally, despite the flaws, 4DS was able to use the wafers to demonstrate its memory cell's scalability to the smallest cell geometries supported on imec's memory platform.
4DS was also able to demonstrate memory cell switching using an access device – a critical step for producing a megabit memory array.
Third non-platform wafers
The 4DS share price is sliding despite the company having received the results of its third non-platform wafers.
The third non-platform wafers have continued to tune the parameters of 4DS' Interface Switching ReRAM technology.
The company is working to achieve compatibility with state-of-the-art processes currently used in high volume memory production.
4DS was also able to repeat the second non-platform lot's key memory characteristics results using its third non-platform wafers. The key memory characteristics included speed, endurance, and retention.
For the first time, 4DS was able to demonstrate the fabrication of fully crystalline PCMO at temperatures that can work with the processes run in high-volume memory DRAM and NAND factories.
4DS has also found its PCMO material reduces the cell on-resistance by an order of magnitude. This means 4DS has significantly improved the product's read speed.
4DS plans to start engaging its third platform lot utilising imec's megabit memory platform during the coming quarter.
Joint development agreement update
Finally, computer manufacturer Western Digital's subsidiary, HGST, has requested a review of the results from 4DS' two recent wafer lots. 4DS has a joint development agreement with HGST.
The company expects to have a meeting with HGST as soon as possible.
4DS share price snapshot
Despite today's dip, the 4DS share price has gained 40% year to date. It is also 280% higher than it was this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $284 million, with approximately 1.3 billion shares outstanding.
