KOPIN Project Gorilla Hunt
Overview
A group of scientists and engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), researching a patented and proprietary technology enabling dissimilar materials to combine together for optimal advantages called Wafer-Engineering, founded Kopin in 1984, licensed the technology from MIT, and began focusing on mastering the basic fundamental process technology through the 1980s.
In the 1990's, they began to develop commercial products - capitalizing on opportunities for personal, portable communication and information products. From their website ?From the beginning we focused on products that were enabling, proprietary, and differentiable. Our mission has always been to be first in terms of providing leading edge capabilities in the areas for which we provide products.?
Market Description
Their first product, introduced in 1995, is the HBT transistor wafers. Manufacturers of GaAs integrated circuits, power amplifiers and other products for cellular phones and high-speed communication applications use these high performance transistor structures. Currently, millions of the cellular handsets in the market today have their HBT product inside. Their products are especially advantageous for high frequency, digital operations providing enhanced system performance and ease of use.
Their second product, introduced in April 1997, is the CyberDisplay, an exciting new microdisplay. CyberDisplays allow users to see images similar to displays used in portable notebook screens, except the display is quite small and enable OEMs with an entire new business opportunity in ultra portable applications. The CyberDisplay is based on the same technology as that of the notebook monitor, but by using Wafer-Engineering technology, CyberDisplay is more than 1000 times smaller and consumes 100 times less power than a conventional PC monitor. Using an appropriate optic, the CyberDisplay provides bright, sharp, readable images - ideal for both camcorder and digital cameral viewfinder, as well as ultra-portable, low cost, wireless communication and personal information devices. They currently sell their CyberDisplay products to OEMs either as a single component or as a unit with a lens and backlight.
HBT Transistors
Kopin is the world's leading provider of advanced HBT Transistor Wafers, Technical Design and Manufacturing Support Services. Circuit manufacturers around the world use Kopin's high performance transistors to produce advanced circuits for digital cellular phone handsets, high bandwidth fiber optic telecommunications systems, high-speed instrumentation and advanced mobile appliances. In GSM, CDMA and TDMA handsets, HBTs enable circuits to generate clear, high frequency signals while consuming less power and increasing talk-time. In addition, HBT circuits eliminate costly support components, enabling simpler, more compact and lower cost handset designs. For the high bandwidth SONET/SDH and ATM fiber optic systems required to support the explosive growth in datacom and Internet traffic, Kopin's transistors are used to build transceiver chip sets for the world's fastest OC-48 and OC-192 networks.
The HBT, or heterojunction bipolar transistor, is a vertical device that delivers outstanding frequency performance, high efficiency and excellent signal linearity in a cost effective package.
Unlike traditional circuit manufacturing in which the devices are created in the circuit company's wafer fab, Kopin delivers fully-grown transistors to circuit manufacturers prior to wafer fabrication. They grow the high performance transistors, layer by layer, on a GaAs substrate prior to shipment to the circuit manufacturer. The transistors' DC and RF properties are determined by the vertical dimensions of these transistor layers and are controlled by Kopin's growth process. These transistors are then shipped to circuit manufacturers, where they are delineated and interconnected to form high performance integrated circuits.
Advantages of the Kopin HBT for Wireless Handset and Fiber Optic System Manufacturers
ú Higher Frequency Operation: Kopin's GaAs HBTs can operate over a broad range of frequencies which are required for high speed, high bandwidth applications. Higher operational frequencies enable more data to be transmitted through a fiber or wireless system.
ú Linearity: Linearity is a measure of signal quality and is crucial for advanced cellular phone systems using the CDMA and TDMA standards. It is also required for new 3G (3rd Generation) "data phones" which use wide-band CDMA transmission protocols to wirelessly access the Web and other services.
ú Efficiency: In addition to their outstanding performance, HBTs are very efficient, thereby consuming less power. This is critical for mobile applications such as GSM, CDMA and TDMA digital handsets, where HBTs can extend the talk-time or data transmit time due to their lower power consumption.
