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Technology Stocks : Kopin Corp. (KOPN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kinkblot who wrote (951)	2/2/2000 8:32:00 PM
From: kinkblot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1820

CyberDisplay Manufacturing Process - Step 0 kopin.com - shows Steps 1-6 Steps 3--Liftoff Circuits from Silicon Substrate and 4--Transfer to glass are the lift-off and transfer steps. In their Prospectuses up to and including the one 10/22/99, they showed mounting onto glass before lift-off. If the illustration on the website is accurate, that would imply that the procedure has been modified over the past few years, but they neglected to update the Prospectus artwork. Step 1--Start with SOI wafer doesn't indicate how the SOI wafer is created. Let's call that Step 0--Fabricate SOI wafer. This is a critical step, since the prepared wafer must include a zone or boundary where splitting occurs, which is what enables this entire procedure. Kopin's SEC filings and other public releases are not very illuminating about this part of the process. Detailed descriptions are given in their method patents, but much of the technology described in those patents has been superceded in recent years. Several were filed more than 10 years ago, and the patents licensed (now non-exclusively) from MIT were filed more than 15 years ago. So, how is the SOI wafer created, before they start? Below are some possibilities. Prepare SOI wafers: A) by a method evolved from "initial technology developed at MIT," i.e. an epitaxial overgrowth technique; B) by a different method developed since then by Kopin, e.g. a non-epitaxial approach; C) by a method licensed or otherwise obtained from a third party, but still done in-house; D) by purchase from a third party supplier of SOI wafers with a release layer. Much of Kopin's display patent portfolio relates to A) and therefore their position wrt intellectual property will be strongest in that case and weaker as you move down the list. WT