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Transcript of Interview of Paul Metzinger by Michael Wachs of CEOcast 10/9/01 M - Paul, thanks for joining CEOcast today. P - Thank you Michael. M - These are exciting times for the company as you move ever closer to being able to generate revenues. Perhaps you could begin with a brief overview of the company and then we’ll get into the WaferPierce connection system and what opportunities are in the electronics packaging industry. P - As we have stated in previous interviews, NanoPierce Technologies owns a patented connection system (NCS) that we believe is going to radically change connection technology for the entire microelectronics industry. We currently are debuting WaferPierce Technology at the IMAPS Conference which is the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society Conference in Baltimore. It’s the first ever demonstration to the “Who’s Who” of the microelectronics world. And in particular Dr. Bin Zou is going to be describing in a paper he delivers there, our connection technology, which is an alternative to conventional flip chip and other methods of chip attachment such as wire bonding. I want to congratulate the NanoPierce team because they are putting on a real tour de force there about our technology and its immense applications at the wafer level. M - Paul, let’s talk about this WaferPierce connection system. Why is this potentially so useful to the packaging industry? P - It’s quite simple Michael, because you see when you apply NCS at the wafer level, what you in effect are doing is applying it to all of the contact pads on all of the chips on the wafer in a simple electroless process that is completed in less than 15 minutes. Now that electroless process is very much a highly guarded trade secret of NanoPierce, but we have perfected it and it is now covered in certain respects by a very comprehensive patent application that we recently filed. When you apply our connection technology at the wafer level you are enabling those chips all of which have our NCS on it to be used in the of multiple applications and myriads of products. Because, you have to understand, I don’t mean to belabor this, but I want to do it for your listeners. When you do it at the wafer level you are literally treating every chip on the wafer in one process. By doing that the person who uses the wafer can just inventory the chips for use in all kinds of applications and products. And by putting it on at the chip level you can increase density of application miniaturization, because it enables you to achieve a higher design with the ability to place that chip rapidly in one step using inexpensive adhesives. They are very cheap and so the attachment is made by using glue instead of flip chip technology or wire bonding. It’s an enormous application. M - Paul, this is really the first time outside of Europe that you’re demonstrating practical applications for the WaferPierce. What are some of the other applications and who do you target first when you begin to go to commercial steps? P - Well, one of the most important targeted areas that we are going to, when you take the chip that has NCS on it off the wafer, you can use it to manufacture products such as smart inlays, which is the antenna connected to a chip that is used in the manufacturing of smart labels. You can use them in the manufacturing of complex LED (light emitting diode) arrays. You can use them in the manufacturing of smart cards. So, in other words, just imagine if you were in manufacturing and you needed to make smart cards, you could take wafer x that has this type of chip on it, take the chips off , make that product. You wanted to make product B, you take the wafer xyz. So the inventory possibilities, the fact, and this is something I want to stress, at the wafer level when you manufacture a product with a chip off that wafer, it is immediately testable, meaning you know you’ve got good chip electrical connections and therefore that leads to extreme high production output and that is a big characteristic and benefit of the technology. It also has no lead connected with it such as with soldering technology. So, at the wafer level you can use it in the manufacturing of virtually any kind of electrical component. M - Paul, if you look at other opportunities now with some of the technical breakthroughs that you’ve made, what are some of the areas that you are focusing on? P - Like I indicated, we are focusing very heavily on smart inlays for the production of smart labels. It is also another important application as an alternative to flip chip, conventional flip chip technology. Now flip chip is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. It is projected to be growing at the rate of about 56% a year for the next 10 years. For instance one of the largest flip chip users in the world is Delphi-Delco. They take over 300,000 connection devices a day just to be used in the automotive industry. We have come up with a superior, competitive, cost effective flip chip technology and we are going to concentrate significant human and financial resources to the flip chip application, as well as in the manufacturing of smart inlays and LEDs. M - Paul, I’m sure it is not coincidental that, as you move closer to commercialization, you opened an office in Taiwan. What’s the opportunity for the company in that market? P - Well, it’s huge. We use that word often, but we truly mean it. I want to kind of give your listeners a perspective of why we opened that office. It was to exploit the rapidly expanding and very large markets in Asia for products using NCS. And that is smart cards, smart inlays for smart labels, light emitting diode arrays. China recently announced that they intend to produce RFIDs, that’s radio frequency identification devices for its entire population. You’re talking billions of identification devices just simply for China alone. Most significantly, and what’s very important is, we want to be near, or at, the largest wafer fabrication facilities in the world. And Taiwan, as you know, has a lot of those type of fabrication facilities, as well as other Asian countries. To give you some flavor, Michael, in the next five to ten years, four companies alone in Taiwan are going to build twenty wafer fabrication facilities, spending $50 billion and they will produce 7-7.5 million wafers annually. Those wafers are 12" wafers containing up to 30 thousand chips on them. That’s why we want to be in Taiwan. We intend to aggressively attempt to capture a significant portion of the existing and the projected wafer fabrication facilities in the world. M - Paul, that’s a huge market opportunity for the company, and as you get ever closer to realizing that, what steps do you need to take on the infrastructure side to make this a reality? P - We are going to complete our white room in Colorado Springs, which if everybody had a chance to go down there and look into it, would look like a miniature Intel white room. It is nearing production capability. We are aggressively pursuing our proposed plans for getting that up and running. We have hired and are continuing to hire production personnel, managers of inventory control. We are gearing up for production and it’s going to be a very exciting time for us in the next several months, because it is now finally coming to a focused finality. Going after the markets we are, we are intent to implement our vision. M - Paul, what about partners? What role will strategic partners play there and at what point do you bring them in? P - Very good question, Michael. We are in discussions with multiple global players relating to the WaferPierce application in particular, with flip chip application industry leaders, with smart label manufacturers, they are important to us. The choice of these partners is going to be very critical. We have to make sure they are the right ones. We have to make sure that the business deals will not lock us out of large markets by giving too much exclusivity to any one of those. We do fully anticipate that, because of the interest level, at some point we can anticipate that one or more of them will proffer investment capital to some type of a business relationship with NanoPierce. We are very pleased at the current state of our discussions with these global players. M - Paul, what should investors now look forward to in coming quarters? If you had to draw a time line for them, what kind of events would they see and when would you like those to occur? P - The next six months are going to be, as I have stated in other interview and in private conversations, the next six months are probably going to be the most significant six months in the history of NanoPierce. There will be numerous major developments occur leading to production internally, to the finalization of agreements, we believe, with global players. We have investment interest developing in this company and its stock from institutions. It’s going to be, the next six months are going to be a precursor of the future of NanoPierce. We have very large visions. We at NanoPierce do not pursue small visions. End of the Interview |
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| aus der Diskussion: | NPCT Nanopierce Technologies WKN 916132 Thread V |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | ROAR (11.10.01 10:37:21) |
| Beitrag: | 105 von 329 (ID:4612735) |
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