ú Simpler Design: Unlike many traditional technologies, HBTs only require a single 3V power supply for operation. In addition, HBTs consume no power when they are turned off, thereby eliminating the switch components needed for other transistor types. Thus, HBT solutions are easier to design, utilize fewer components and are more compact. They are ideal for mobile GSM, CDMA and TDMA handset and appliance applications.
Advantages of the Kopin HBT for RF Circuit Manufacturers
ú Ease-of-Processing: Kopin says that a complex structure yields a simpler solution. By forming the highly complex transistors prior to shipment to the circuit manufacturer, Kopin reduces of the stress of sub-micron processing at their customers. This enables circuit customers to use mature, high yield 1 to 2 micron design rules to delineate and interconnect the transistors. Therefore, they can achieve consistently higher yields on high performance HBT circuits even while using lower cost, non-sub micron fab facilities. These higher yields and lower capital costs translate to lower circuit production costs.
ú Smaller, More Compact Die: Due to the vertical nature of the Kopin HBT, the die or chip can be very small. This allows circuit customers to pack many HBT circuits onto a wafer. This high die count, combined with the simpler, higher yield HBT process, enables circuit companies to generate many circuits and more revenue from each processed wafer, while lowering circuit prices to their customers.
ú Tailored to Customer Requirements: Kopin can tailor the transistor to meet specific customer performance requirements and can tune the structure to the circuit company's specific fab process. Customers can order the HBT structure most suitable for their application and internal processing requirements.
ú A New Fab Model: Kopin's GaAs HBT represents a shift to a new fab model, where the transistors are delivered to the circuit fab prior to their internal processing. The circuit company then customizes this transistor array for their own proprietary circuit application.
Digital Cellular Phone Handsets
Explosive Market Growth: Millions of today's digital handsets use one or more power amplifier transmitters built from Kopin's advanced HBT transistors. The market for these GSM, CDMA and TDMA handsets continues to grow rapidly. The introduction of 3G (3rd Generation) data-phones will enable mobile users to access the Web, email and other services and will further drive market demand for handsets and HBT power amplifiers. Worldwide wireless subscribers are expected to exceed the installed land-line base within a few years and mobile users will demand new handsets and appliances as the capabilities of wireless systems are continuously enhanced.
High Bandwidth Fiber Optic Telecommunications Systems
High Speed Transceivers for Faster Internet Access: There is insatiable demand for faster transmission of data and video. Kopin's HBTs are used for the high speed, high bandwidth OC-48 and OC-192 transceiver chip sets. OC-48 systems run at a 2.5 Gbits/sec data rate, while OC-192 operate at 10 Gbit/sec and are the fastest systems deployed today. HBTs enable the higher drive current necessary for the systems' laser drivers (which transmit light signals down the fiber) and the lower signal phase noise required for clear, high speed transmission.
CyberDisplays
As mobile devices get more capable, as digital cameras go to and pass mega-pixel resolutions, it will be an absolute requirement for a display to present more and more data, or better and better images. These requirements will mean at a minimum that the displays needed for these products must be able of presenting at least as much information as you'd see on a notebook PC screen, or a desktop monitor. How could you ever put that much information on a direct view display and still fit the display into a portable device? Clearly, that isn't possible. As one makes a direct view display larger the power requirements get proportionally larger. Clearly that won't work. Consumers will not walk around with pockets full of batteries. Therefore, the only real choice is to use a virtual display in such products. Virtual displays that align themselves in time with the needs and capabilities of the products they are designed for. CyberDisplay represents a whole new class of monitors for ultra-portable devices.
