ISON 1.42...read down 1 para:
April 26, 2004 (AXcess News) Reno NV - A giant bet in nanotechnology may be the payoff of the century for investors who track this cutting edge technology.
Nano is big business and many companies are investing heavily. IBM's latest chip plant in East Fishkill NY cost $2.5 billion and lets the company make chips in the sub-micron range.
Although IBM (NYSE: IBM) is not working in all areas of nanotech, the company is watching the entire industry carefully. It recently formed a group to see where IBM's nano initiatives can contribute to the life sciences field.
The Armonk NY company today said it is collaborating with Stanford University on high-performance, low-power components to help build smaller and faster electronic devices. The partners said their latest research in the field of "spintronics" could lead to reconfigurable logic devices, room-temperature superconductors and quantum computers in the next five years.
Researchers at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico released a paper today that described the assembly of nanocrystals into robust orderly arrangements each separated from the next by an insulating layer of silicon dioxide.
The self-assembly approach developed by the SNL/UNM teams allows nanocrystal arrays to be integrated into devices using standard microelectronic processing techniques, bridging huge gaps in scale.
Said IBM staff researcher Chuck Black at T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, "One thing that's nice is that these materials are hard materials. Often they come with an organic surfactant layer that makes it difficult to process materials, like a kind of grease. This material is embedded in oxide. It sounds like a neat thing and a new approach." The Sandia/UNM approach scrubs the surfactants with an ozone compound.
Yet regardless of the breakthroughs in nanotechnology, many companies are moving quickly to harness future applications. Motorola, (NYSE: MOT) Honeywell (NYSE: HON) and Cypress Semiconductor have signed licenses for MRAM (magnetic random access memory). MRAM has been called "the ideal memory," potentially combining the density of DRAM with the speed of SRAM and non-volatility of flash memory or disk.
Golden Colorado based Isonics (NASDAQ: ISON) has developed isotopically pure silicon-28 to replace natural silicon in the production of wafers for computer chips. Isotopically-pure silicon-28 has superior thermal properties compared to normal silicon.
According to Isonics, customers are beginning to see meaningful temperature benefits in actual products made from Isonics' supplied silicon-28 epitaxial wafers.
In March Isonics announced an agreement to acquire the silicon wafer manufacturing business and related assets from EnCompass Materials Group Ltd. (EMG) of Vancouver, Washington. EMG manufactures silicon test wafers and provides wafer recycling services for leading semiconductor manufacturers. Under the terms of the deal the purchase price will be $3.5 million consisting of a term note, Isonics common stock and the assumption of certain EMG liabilities. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2004.
The Vancouver wafer plant manufactures thick-film SOI (silicon-on-insulator) wafers. Isonics stated in a press release today that through the acquisition of EMG the Company can produce higher margin SOI wafers using Isonics' developed intellectual property, such as its Sigma I process that is capable of transferring silicon layers only tens' of nanometers in thickness.
"With this ISO-qualified manufacturing facility under our control, we can then confidently accept large commercial orders, which we now routinely decline," said James E. Alexander, Chairman of Isonics.
Isonics recently raised $3.3 million in a private placement of convertible preferred stock to Mercator Advisory Group, LLC, through its three designated funds, Mercator Momentum Fund, LP, Mercator Momentum Fund III, LP and Monarch Pointe Fund, Ltd.
The Company issued 32,950 shares of newly created Series D Convertible Preferred Stock at a price of $100 per preferred share. The Series D Convertible Preferred Stock carries no coupon and may be converted into approximately 3 million common shares at a fixed price of $1.10 per share.
The private placement marked the second capital round for the micro cap company this year, bringing the total to in excess of $5.5 million. Mercator bought both offerings.
In an April 7, 2004 statement released by the company Alexander said, "The proceeds of the private placement are intended primarily to fund working capital for the pending acquisition of EMG's silicon-wafer-manufacturing assets, but will also be used for commercialization of a new radioisotope product for cancer therapy, further prototype development of the company's neutron-based explosive detection technology at IUT-Berlin, completing the development of a low cost silicon-28 isotope production technology, and for general corporate purposes."
Isonics closed Monday at $1.42, up $0.01 or 0.71%, on volume of 341,359 shares after reaching a high of $1.50 in late afternoon trading. The 90-day average daily volume was reported to be 369,818 shares. The 52-week hi-lo was reported to be $0.70 to $2.00.
AXcess News added Isonics to its Stock Guide at the close of trading Monday and will be tracking the company's future progress for our readers.
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