Smoltek is seeking strong partners for industrialization of CNF-MIM capacitors

Smoltek has made sig­nif­i­cant progress in both tech­ni­cal devel­op­ment and cre­at­ing an indus­tri­al process for high-vol­ume pro­duc­tion of the company’s capac­i­tor tech­nol­o­gy, CNF-MIM. The goal is to com­plete the devel­op­ment of the next gen­er­a­tion, Gen-One, dur­ing the fall of 2024. A new gen­er­a­tion that is expect­ed to deliv­er car­bon nanofiber capac­i­tors that are com­mer­cial­ly com­pet­i­tive with the lead­ing tech­nol­o­gy for ultra-thin capac­i­tors, such as the lat­est trench sil­i­con capac­i­tors made by TSMC/​Apple.

We have made sig­nif­i­cant progress in our semi­con­duc­tor sub­sidiary, Smoltek Semi. In 2024, we expect to reach tech­ni­cal per­for­mance for our capac­i­tors that match­es the com­peti­tors, com­bined with an extreme­ly thin form fac­tor. This is exact­ly what the mar­ket demands. Now that we are no longer bound by exclu­siv­i­ty agree­ments in the semi­con­duc­tor area, we can start dia­logues with sev­er­al poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tion part­ners. Our focus for 2024 is to con­tin­ue the tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment and cre­ate new collaborations. 

Håkan Pers­son, CEO of Smoltek

Updat­ed strate­gic con­di­tions for Smoltek Semi
Smoltek is seek­ing finan­cial­ly strong part­ners through a bid­ding process aim­ing to bring this tech­nol­o­gy to mar­ket and sup­port con­tin­ued tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment and new collaborations.

To ensure long-term suc­cess and con­tin­ued inno­va­tion, Smoltek has launched a bid­ding process, which was announced in a press release on May 22, 2024. Through this process, inter­est­ed par­ties are sought for a poten­tial sale of con­cepts and intan­gi­ble assets in the semi­con­duc­tor busi­ness area, includ­ing Smoltek’s CNF-MIM tech­nol­o­gy for ultra-thin capac­i­tors, which is oper­at­ed by the sub­sidiary Smoltek Semi AB, alter­na­tive­ly all or parts of this sub­sidiary. The process is esti­mat­ed to take 6–12 months.

New income oppor­tu­ni­ties for indus­tri­al col­lab­o­ra­tion part­ners
Smoltek’s capac­i­tors offer new oppor­tu­ni­ties for sales income in sev­er­al mar­ket seg­ments, from pre­mi­um sec­tors such as the mobile indus­try and advanced elec­tron­ics to sim­pler appli­ca­tions such as RF fil­ters. The annu­al net sales poten­tial is esti­mat­ed at approx­i­mate­ly 1,000 MSEK dur­ing the peri­od 2030 to 2034. The capac­i­tors can be man­u­fac­tured cost-effec­tive­ly thanks to a CMOS-com­pat­i­ble pro­duc­tion process that is cheap­er than com­pet­ing alter­na­tives and uses exist­ing machines at con­tract man­u­fac­tur­ers. This enables col­lab­o­ra­tion part­ners to effec­tive­ly address mul­ti­ple seg­ments with good profitability.

Since the nego­ti­a­tions with Yageo Group unex­pect­ed­ly end­ed in March 2024, Smoltek is now able to broad­ly offer inter­est­ed par­ties the oppor­tu­ni­ty to sub­mit bids for license agree­ments or the acqui­si­tion of all or part of the assets in Smoltek Semi. With the end of exclu­siv­i­ty agree­ments, there are no longer any restric­tions on nego­ti­a­tions or bids for Smoltek’s CNF-MIM technology.