The CyberDisplay represents a major breakthrough in display technology for personal information devices of all types. It is a small-format, high-performance, low-cost AMLCD display capable of presenting all of the information that can normally be viewed on a typical PC monitor - yet the CyberDisplay is over 1,000 times smaller, and thus can be easily designed into all types of personal information devices like camcorder viewfinders, digital still cameras viewfinders, wireless communications devices, personal computer and entertainment systems, handheld GPS devices and custom applications. Like the desktop monitor, the CyberDisplay is capable of presenting lots of information and presenting that information in the same format we are used to seeing on our desktop monitors. The displays are all small (less than .24 inch diagonal), present superb images, and are easy to design-in. All of the display drive electronics are located right on the display. This includes the scanning shift registers, the clock, the level translators, the transmission gates, and of course the pixel transistors. The only other electronics needed are to interface the customer's system to the CyberDisplay.
From its website: Kopin's long term product plans are quite simple really. They are:
1. Higher resolution displays;
2. Lower power requirements for displays;
3. Lowest cost displays.
Kopin uses two very mature technologies in the development of the CyberDisplay. The first is a standard Integrated Circuit process and the second is a standard Liquid Crystal process. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year improving these processes. Kopin gets the benefit of all of this investment. Kopin uses a single crystal silicon process in the development of the CyberDisplay allowing them to operate the CyberDisplay at 180 frames per second. These high speeds make it possible to implement a color sequential methodology to obtain color. This approach not only gives 17.6 million colors, the color images are much crisper and clearer than a stripe or mosaic pixelization approaches used by others. CyberDisplay colors are not smeared over three or four pixels using Kopin's methodology. The color images also incorporate Kopin's patented PixelChrome(tm) technology which makes the color images of the CyberDisplay are truly astounding.
All current notebook PCs are transmissive TN-LCD. Practically all current data projectors use transmissive TN-LCD. The investments made each year throughout the world in improving transmissive TN-LCDs is enormous. Kopin gets to take advantage of those investments. Additionally, transmissive displays are the norm for other reasons which include:
1. easier optics
2. better viewing under all kinds of lighting conditions
3. smaller form factor
The hoped for advantage of reflective technology (which is more light output) is not feasible for small battery operated products due to optical limitations.
Award Winners
Date Award
May 25, 1999 Kopin CyberDisplay Wins Photonics Spectra Magazine's Circle of Excellence Awards
May 18, 1999 Dr. John C.C. Fan, Kopin President and CEO, to Receive SID Special Recognition Award
April 22, 1999 Kopin Featured in the Herald Hundred
December 21, 1998 Kopin CyberDisplay Wins IndustryWeek 1998 Technologies Award
February 11, 1998 Kopin Receives Product of the Year Award
January 16, 1998 CyberDisplay Wins Product of the Year Award
Opinions of Experts and Customers,
General Observations
"Based on our end user market research, I believe Kopin's new CyberDisplay appears to offer several major advantages for use in digital cameras."
Allen Ruster, Director
CAP Ventures Digital Photography and Print Service
"Motorola has chosen Kopin's CyberDisplay because it offers the highest performance and lowest price in a display size that will create new categories of products such as portable communications devices and digital cameras."
S.W. Cheung, Vice President and General Manager
Displays Division for Motorola's Consumer Systems Group
"The Kopin display is quite revolutionary. It really looks great. It is a piece of magic that lets you put a display virtually anywhere."
Martin Reynolds, Analyst Dataquest
In commenting on digital cameras and full color, low cost, small size displays, "Kopin's CyberDisplay is superior in all these areas."
Kazuyuki Masukane, Manager FujiFilm Microdevices
"?In the smart card industry, cost, performance and reliability are all equally important. Kopin's CyberDisplay is superior in all three areas"
Marc Lassus, Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Gemplus Product Development
"Kopin's anticipated price reductions fit perfectly with next generation camera requirements."
Allen Ruster, Director
CAP Ventures Digital Photography and Print Service
"This type of technology could force designers of mobile products to rethink the precepts of portable displays."
Tim Bajain, President Creative Strategies,
a computer consulting firm in San Jose, CA.
Mobile Computing Communications
"The CyberDisplay's low power consumption will greatly extend the battery life of our digital cameras and its higher resolution will allow users to see a much larger viewing area for previewing and reviewing single or multiple images. Other CyberDisplay capabilities will allow us to add a number of new features to our camera designs that will be very appealing to customers."
