The Weebit Nano Ltd (ASX: WBT) share price is having a strong start to the month.
In morning trade, the semiconductor company's shares are up 3% to $6.37.
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Why is the Weebit Nano share price rising?
Investors have been buying Weebit Nano shares this morning after the company released an update on its Resistive Random-Access Memory (ReRAM) technology.
According to the release, the company has fully qualified its ReRAM module up to 125 degrees Celsius. This is the temperature specified for automotive grade one non-volatile memories (NVMs). The qualification was performed based on JEDEC industry standards for NVMs.
Management believes this achievement demonstrates the suitability of Weebit ReRAM for use in microcontrollers and other automotive components, as well as high-temperature industrial and internet of things (IoT) applications.
The release notes that most chips for consumer and industrial applications need to be qualified for up to 10 years at temperatures between zero and 85 degrees celsius. Whereas advanced automotive components are much more stringent, requiring qualification at higher temperatures for 10 years or longer, with zero failures.
Pleasingly, all the Weebit dies successfully passed the entire set of qualification tests at 125 degrees celsius for 10 years retention, demonstrating the quality and repeatability of Weebit's embedded ReRAM IP for applications requiring high-temperature reliability.
Weebit Nano CEO, Coby Hanoch, said:
This achievement is part of an ongoing process through which we are extending the qualification of our ReRAM technology to even higher temperatures, longer retention, and higher endurance levels. In our discussions with Tier-1 foundries and semiconductor companies, we're seeing increased interest in our ReRAM for automotive and industrial applications.
Proving the resilience of Weebit ReRAM at such high temperatures will continue to move these discussions forward. We believe ReRAM to be a better choice for automotive and industrial applications compared to other emerging NVMs not only because of its high temperature performance, but also its low complexity, cost effectiveness, and other advantages such as tolerance to radiation and electromagnetic interference.
Commercialisation
In a separate announcement, the company has released a presentation pertaining to the commercialisation of its technology.
Management revealed that it is targeting its first revenue in the current calendar year. After which, it has set its sights on an embedded emerging NVM market that is expected to reach $2.7 billion by 2028. Just over a third of this market is thought to relate to ReRAM.
The Weebit Nano share price is now up approximately 140% over the last 12 months.
