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.