Bob Caspe, CEO Sound Vision
"The integration of the Kopin CyberDisplay as viewfinders into Sierra Imaging's digital cameras provides a broader choice of viewfinder display technologies for digital camera OEMs considering new designs."
Barbara Matthews, Vice President of Marketing Sierra Imaging
Power Management
"The CyberDisplay draws a fraction of the power of larger format displays currently being used which should increase battery life as well as being viewable in direct sunlight."
Allen Ruster, Director
CAP Ventures Digital Photography and Print Service
"One factor that always gives manufacturers pause when considering the addition of a component is the amount of power it will draw from the battery?the CyberDisplay draws less than 20 mW of power, resulting in a "minimal effect on battery life."
Rik Fairlie Mobile Computing & Communications
"The tiny screen's high quality, low cost and miserly power consumption could inspire inventors to use it for a wide range of other applications."
Richard Lorant, Associated Press, Philadelphia Inquirer
Competition
With respect to its gallium arsenide products, particularly device wafer
products, the Company presently competes with several companies, including The
Furakawa Electric Co., Ltd., Epitronics, Emcore Corporation, Epitaxial Products
International and Hitachi Cable, as well as integrated circuit manufacturers
with in-house wafer growth capabilities, such as TRW Inc., RF Micro Devices, and
Fujitsu Limited. In the gallium arsenide business, competition could become
increasingly intense as new entrants emerge to address the high growth markets
that Kopin's products address. The production of GaAs integrated circuits has
been and continues to be more costly than the production of silicon integrate
circuits.
The display market is highly competitive and is currently dominated by large Asian electronics companies including Sharp Corporation, Hitachi, Ltd., Seiko Corporation, Toshiba Corporation ("Toshiba"), Sony Corporation, NEC Corporation, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Display Technologies, Inc., a joint venture of IBM Corporation and Toshiba. Most of these companies have substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, manufacturing, and
personnel resources than the Company. Competition in the display field is based
on price and performance characteristics, product quality and the ability to
deliver products in a timely fashion. The success of the Company's display
product offerings will also depend upon its ability to compete against other
types of more well-established products such as traditional AMLCD-based products
as well as the adoption of the CyberDisplay product in the industry as an
alternative to traditional AMLCD-based products. There can be no assurance that
the Company will be able to compete successfully against these companies.
There are also a number of alternative display technologies in production and
under development including passive matrix liquid crystal display ("LCD"),
light emitting diode ("LED"), reflective, field emission display, plasma,
organic LED and virtual retinal displays, some of which target the high
performance small form factor display markets in which the Company's display
products are sold. There are many large and small companies that manufacture or
have in development products based on these technologies. The CyberDisplay
product will compete with other displays utilizing these and other competing
display technologies. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to
compete successfully against these companies.
Financials
Fundamental Data & Ratios: About QuickSource Data
INCOME STATEMENT: 12mos(3) 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993
Revenues ($Mil)
31.9 26.9 16.4 18.0 15.8 14.8 13.0
Depreciation ($Mil)
4.1 4.3 3.6 3.6 3.1 2.1 1.5
EBIT ($Mil)
-2.2 -2.3 -6.9 -15.7 -10.3 -6.4 -1.4
Net Income ($Mil)
-2.8 -3.0 -6.3 -21.6 -9.0 -6.7 -1.6
EPS ($)
-.11 -.13 -.29 -.99 -.48 -.36 -.10
Dividends ($)
.00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00
BALANCE SHEET: 12mos(3) 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993
Current Assets ($Mil)
44.7 44.5 26.9 38.0 57.0 37.2 45.1
Current Liabilities ($Mil)
