UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the Fiscal Year December 31, 2023

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission file number: 000-32929

PERASO INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware		77-0291941
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(IRS Employer Identification Number)

2309 Bering Drive

San Jose, California 95131

(Address of principal executive offices)

(408) 418-7500

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class		Trading Symbol(s)		Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share		PRSO		The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Title of each class		Name of each exchange on which registered
Series AA Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share		None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act:

Large accelerated filer	☐	Accelerated filer	☐
Non-accelerated filer	☒	Smaller reporting company	☒
		Emerging growth company	☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, based on the closing price of the shares of common stock on the Nasdaq Stock Market on June 30, 2023 was $11,913,739.

The number of outstanding shares of the Registrant’s exchangeable shares, no par value, was 95,093 as of March 18, 2024.

The number of shares of the Registrant’s common stock outstanding, par value $0.001 per share, as of March 18, 2024, was 2,161,160.

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

	Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Other Information Contained in this Report	ii
	Part I
Item 1.	Business	1
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	9
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	26
Item 1C.	Cybersecurity	26
Item 2.	Properties	27
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	27
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	27
Part II
Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	28
Item 6.	[Reserved]	28
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	28
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	40
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	40
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	40
Item 9B.	Other Information	40
Item 9C.	Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections	40
Part III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	41
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	46
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	56
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	58
Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	59
Part IV
Item 15.	Exhibits	60
Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary	62
	Signatures	63

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND OTHER INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT

This Annual Report on Form 10-K, or this Report, and the documents incorporated herein by reference contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), which include, without limitation, statements about the market for our products, technology, our strategy, competition, expected financial performance and other aspects of our business identified in this Report, as well as other reports that we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Any statements about our business, financial results, financial condition and operations contained in this Report that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent our intentions, plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those described in Part I., Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Report. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including the risk factors described in Part I., Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and elsewhere in this Report. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by law, even as new information becomes available or other events occur in the future.

Peraso®, MoSys®,1T-SRAM® and Bandwidth Engine® are registered trademarks of Peraso Inc. PERSPECTUS™ is a trademark of Peraso Inc.

Unless expressly indicated or the context requires otherwise, the terms “Peraso,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our” in this Report refer to Peraso Inc., a Delaware corporation, and, where appropriate, its subsidiaries.

Note Regarding Reverse Stock Split

We effected a reverse stock split of our outstanding common stock at a ratio of 1-for-40, effective as of January 2, 2024, for the purpose of complying with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2). We have reflected the reverse stock split herein, unless otherwise indicated.

Part I

Item 1. Business.

Overview

We are a fabless semiconductor company focused on the development and sale of: i) millimeter wavelength wireless technology, or mmWave, semiconductor devices and antenna modules based on our proprietary semiconductor devices and ii) performance of non-recurring engineering, or NRE, services and licensing of intellectual property, or IP. Our primary focus is the development of mmWave, which is generally described as the frequency band from 24 Gigahertz, or GHz, to 300 GHz. Our mmWave products enable a range of applications including: multi-gigabit point-to-point, or PtP, wireless links with a range of up to 25 kilometers and operating in the 60 GHz frequency band; multi-gigabit point-to-multi-point, or PtMP, links in the 60 GHz frequency band used to provide fixed wireless access, or FWA, services; FWA in the 5G operating bands from 24 GHz to 43 GHz to provide multi-gigabit capability and low latency connections; military communications; and consumer applications, such as high performance wireless video streaming and untethered augmented reality and virtual reality. We also have a line of memory-denominated integrated circuits, or ICs, for high-speed cloud networking, communications, security appliance, video, monitor and test, data center and computing markets that deliver time-to-market, performance, power, area and economic benefits for system original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. As discussed below, we initiated an end-of-life of these products in 2023.

