The 4DS Memory Ltd (ASX: 4DS) share price has fallen off the edge of a cliff on Thursday morning. This comes as the semiconductor developer resumes trade after releasing a technical update.
At the time of writing, 4DS shares are sitting at a sombre 7 cents, down 46.15% from its previous close of 13 cents per share. In the process, the company has clocked in a new 52-week low of 6.9 cents during today's session.
Let's have a look at what has instigated this staggering fall in value.
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What's going on with the 4DS Memory share price today?
Investors are flocking to the exit as the 4DS Memory share price craters following its latest technical update. Understandably, spectators would have been nervous after nearly a month of trading suspension. Unfortunately, the nerves were not calmed by the company's latest release.
According to the announcement, a 'potentially modest degradation' in endurance had been identified in its third non-platform lot wafers after carrying out extensive additional testing. This was noted when the wafers were assessed with up to one order of magnitude boost in read speed.
This misstep in what the company had hoped it would deliver at this point in time is likely weighing on the 4DS Memory share price today.
Additionally, the company also pointed out potential degradation in the endurance of the second non-platform lot compared to the results reported on 1 February 2021. Though, the endurance remains to be several orders of magnitude better than that of NAND storage.
In relation to this, 4DS highlighted that this might have been caused by test-related issues because the memory cell did not utilise an access device. An access device is essentially the difference between non-platform and platform lots in 4DS' testing.
Hence, the third platform lots are expected to yield clearer data relating to the endurance of the chips. The next lot of testing will involve the third platform lots using imec access transistors. This should accommodate more precise measurements at higher currents. Although, this evidently has provided reassurance to the 4DS Memory share price.
Delays and renegotiations
4DS is seeking to fabricate more lots in collaboration with imec in early 2022. This will be preceded by a memory stack etch mask change and further etch process optimisation. In turn, the company hopes this will resolve the issues which resulted in the partial failure of the second platform lots. The 'out-of-fab' date is expected to be July 2022.
Furthermore, 4DS has renegotiated its collaboration agreement with imec due to the latest stumble setting back timelines. As a result, the new agreement will see 4DS pay 600,000 euro (~A$934,000) to imec for the first 7 months of 2022.
The new agreement will see its collaboration extended out to the end of 2022. Despite this, the 4DS Memory share price is hemorrhaging today.