10.2 5.2 5.4 10.3 12.2 6.6 2.9
Long Term Debt ($Mil)
2.9 4.2 2.0 2.8 1.6 2.2 .1
Shares Out (000)
29912 24538 22244 21862 21830 18568 18442
Common Equity ($Mil)
54.7 51.8 35.9 40.3 61.8 43.5 50.5
RATIOS: 12mos(3) 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993
Interest Coverage Ratio
-6.0 NC NC NC NC NC NC
Profit Margin (%)
-8.8 -11.2 -38.4 NC -57.0 -45.3 -12.3
Return on Equity (%)
NE NE NE NE NE NE NE
Return on Asset (%)
-4.1 -4.8 -14.5 -40.2 -11.8 -12.7 -3.0
Debt/Equity Ratio
.05 .08 .06 .07 .03 .05 .00
P/E Ratio
NE NE NE NE NE NE NE
Price/Sales
83.92 9.55 11.36 7.24 9.90 6.41 12.86
Price/Book
48.94 4.98 5.22 3.23 2.52 2.19 3.28
Book Value ($)
1.83 2.11 1.61 1.84 2.83 2.34 2.74
Dividend Payout (%)
.00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00
Quarterly Performance:
Date(Qtr) 9909(3) 9906(2) 9903(1) 9812(4) 9809(3)
Revenue ($Mil) 9.7 8.6 6.7 6.9 7.8
Net Income ($Mil) -.4 .1 .2 -2.7 .5
EPS ($) -.02 .01 .01 -.11 .02
Dividend ($) .00 .00 .00 .00 .00
Shares (000) 25296 24966 24816 24538 24428
Stock Information
Company Information
Company Name: KOPIN CORP
Address: 695 Myles Standish Boulevard Taunton, MA 02780-6696
Telephone: (508) 824-6696
Exchange: NASDAQ Status: Active
Industry: Research Services
Business Description: A developer and manufacturer of advanced semiconductor materials and small form factor displays. Expertise is centered on its Wafer-Engineering technology, a process of splicing or layering selected semiconductor materials to provide optimal performance.
Share Information
Market Cap (mil) $2,677.12
Shares Outstanding (000's) 29,912
# of Institutional Shareholders 84
Shares Held by Institutions (000's) 4,874
% Shares Held by Institutions 38.8%
Gorilla Game
Is there a discontinuous innovation or a proprietary open architecture?
Kopin was formed in 1984 and existed for 15 years as an intellectual think tank. It has only recently become profitable. But it is certainly rich in the realm of innovations. Kopin holds over 130 patents and patent applications for technological breakthroughs in flat panel display and device wafer technology.
From a broad brush macro perspective, Kopin is part of the many major industry trends including:
1) the transition of wireless phone from wired with its GaAs power amplifier
2) the transition of photonics from electronic circuitry for data and voice transmission with its GaAs HBT in OC-48 and 192
3) the transition of GaAs and eventually InGaP from silicon for IC
4) increasing battery life in products that use its amplifiers
5) the delivery of mobile data enabled by its 0.24 inch diagonal Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display providing the same quality on desktop displays(20 inch desktop viewed at 5 feet) for handheld devices
Company specific innovations
1) Wafer Engineering Technology allows the layering of GaAs at atomic levels of thickness forming a vertical transistor with 3D advantages
a. Increased transistor density
b. per surface are improving yields and processing speeds
c. Faster circuits secondary to shorter gate length limits compared to Si or non 3d GaAs HBT (known as FETs (I think this is what RMFD uses) the latter of which are limited by optical lithography rather than process expertise
d. Run on single power voltage supply and improved signal linearity eliminating costly components and allowing a longer battery life
e. More temperature resistant designs since 3D circuits support higher voltages than FETs
2) Design, Processing and Manufacturing Innovations
a. Uniform Repeatable Growth of Atomic Layers, higher frequency performance, greater manufacturing throughput, larger diameter HBT wafers than competition and development of dense wafers from new compounds such as InGaP
b. Production of Single Crystal Silicon Integrated Circuit for CyberDisplay
3) Lift-Off Technology allows single Crystal patterned into IC in standard foundry
a. allows Kopin to incorporate advances in IC design, processing and manufacturing into their product
b. other AMLCD are produced in custom designed facilities and can not take advantage of advances in lithography
c. allows outsourcing of fabrication
d. Transfer of Single Crystal IC
4) a. to glass enables AMLCD
e.