Focus on cap­i­tal and part­ner­ship for Smoltek Semi
In addi­tion to con­tin­ued tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment, Smoltek Semi is now focus­ing on attract­ing exter­nal cap­i­tal from one or more part­ners to take the tech­nol­o­gy to indus­tri­al­iza­tion. The com­pa­ny is pri­mar­i­ly aimed at indus­tri­al actors and ven­ture cap­i­tal­ists with exten­sive indus­try knowl­edge. By the end of 2024, the Gen-One results will be pre­sent­ed to Yageo and their com­peti­tors, with the expec­ta­tion that the tech­nol­o­gy will be com­pet­i­tive and part­ner­ship dia­logues will be ini­ti­at­ed with sev­er­al play­ers. Smoltek’s share­hold­ers are main­ly expect­ed to ben­e­fit from roy­al­ty income from sev­er­al play­ers and/​or a pos­si­ble sale of the sub­sidiary to one or more partners.

Nec­es­sary hard­ware to meet cus­tomers’ high tech­nol­o­gy require­ments
Semi­con­duc­tor is the col­lec­tive name for the mate­ri­als that con­duct elec­tric­i­ty under spe­cif­ic con­di­tions, and it is an indis­pens­able com­po­nent in mod­ern elec­tron­ics. They are found in every­thing from smart­phones and lap­tops to cars and med­ical equip­ment. Semi­con­duc­tors are also cru­cial for tech­nolo­gies such as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and the Inter­net of Things (IoT), mak­ing the semi­con­duc­tor indus­try cen­tral to the glob­al econ­o­my. Major semi­con­duc­tor com­pa­nies such as Nvidia, TSMC and Broad­com are among the most high­ly val­ued com­pa­nies list­ed on the glob­al stock markets.

Smoltek’s capac­i­tor tech­nol­o­gy is an impor­tant hard­ware com­po­nent to meet the high demands of the tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment with­in AI, 5G/​6G and advanced dri­ver assis­tance sys­tems (ADAS). The mar­ket requires a new gen­er­a­tion of capac­i­tors that are extreme­ly thin with high capac­i­tance den­si­ty, which can be placed close to the active pow­er source or proces­sor chip to meet per­for­mance and func­tion­al­i­ty require­ments. With the con­tin­ued devel­op­ment of semi­con­duc­tor man­u­fac­tur­ers and the increas­ing need for small­er and more effi­cient com­po­nents, the mar­ket for extreme­ly thin capac­i­tors is expect­ed to expand in the com­ing years, con­firmed by indus­try-spe­cif­ic entities.

Cur­rent­ly, the lead­ing capac­i­tor tech­nol­o­gy that meets mar­ket demands is not com­mer­cial­ly avail­able, as it was devel­oped exclu­sive­ly in a part­ner­ship between Apple and TSMC. This cre­ates oppor­tu­ni­ties for oth­er play­ers, such as Smoltek. In April 2024, Smoltek announced that its CNF-MIM capac­i­tors (Gen-One) are expect­ed to be com­mer­cial­ly com­pet­i­tive with the lead­ing tech­nol­o­gy. Gen-One capac­i­tors, based on Smoltek’s nan­otech­nol­o­gy-based CNF-MIM plat­form, will pro­vide a foun­da­tion for future man­u­fac­tur­ing of ultra-thin capac­i­tors with high capac­i­tance density.

The semi­con­duc­tor indus­try’s chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties
The semi­con­duc­tor indus­try has faced chal­lenges in recent years, such as dis­rupt­ed sup­ply chains dur­ing the pan­dem­ic and geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions in Asia, where 90% of the world’s most advanced chips are man­u­fac­tured. The Unit­ed States, EU and oth­er regions have com­mit­ted bil­lions through ini­tia­tives such as the Euro­pean Chips Act and the CHIPS and Sci­ence Act to strength­en region­al manufacturing.

The indus­try is expect­ed to grow rapid­ly, dri­ven by con­tin­ued demand for elec­tron­ics and tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments, while pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty in Europe and the Unit­ed States is being great­ly expand­ed with part-financ­ing from region­al pro­grams. The capac­i­tor, which is a basic com­po­nent in all semi­con­duc­tor-based sys­tems, is in con­stant need of improve­ment. Smoltek has the nec­es­sary tech­nol­o­gy to become a key play­er with­in ultra-thin capac­i­tors but needs the right col­lab­o­ra­tion part­ners and cap­i­tal to reach the market.