Business Combination

We were formerly known as MoSys, Inc., or MoSys. On September 14, 2021, we and our subsidiaries, 2864552 Ontario Inc. and 2864555 Ontario Inc., entered into an Arrangement Agreement, or the Arrangement Agreement, with Peraso Technologies Inc., or Peraso Tech, a privately-held corporation existing under the laws of the province of Ontario, to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Peraso Tech, or the Peraso Shares, including those Peraso Shares to be issued in connection with the conversion or exchange of secured convertible debentures and common share purchase warrants of Peraso Tech, as applicable, by way of a statutory plan of arrangement, or the Arrangement, under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario). On December 17, 2021, following the satisfaction of the closing conditions set forth in the Arrangement Agreement, the Arrangement was completed, and we changed our name from MoSys to “Peraso Inc.” and began trading on The Nasdaq Stock Market, or the Nasdaq, under the symbol “PRSO.” Certain previous shareholders of Peraso Tech elected to convert their Peraso Tech common stock into exchangeable shares in 2864555 Ontario Inc., one of our wholly-owned subsidiaries. These exchangeable shares, which can be converted into our common stock at the option of the holder, are similar in substance to our common stock.

Industry Trends and Market Opportunities

mmWave

Historically, virtually all wireless communications has utilized the frequency spectrum below 6 GHz. Primary examples include cell phone communications, WiFi, Bluetooth, Internet of Things, or IoT, and more recently, broadband internet access or FWA. In parallel, a broad array of applications continues to push the boundaries of available wireless network capacity. These include video streaming services, such as those offered by Netflix, Apple and Amazon, user-generated video content, such as TikTok and Instagram Reels, and broadly, personal video content generated by personal mobile devices.

While the sub-6 GHz band has traditionally been sufficient for these services, with growing demand, the industry is migrating towards mmWave spectrum as an additional source of wireless capacity. Wireless spectrum is an extremely valuable commodity and is highly regulated by federal governments around the world. Spectrum is broadly segmented into either licensed frequencies or unlicensed frequencies, although most frequencies are licensed. This holds true for mmWave frequencies between 24 GHz and 100 GHz. In the case of mmWave, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, or 3GPP, has included the spectrum from 24 GHz to 43 GHz in its 5G specification. This is licensed spectrum in most jurisdictions around the world, and carriers must license this spectrum if they choose to utilize the mmWave frequency bands within that spectrum. Alternatively, the spectrum from 57 GHz to 71 GHz is generally unlicensed around the world, and, therefore, a license is not required to operate in this spectrum. To that end, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE, has established two standards which utilize this unlicensed mmWave spectrum, IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay. Peraso has developed silicon products that comply with both the licensed and unlicensed standards.

IEEE 802.11ad/ay: License-Free mmWave Market

A primary opportunity for our mmWave products in unlicensed-band applications is the FWA market. In this market segment, wireless Internet service providers, or WISPs, provide their customers with a fixed wireless link to a base station or small cell, thus providing the customer with high-speed access to the Internet. mmWave can provide both upload and download speeds of over 1 Gbps. In addition, we believe mmWave can be a less expensive alternative to installing fiber and allows FWA carriers a competitive advantage against other access technologies, such as cable broadband. From an equipment perspective, this worldwide market has historically been serviced by FWA OEMs, such as Ubiquiti Inc., or Ubiquiti, Cambium Networks, Ltd. and SIA MikroTik. WISPs are addressing a segment of the broadband market not served by the traditional carriers, or, in some cases, underserved by the carriers.

The FWA market has been helped in recent years with the advent of government incentives aimed at closing the so-called ‘digital divide’ between urban and rural broadband access. The WISP market is experiencing strong growth. According to The 2021 Fixed-Wireless and Hybrid ISP Industry Report prepared by the Carmel Group, the number of subscribers that WISP providers serve in the United States is expected to grow from 6.9 million at the end of 2020 to 12.7 million by the end of 2025. Additionally, the U.S. government has allocated significant support for the improvement of broadband access to underserved and unserved communities. In 2020, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, established the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, or RDOF, to award up to $20.4 billion for the development of improved broadband in rural communities. In 2023, the U.S. government established the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, or BEAD, program, which has allocated $42.45 billion to expand high-speed Internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment and adoption programs in all 50 states.