4) b. to other media such as smart cards (licensing deal with Gemplus)
5) Innovations of Single Crystal IC
a. circuits are transparent while competitive products opaque (good for monitors)
b. operate at 180 Hz which is three times faster than competition to produce full color displays without colored filters (less weight, better design)
c. color generation generated by green, red and blue LEDs (sapphire or SiC, unclewest or Robert Jacobs or PhatBoy?) each pixel acts like a switch to block or transmit light @ 180Hz allowing 1/3 less pixels than competition (their product needs a colored filter for each pixel so three times as many pixels required) allowing decreased weight, size and power requirements
d. improved color images since pixels not spatially separated
So discontinuous innovations include
1) Wafer Engineering Technology to produce a 3D IC via Atomic level layering
2) Lift Off Technology to Produce AMLCD and Smart Cards
3) Unique patented color generation
4) Single Crystal Integrated Circuits that are transparent
5) Displacement of filters, reduction in pixels in AMLCD
6) Displacement of traditional viewfinders in video cameras and other handhelds
7) Increased battery life in both products
8) The gigabyte transmission of data over GaAs HBT IC
There is no proprietary open standard but perhaps one could develop around the 3D circuit. The Wafer Engineering Technology is proprietary but not open. It is also dependent on licenses from MIT, some of which are due for renewal.
The manufacture of CyberDisplay in standard foundries will allow its licensure and outsourcing to OEM?s in the Video display markets. Agreements are currently in place with Siemens, Motorola, for phones, Matsushita and JVC for Camcorders, digital cameras with Mustek and GemPlus for Smartcards
Does it have the potential to grow into a mass market phenomenon, to become a standard?
Quoting Mr. Fan that his ambition is to have a Kopin transistor inside every cell phone and Kopin Cyber Display on the front of every cell phone.
With regard to power amplifiers in cell phones, CEO John Fan has stated that their product is in 85% of the CDMA market and can be used it TDMA and GSM phones. Since Merlin has proclaimed April 1998 the start of the CDMA tornado by analyzing subscriber adoption data, it appears the power amplifier is in a tornado and can grow further if it can be adopted in the other phone technologies. The GaAs HBT in fiberoptic transmission can also enter a tornado if the predicted adoption of OC-192 by DataQuest takes place as forecasted.
With key design wins in the CyberDisplay market, Kopin?s second major product has captured key horizontal bowling pins and has the potential to become a mass market phenomenon.
Smartcards have not crossed the chasm but a mass market is certainly envisioned.
Are their high barriers to entry and high switching costs?
Kopin holds over 130 patents and patent applications for technological breakthroughs in flat panel display and device wafer technology. Certain licenses granted from its ties to MIT have allowed the exclusive worldwide license to make, use and sell products covered by the patents until April 1999, after which it becomes non-exclusive. Optical technology patents from MIT obtained in 1995 expire in 2007.
Existence of Hypergrowth
Yes the GaAS HBT is tornadoing in CDMA and forecasted to do so in fiberoptics. Numerous horizontal bowling pins have been knocked down for digital camera, as well as Camcorders utilizing two differing, competing technologies. In July 1999, the Company announced that Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC), one of the world's largest camcorder manufacturers, began shipping its new CyberCam camcorder equipped with Kopin's CyberDisplay to the U.S. market, using the NTSC format. The new Panasonic camcorder order is for the European market, which uses the PAL format and is about the same market size as the U.S. market. Thus, CyberDisplays are now used for the two prevailing formats in the world. They are also in cellphones from Motorola.
Management seems ready to upramp capacity.
siliconinvestor.com
siliconinvestor.com
Fourth Qtr Report confirms GaAs HBT starting hypergrowth
Revenue for the fourth quarter of 1999 increased 96 percent to a record $13,581,732 compared to $6,918,606 for the same period one year earlier. Kopin's net income for the 1999 fourth quarter was $776,666, or $0.02 per fully diluted share, compared to a net loss of $2,636,210, or $0.22 per share, one year ago. Fourth-quarter product revenue increased 119 percent to $13,023,570 from $5,940,674 for the same period in 1998. Revenue from GaAs products was approximately $11,070,000 in the fourth quarter of 1999, 99 percent higher than $5,572,000 for the fourth quarter of 1998.
