Financial

4DS Memory announced that it has decided to take a strategic three-month pause to decide its future direction after an extensive analysis of its Sixth Platform Lot memory technology. 

4DS also said that it will disengage from active collaborations with imec and Infineon Technologies. Following these decisions, 4DS announced that CTO Dr Ting Yen and chief strategy officer Peter Himes had tendered their resignations.

RRAM developer Weebit Nano announced that it has licensed its RRAM memory technology to onsemi, a tier-1 semiconductor supplier.

Under the terms of the agreement, Weebit ReRAM IP will be integrated into onsemi’s Treo platform, to provide embedded non-volatile memory (NVM). Weebit ReRAM integration into a Bipolar CMOS, DMOS (BCD) process provides a low-power, cost-effective NVM that has proven excellent retention at high temperatures.

RRAM developer Weebit Nano announced that it has raised $50 million AUD (about $32.4 million USD) through a strongly supported underwritten placement to institutional investors.

The company says that funds will be used to expand the company’s commercialization activities, support new customer and partner agreements, and accelerate the development of its cutting-edge RRAM technology.

ByteDance (owner of TikTok) invested in InnoStar, a Shanghai-based RRAM developer established in 2019. ByteDance, through its Picoheart subsidiary, now holds a 9.5% share in InnoStar, making it the company's third largest stakeholder, after Memris Asia Pacific (28.8%) and Shanghai Alliance (26.3%). 

Picoheart is ByteDance's VR developer, which means that ByteDance likely hopes to adopt RRAM technology in future VR headsets.

Israel-based RRAM developer Weebit Nano announced that it has received its first IP licensing revenue for its embedded ReRAM technology.

This initial licensing fee is $100,000. Weebit’s plan is to generate revenues from foundries and product companies in three main ways: licensing fees for design and manufacture; engineering fees for designs and processes; and royalties for use by customers, which will be received once customers begin shipping end products.

UK-based Intrinsic Semiconductor Technologies (Intrinsic) has raised $8.4 million USD to further develop and commercialize its RRAM memory technology. The funding was led by Octopus Ventures, and was supported by existing investors and the UK government.

Intrinsic was spun-off from University College London (UCL) in 2017. The company's main technology is a silicon-oxide based RRAM memory, which is said to be fully air stable and inherently CMOS compatible. The company says its memory devices will be cheaper and easier to produce compared to competitive technologies.

GlobalFoundries announced that it acquired RRAM technology from Renesas Electronics, for use in chips for home and industrial IoT devices and smart mobile devices.

The RRAM technology originated at Dialog Semiconductor, which Renesas acquired. In 2020, Dialog licensed its CBRAM technology to GlobalFoundries. Dialog's RRAM technology, in turn, was developed by Adesto Technologies which was acquired by Dialog in 2020.

Israel-based RRAM developer Weebit Nano raised $25.7 million AUD from four Israeli institutional investment and pension funds. The company also announced a pro rata non-renounceable Entitlement Offer to raise a further $9 million AUD.

The company provided shares at $2.84 AUD per share, which represents a 11.5% discount to the last closing price on 8 November 2021.

UK-based RRAM developer Intrinsic Semiconductor Technologies (Intrinsic) announced it closed a $1.85 million seed funding round, led by investors UCL Technology Fund and IP Group plc. The company will use the funds to develop prototypes of its RRAM memory devices on 300 mm silicon wafers in collaboration with imec.

Intrinsic was spun-off from the University College London (UCL) in 2017. The UCL Technology Fund is now supporting this next stage in the company's life.