A related opportunity for us in the license-free FWA space is dense urban markets, many of which have a high saturation of informal settlements. As of August 2023, the World Economic Forum estimates there are over 1.1 billion people living in informal settlements around the world. Traditional last mile technology, such as WiFi, is not able to handle to the congestion of users in such communities. This is because WiFi radio signals spread out in all directions, much like a bare incandescent light bulb. Due to the very high population density in informal settlements, many WiFi transmitters are required, and as such, tend to cancel each other out with overlapping signals. Because our mmWave technology utilizes beamforming, the signals are more like beams from a car headlight, very narrow and controlled. Therefore, in a dense environment, mmWave is much better at handling high congestion, as the radio signals generally do not overlap. Another advantage our mmWave technology provides in the dense urban environment is reduced power consumption. The power grid in an informal settlement can often be unreliable. Our technology can operate under 12 watts, which enables communications networks to continue to operate on a backup battery power supply for several hours.

An additional market for Peraso 60GHz mmWave products is military applications. Specifically, as a result of our RF beamforming and beamsteering capability, the military is considering the use of mmWave for stealth tactical communications. Unlike traditional wireless technology that radiates equally in all directions (omni), mmWave technology utilizes phased-array RF beams to focus the RF energy into a specific intensity and direction. The military refers to mmWave as an inherently stealthy protocol – Low Probability of Interception (LPI)/Low Probability of Detection (LPD)/Anti-Jamming (AJ). An additional benefit of using the 60GHz spectrum, is since this band is generally unlicensed around the world, these communications will not interfere with locally licensed spectrum. Also, as our devices operate at under 12 watts, a light battery can be used for simple deployment in combat settings. Further, as our mmWave technology can support gigabit speeds, military personnel are able to transmit and receive information in a timely manner. In 2023, we were awarded a proof-of-concept license and technology development contract to enable mmWave-based communications between soldiers and their vehicle.

Our 60 GHz products can also be applied to consumer applications, as we believe our technology can provide key advantages to this market. For example, we are targeting the high-performance, video-streaming market, specifically the virtual reality, or VR, market. In its market report, Virtual Reality Data: Devices, Verticals, and Value Chain – 1Q 2022, ABI Research estimates a market opportunity of over 6 million VR headsets by the end of 2025, which we believe translates into a total available market for us in 2025 of approximately $180 million, assuming an average selling price to us of $30 for an antenna module included in each VR headset. Uses of VR are envisioned in a broad variety of markets, including gaming, real estate, healthcare, and transportation. We believe that our mmWave technology has certain characteristics that are ideal for VR applications. First, mmWave’s high data rate of 3 Gbps supports high-resolution displays. Second, our proprietary beamforming and beamtracking techniques keep latency to under 5 milliseconds, or ms, so the user does not experience lags in the experience. Third, mmWave technology is less susceptible to interference and, as mentioned above in the context of dense urban environments, can operate in highly congested environments, which limits interruptions in the VR user’s experience.

Other market opportunities for 60 GHz mmWave technology include transportation safety, factory automation, and railway communications.

3GPP: Licensed mmWave Market

The frequency band from 24 GHz to 43 GHz has been designated as the mmWave band in 5G communications. In the United States, this band is generally licensed to carriers by the FCC for expensive license fees that can reach billions of dollars. Carriers license this spectrum to ensure there is no interference from other carriers using the same frequencies. We believe that the primary benefit of mmWave to carriers is the availability of additional spectrum within the licensed band, to provide additional capacity to handle the growth of mobile users. In its report, 5G Millimeter Wave 2023, Mobile Experts Inc. predicts that, based on current user growth predictions, U.S. carriers will saturate the capacity of their networks using existing spectrum by 2025, and will need to utilize mmWave to provide additional capacity.