For the year ended December 31, 1999, revenue was $38,662,010 compared with $26,904,997 for the same period last year, an increase of 43 percent. Net income for the period was $775,271, or $0.03 per fully diluted share, compared with a net loss of $2,967,887, or $0.25 per share in 1998. Product revenue increased 56 percent in 1999 to a record $36,125,822 from $23,225,415 in 1998. Revenue from GaAs products grew 71 percent to approximately $31,481,000 in 1999 from $18,388,000 in 1998.
Collusion and Competiton
All power amplifier products that Kopin makes are sold to Conextant who supplies CDMA manufacturers such as Qualcomm (now Kyocera) Samsung and Sony (now Kyocera too since Sony now longer in JV with Q?). CNXT accounts for 60% of sales and ships 2 million chips made from Kopin wafers each month. Other customers include HP and Seimens. Kopin owns 65% of South Korean GaAs optoelectronics manufacturer Kown Technology to ?shore up production and broaden in Asian markets? says CEO Fan.
Competition for GaAs HBT includes Furakawa, Epitronics, Emcore Corp, Epitaxial Products Int, Hitachi Cable and in house Ics uch as RMFD, TRW and Fujitsu.
CyberDisplay competition includes Sharp, Hitachi, Seiko, Toshiba, Sony, NEC, Sanyo and Display Technologies, Inc.
Summary
Kopin is an interesting company with exciting innovations. They have targeted mass markets and after years of development have started to see substantive success with the GaAs HBT chip in subscriber handsets and have exciting potential in fiberoptics, CyberDisplay and Smartcards. Their Wafer Engineering Technology and Lift Off Transfer Technology may be used in unforeseen future developments as may the use of a 3D IC and single Crystal IC that have resulted from these technological innovations.
Kopin unquestionably has an enabling technology(ies) and is patent protected and required over a decade to develop resulting in high barriers to entry. Many of its methodologies are proprietary but not necessarily open. The CyberDisplay Product can be assembly in standard foundries which may allow it production to be open and licensed but it is not clear to me the company is going that route.
The products are in various stages of development as outlined above with Smartcards pre-chasm, CyberDisplay knocking down horizontal bowling pins and the GaAs HBT arguably starting to tornado in the power amplifier for CDMA market and predicted to do so for the OC-192 fiberoptic market.
The bowling pins have shown evidence for the value chain forming around the products. It seems that the value chains are users for their product With continued performance or revenue increases year to year over 100%, the claim for a strong king versus gorilla can be made as there is no open standard.
Recent articles of Interest
Investor?s Business Daily
Profits, At Last
Forward-Thinking Chipmaker Waits For Market To Catch Up
By Steve Watkins
Investors Business Daily
John Fan finally is reaping what he began sowing a quarter century ago.
Fan, chief executive of Taunton, Mass.-based Kopin Corp., began developing electronics products in the mid-1970s with a few other Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students. Only now is the company he and his cohorts founded beginning to turn a profit.
Kopin makes a transistor wafer product using material known as gallium arsenide. It allows customers to make integrated circuits that help wireless phones offer longer battery life, reduced size and better signal quality.
The company's flat-panel display product is used mostly in camcorders and digital cameras. It allows viewers to see an image on a tiny panel from five feet away as if it were on a 20-inch monitor.
Playing Catch-up
The trouble has been that both products were somewhat ahead of their time, Fan says.
"Digital phones are just coming into the U.S.," he said. "That explains our recent growth. Finally, the market is catching up with our technology."
Fan also expects the market for small flat-panel displays to take off.
"The biggest killer application right now is digital phones," Fan said. "We believe fiber-optic transmission of data will be the second killer app |
