Iqe Share Discussion Threads

[toppix] 08/9/2017 11:57

More VCSEL visibility from a source of unknown reliability, 'Lumentum (in house production) ' ?

[shavian] 08/9/2017 11:48

Dai bach, see post 6143. PIcobird got there first!

[loobrush] 08/9/2017 11:47

Just a snippet of possible potential of CPX


By Eric DeRose, Field Applications Engineer, AVX Corporation

Right now, we are experiencing strong impacts from IoT and energy harvesting applications. Customers are requesting tighter specs in smaller packaging to reduce both their weight and physical footprint, which challenges manufacturers to satisfy these requests while continuing to prioritize reliability and cost-efficiency. Another exciting and upcoming innovation is the increasing inclusion of supercapacitors in designs. Supercapacitors are capable of energy harvesting, pulse power, power hold-up, and battery replacement, so we expect the market for supercapacitors to expand quickly and continue to multiply in support of advanced consumer and industrial products with appealing energy characteristics.

these same "customers" will be going to other manufacurers and asking the same questions...
these manufacturers will be saying sorry cant do as yet....just waiting for our licensing agreement with CAP-XX to be finalised!!.

[hammerd2] 08/9/2017 11:42

Ha ha - timing !!

[hammerd2] 08/9/2017 11:42

Wow, it's just like deja vu. Ironically.

[twatcher] 08/9/2017 11:42

its like daijavu all over again

[daijavu] 08/9/2017 11:20

There's this on Bloomberg today:



'Chipmaker IQE up 314 percent; analysts see more gains ahead
New iPhone expected to include IQE wafers for 3D sensing'

[meijiman] 08/9/2017 11:14

I have a holding there. Good call. I have a list of companies who are in the iphone supply chain...mostly US. Tough though without a guru to guide....

[loobrush] 08/9/2017 11:06

Well there are two I have a holding in but a somewhat speculative at this stage and could go like a rocket or not.
CPX is the first one, they have been developing and patenting a number of modern supercapacitors and are starting to sell and licence them out.Supercapacitors -briefly-are used to store energy and discharge it quickly. You need to do your own reading up on how they operate and why they are becoming more important.However what has attracted me is that the products the have are following the same pattern as IQE's in that they now seem to be being used in more and more electical applications and the are also talking about recieving MULTIPLE ORDERS FOR MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS.
So they appear to be at this inflection point of rapid huge growth.
Company stll loss making but next results could hit a profit.
Most of their stuff is liscenced out so no big overheads once breakeven achieved and the profits would rocket on increasing turnover.
Have a look.I like it.

[nimbo1] 08/9/2017 11:04

the best thing about the bloomberg pr imo is the americans don't mind bidding up growth stocks to higher valuations.

[grabster] 08/9/2017 10:59

Picking up on two positives, namely "..IQE has about 80 percent of the VCSEL wafer market and supplies “pretty much all of the main players in the end markets.”
and
"..“Our materials are in pretty much 100 percent of all smartphones through the various supply chains,..."

That's a lot of people highly dependent on IQE; what backup do those people rely on, to allow for any catastrophe afflicting IQE? (Fire, flood, earthquake, toxic evacuation, warfare, etc). As I understand it, IQE have duplicate production facilities. Do those facilities duplicate everything that IQE make? (or have the ability to instantly do so if needed). Lots of IQE's products are exclusive to IQE - but which, if any, can be sourced from competitors?

Do IQE's duplicate sites routinely duplicate production of every product (ie, are 'up and running' in every product at both sites), or do they mainly focus on different products?

[meijiman] 08/9/2017 10:50

Tell us if you find any loobrush-thanks in anticipation!

