Member Info for Nanonano

I contacted the company a few months back, and I got a reply from Brian himself, which I found surprising. I think they'll pass the message on to whoever is most appropriate to answer, assuming they can answer.

Seems a like a slow falling knife until some news, good or bad.

Nothing to do with Nanoco.

That's for power transistors. Nanoco sensors are all about QD's filtering light into cmos image sensors.

I believe that cadmium based QD screens account for 10% or less of the market.

The price for sensor materials is totally different to display materials, that was confirmed by BT a few months back.

Also the price is weighted according to volume, so the lower the quantity the higher the price.

Clearly Samsung have very high volume and will negotiate a higher discount. How high we've yet to discover.

"Anyway your not rich until you have something money can't buy."

In which case, if you're fit and healthy, you have all the riches in the world.

https://www.nanocotechnologies.com/careers/vacancies/

"Notice Edelman is CEO of Ionic Materials - Advanced Polymers.
Not sure whether he's offering a greener solution over there Stateside."

Greener solution of what? They've nothing to do with QD's, they're dealing with polymers for batteries. Trying to make lithium ion less incendiary like!

I wouldn't hold my breath for ELQD, years away if they can ever crack the issue of longevity.

IR, specifically SWIR, is essential for car vision because it can see in the dark, through fog rain, plus it's less easily washed out in daylight by sunlight when compared with NIR. I believe the big issue with QD sensors in cars is the heat and harsh environment they have to be put through compared with other consumer devices. I'm not altogether sure if they've cracked that nut yet, and it's why i think it'll be a bit further down the pipeline.

Also worth bearing in mind that the market is relatively small when compared with other consumer devices if the Yole research is anything to go by- they tend to be pretty accurate though.

Course the recent news of Apple looking to produce it's own screens using microled throws something new into the mix. I believe they are partnered with Applied Materials and possibly Play Nitride for manufacturing. Applied Materials have certainly been working on UV microled screens with QD colour conversion. But always the possibility they don't follow that course and go with a native RGB matrix, in the way that Plessey abandoned QD's.

Then there is the possibility of QD sensors incorporated into Apple watch to monitor blood glucose etc.

Under screen face id sensor reported to be coming to iphone in 2025. So still some time away, but may arrive on ipad before then. Who knows. I think the 'B' material being worked on is the likely candidate.

"nowhere can I see this product requires IR sensors"

Seriously? How do you suppose it will scan your iris, map the environment around you etc. All done with infra red. SWIR is optimum for iris scanning as it is safer on the eyes, but it may also prove optimum for scanning the environment too as it less easily confounded by things like smoke, vaping etc.

I've posted this in the past, but worth repeating, a good look at the prospects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G7O6Qt9fz8&t=754s

With SWIR imaging the issue hasn't just been with the sensor but also the floodlight LED illumination at that frequency.

Applications using infra red in the consumer segment like LIDAR, face recognition etc. have been confined to the NIR band, which normal silicone can 'see' albeit with much reduced efficiency. In the SWIR band it's effectively blind, but there are a lot of advantages to working that band, and so I believe it will pretty much totally replace NIR in the next few years.

Predicted sales volume is expected to be about 1-1.5million units per year. Assuming two sensors per unit, that is 3 million sensors. So two or three quid per sensor royalty would get Nanoco past break even, although they won't exactly be killing it. However the device may need more than two sensors using QD's, who knows until it's released. I believe it will take something more to get them into area of pushing the Runcorn facility, e.g. an under screen face ID sensor for iphone/ipad etc. Then you're into hundreds of millions of sensors per year. Naturally the royalty will be lower.

The big thing is that any company supplying to Apple has a huge halo effect.

The main concern is Quantum Materials Ltd. who look like a healthy competitor to me.

AFAIK the delays in the APple product are unrelated to the sensor chips.

They're talking about a $3k price tag, so I wouldn't expect the volume of iphone sales. However it's an introductory product for what is believe to be a whole range of devices, so it could scale quickly. Plus there other companies and I wouldn't think STMicro will limit themselves to Apple exclusively.

The consumer market for SWIR is predicted to have enormous growth in the next few years by Yole.

They use them all the time. e.g. lidar and face id sensors in iphone for instance, amongst others.

The two companies have a close relationship. When Johnny Steckel left Apple, he went to work for STMicro on their Quantum dot sensor projects.

I believe the first product with Nanoco infra red materials in will be the Apple AR headset.

It fits the niche product sector, and the spec sheet for Apple AR suggest a pair of SWIR sensors, and there's only one affordable way to achieve that. Also the release has been delayed several times, but now seems pencilled in for a spring launch, and on the shelves late Summer or early Autumn 2023.

Within the next 21 days. because we're already nine days into the 30 day schedule.

Just repeating the same arguments over and over, with no new information to go on. Waste of time.

I haven't given my share holding, I consider it to be a private matter not for public consumption. However I've maintained my full holding through this, and it isn't buttons.

If you think the management of Nanoco is incompetent and incapable of cutting a reasonable deal for their IP, I guess it's wise to invest elsewhere, personally I'll wait to see what they have agreed first, assuming they get an agreement that is.