Merrill Lynch have just added two new companies to their nanotech index, following their criteria that “for inclusion in the index is companies that indicate in public documents that nanotechnology initiatives represent a significant component of their future business strategy. In addition, companies must be listed on a national exchange or quoted on the NASDAQ National or NASDAQ Small Market systems. We exclude companies whose valuations, in our view, are not considered to be nanotechnology-driven by the investment community.”
So it was even more of a surprise to see the justification for including Kopin.
“Applying our criteria, display maker Kopin Corporation (KOPN) bills itself as the “The NanoSemiconductor Company” and states in its 10-K that “Conventional LEDs contain active indium gallium nitride layers of uniform thickness, whereas nanostructured LEDs contain active layers with a periodic thickness variation. This periodic thickness variation creates NanoPockets whose dimensions range from 50 to 100 nanometers and thickness from one to two nanometers.”
So, do we understand that any semiconductor company billing itself as a a NanoSemiconductor Companyon the basis of working at sub 100nm dimensions will be included, or is it simply a matter of putting out enough press releases about nanotech?