[loobrush] 08/9/2017 10:36

WELL DONE SWEENOID for all the fantastic information you have provided to this thread I think you must be the world authority on IQE.How do you do it.
I have been lucky as I viewed an investor presentation on this thread by the Financial Director about 18-20 months ago and was impressed and so bought over 100,000 at the 20p level. when it hit 65p I thought that was great so sold a few as I thought it might be getting ahead of itself. Then it has surged and gone higher and higher to todays 157p.
At this level with the company valued at 1 Billion it probably has got ahead of itself so have sold a chunk more to half my original holding as the profits here are still a few years away and I think over the next 6 months we may see the price drop away a bit and provide a chance to buy again lower. Also was a bit overweight in IQE. But who knows nobody would have thought that it would be at 157p by now. Still we all take our own investment decisons differently.
A profit is a profit.Now on the lookout for another one or two similar companies to spread the risk a bit and to watch and see how far IQE can go over the next few years with my still fairly chunky holding. Good luck all holders

[thereptile] 08/9/2017 10:31

Well written Bloomberg article without the usual lazy mistakes

[luxaeterna1] 08/9/2017 10:23

There are many ways to look at IQE. Up until now, the computing world has been run on silicon. Silicon has more or less hit it's theoretical limit. Depending on the application, Compound Semiconductors are 50-100x faster than silicon. They operate at a lower voltage (i.e. less power), can emit and sense both light and magnetism. Compound semiconductors are MANDATORY for LED lighting. But they are more expensive.

Most will be aware that silicon is fantastic and runs the world. Compound semiconductors are better in performance and efficiency, and IQE is probably the best outsourcer for it with a pretty decent IP portfolio on it.

It's a nice story. The future is bright. Not many of us can predict exactly how bright... but it will be good.

[rivaldo] 08/9/2017 09:53

Nice find picobird, cheers. Great PR. If anyone in the markets was previously unaware of IQE, this will certainly help wake them up :o))

[grabster] 08/9/2017 09:50

From that bloomberg article (stuff that we here already know - but a much bigger audience will now be reading it):

- - - IQE Chief Executive Officer Andrew Nelson declined to comment directly on whether the company is a supplier to Apple, but said in an interview that IQE has about 80 percent of the VCSEL wafer market and supplies “pretty much all of the main players in the end markets.” - - -

- - - IQE’s wireless division, which includes materials used for power amplifiers in smartphones and wireless base stations, probably also has ties to Apple. “Our materials are in pretty much 100 percent of all smartphones through the various supply chains,” Nelson said. - - -

- - - Knott said it was unlikely that IQE would face the same fate as Imagination, as “it’s a complex manufacturing process, not pure intellectual property design like Imagination was.” IQE’s Nelson said that no single customer accounts for more than 20 percent of company revenue, and that there are “huge barriers to change” in supply chains. - - -

[grity] 08/9/2017 09:49

nice educational post Sweenoid
Keep em coming !

Does this etched facet technology
Compete with our Nil ?

[pyglet] 08/9/2017 09:37

Great find picobird

[sheep_herder] 08/9/2017 09:05

maroon, I'd expect an announcement around process innovation alongside IQE rather than your line of thought. Probably around low temperature deposition. I don't think it's a hard one to read given what we know about their relationship.

[maroonbells] 08/9/2017 08:43

Sheep, thanks for your civil reply. My first take of the slide was that they could have their own Epitaxial solution that was magnitudes cheaper, it's a hard one to read. I jumped to that conclusion because TBA doesn't say IQE. Perhaps we will leave it at that. I still have my holding.

[mad foetus] 08/9/2017 08:38

Thanks to the many useful posts. One of the key things for me is what this will do for our margins? Indeed, as it looks like capacity is constrained in the wafer space, I would hope we have some pricing power at the moment.

[sheep_herder] 08/9/2017 08:33

maroon:

1. You said 25X. Our slide said 4X.
2. You assumed TBA was Macom dropping IQE when you've already heard from the CEO that IQE are vital.
3. You suggested that from one slide you don't understand that you were willing to sell your entire stake.


To me it looks like Macom are going to announce further developments that help them cut costs to beat their competition. I have no idea why you would jump to the conclusion you did and thought it was probably easier for you to delete that post than have a load of people explain the same thing.

[hammerd2] 08/9/2017 08:29

A small addendum to Sweenoid's post is that going full service at a IQE also lowers the failure rate for delivered wafers and confusion and arguments over whose fault the manufacturing error was. IQE full service means the end customer gets fully functional wafers that are production error free every time. Another time and money saving for everyone.

Not that I agree at all with his ever positive attitude of course. Sweenoid bad. Shorters good. 😚