Atomera’s Enhanced MSTcad Helps Chip Companies Quickly Realize MST Benefits

Retains Tight Integration with Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD Toolset to Enable Exploration of Improved Materials Critical to Meeting the Semiconductor Industry’s Challenges

LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Atomera Incorporated (NASDAQ:ATOM), a semiconductor materials and technology licensing company, today announced the availability of version 2.0 of its MSTcad™ (Mears Silicon Technology Transistor Computer-Aided Design) technology, a toolset that provides sophisticated analyses of how MST® (Mears Silicon Technology™) improves semiconductor processes. As new materials become increasingly critical to addressing the semiconductor industry’s challenges, the latest version of MSTcad allows semiconductor foundries, fabless IC vendors, and Integrated Device Manufacturing (IDM) companies to rapidly evaluate the improvements provided by MST.

Like its preceding version 1.0, the new MSTcad version 2.0 remains tightly coupled with Synopsys Sentaurus™ TCAD Solution and allows users to model both the physical and electrical effects of MST using the Sentaurus Process and Sentaurus Device simulation packages, respectively.

“We are delighted that Atomera continues to expand the capabilities of MSTcad in our market-leading Sentaurus TCAD Solution, and we are impressed with the silicon-verified improvements offered by MST,” said Terry Ma, VP of Engineering at Synopsys. “We look forward to expanding our interaction with Atomera, starting with our joint webinar that will be broadcast today.”

About MSTcad

Semiconductor companies are constantly looking for new, innovative ways to quickly and inexpensively squeeze more capability and capacity out of today’s manufacturing processes, and new materials are playing an increasingly important role. The challenge is that material integration is conventionally an iterative process which requires many silicon trials to collect data and adjust parameters. This process is not only costly but can consume many months to execute — especially when trying to squeeze R&D wafers into today’s capacity-constrained fabs. This restricts IDMs in their evaluation of the different materials options available to them, such as MST.

“Semiconductor companies are under enormous pressure to introduce new technologies while enhancing their existing platforms,” said Jeff Lewis, Sr. VP of Business Development and Marketing at Atomera. “Many of these companies are working with Atomera because our MST films provide a very low-cost method of improving device performance which can result in higher gross margins. MSTcad enables our existing customers to run ‘virtual experiments’ to integrate MST into their manufacturing flow — reducing development costs by 30% or more. For new customers, MSTcad has become our most important tool for quickly demonstrating the potential benefits that MST can provide to their manufacturing processes.”

MSTcad 2.0 improves upon version 1.0 by offering silicon-verified modeling and improved TCAD integration of Atomera’s latest improved-manufacturability MST films. MSTcad provides valuable input for the detailed analyses of expected gross margin and die shrinkage benefits from MST for multiple process nodes, ranging from the most advanced gate-all-around (GAA) or nanosheets, to FinFETs, HKMG, and legacy planar nodes in both 300mm and 200mm wafer sizes.

New Capabilities

MSTcad version 2.0 introduces the following new capabilities:

• Widely expanded, silicon-verified modeling of interaction of MST with multiple dopant species and point defects (silicon self-interstitials and vacancies)
• Explicit models for improved thermal stability of latest MST improved-manufacturability films for both inert and oxidizing thermal anneals
• Streamlined integration of MSTcad into existing Sentaurus TCAD projects, saving customer time and cost

“Our MSTcad toolset has proven to be a critical component of both Atomera’s internal R&D as well as customer integration,” said Dr. Robert Mears, Founder and CTO of Atomera. “Version 2.0 reflects our growing investment in TCAD, and the requests from our growing user base.”

Joint Webinar

Synopsys and Atomera will present a joint webinar entitled “Synopsys TCAD Webinar: Semiconductor Device Improvement Using Atomera MST Technologies and MSTcad Toolset” today at 9:00 a.m. PT. The webinar can be accessed live or later on-demand via this link.

Availability

MSTcad version 2.0 is available today from Atomera. Current users of MSTcad version 1.0 can upgrade to version 2.0 at any time.

About Atomera

Atomera Incorporated, one of America’s top 100 Best Small Companies in 2022 ranked by Forbes, is a semiconductor materials and technology licensing company focused on deploying its proprietary, silicon-proven technology into the semiconductor industry. Atomera has developed Mears Silicon Technology™ (MST®), which increases performance and power efficiency in semiconductor transistors. MST can be implemented using equipment already deployed in semiconductor manufacturing facilities and is complementary to other nano-scaling technologies in the semiconductor industry roadmap. More information can be found at www.atomera.com.

Safe Harbor

This press release contains forward­looking statements concerning Atomera Incorporated, including statements regarding the ability of our MST technology to significantly improve semiconductor performance and manufacturing cost. Those forward­looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Among those risks are: (1) the efficacy of our MSTcad software in modeling results that MST delivers in physical silicon; (2) our customers’ and potential customers’ willingness to rely on simulations in determining whether to run silicon-based experiments; (3) the fact that, to date, we have only recognized minimal revenues and we have not yet entered into a definitive royalty-based manufacturing and distribution license agreement with regard to our MST technology, thus subjecting us to all of the risks inherent in an early-stage enterprise; and (4) those other risks disclosed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2022. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. We do not undertake, and specifically disclaim any obligation, to update or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or unanticipated events as they occur.