Our initial target for licensed-band applications is the FWA segment, as carriers can utilize the additional network capacity offered by mmWave to provide FWA services. According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, as of November 2023, approximately 80% of mobile service providers have an FWA offering and 121 service providers offer FWA services over 5G, representing 50% of all FWA service providers. According to Mobile Experts Inc.’s report, 5G Millimeter Wave 2023, mobile operators that have deployed 5G mmWave include Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, Softbank and Rakuten Mobile. We believe major Chinese mobile carriers have commenced formal collaborations to advance mmWave solutions in the Chinese telecom market. Regarding U.S. carriers, FWA has become a bright spot for their 5G roll out. According to Light Reading, fixed wireless services accounted for over 90% of all net broadband customer additions in the U.S. during 2022. While U.S. carriers currently use the sub 6 GHz frequency band, eventually, as the network gets saturated, we believe the carriers will commence a broad roll out of mmWave technology. In terms of FWA market potential in the U.S., according to Fierce Wireless, T-Mobile is available to over 50 million homes, and Verizon is available to over 40 million homes. In addition to being used to provide FWA services, our mmWave antenna modules can be utilized in consumer-premises equipment or CPE, including hotspots, laptops and tablets. In its report, 5G Millimeter Wave 2023, Mobile Experts Inc. forecasts a total volume of approximately 2 million mmWave-enabled CPE units by 2026.

5G mmWave has support from major industry players, such as Apple, which has incorporated mmWave wireless into substantially all versions of the iPhone for sale in the U.S. market. The basic premise is the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth. The initial use case for cellular service providers is to provide their customer base (primarily smart-phone customers) with continuity of network access in highly congested environments, such as sporting events, public beaches, music festivals or generally any large gathering where thousands of users are attempting to access the network simultaneously. We believe that mmWave will gain universal acceptance, as users will demand full continuity in terms of network access, and we are well positioned to address the mobile opportunity for mmWave, which is expected to present an order of magnitude increase in the total available market.

Memory

Our memory solutions deliver time-to-market, performance, power, area and economic benefits for system OEMs. Our Bandwidth Engine memory ICs integrate our proprietary, 1T-SRAM high-density embedded memory and a highly-efficient serial interface protocol resulting in a monolithic memory IC solution optimized for memory bandwidth and transaction access performance. Further performance benefits can be achieved to offload statistical, search or other custom functions using our optional integrated logic and processor elements. As discussed below, we initiated an end-of-life of these products in 2023.

Our Products

Our primary focus is the development, marketing and sale of our mmWave products.

mmWave ICs

Currently, there are two industry standards that incorporate mmWave technology for wireless communications: (i) license-free: IEEE 802.11ad/ay and (ii) licensed: 3GPP Release 15-17 (commonly referred to as 5G). We have developed and continue to develop products that conform to these standards. To date, we have not sold any 5G products.

Our first mmWave IC product line operates in the license-free 60 GHz band and conforms to the IEEE 802.11ad standard. This product line includes a baseband IC, several variations of mmWave radio frequency, or RF, ICs, and associated antenna technology.

Our 60 GHz IEEE802.11ad products have two very important advantages over traditional 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz Wi-Fi products: very high data rates (up to 3.0 Gigabits per second (“Gbps”)) and low latency, i.e., less than 5 ms. The first application that had traction was outdoor broadband, including applications such as PtP backhaul links or FWA using PtMP links. As the spectrum is unlicensed (free), WISPs can provide services without having to procure expensive wireless spectrum licenses. We believe that our mmWave technology can be deployed quickly and cost effectively in rural and suburban environments, including in remote and low-income regions where residents often have poor Internet quality. While carriers can provide fiber access, the cost of fiber deployment can be prohibitive and trenching for fiber is time consuming and can limit the rate at which new subscribers are added. Our mmWave products enable WISPs to deploy broadband service using low-cost terminals and infrastructure and avoid the costs of deploying cable or fiber.

We are a leading supplier of semiconductors in the mmWave PtP and PtMP markets. We are currently shipping to leading equipment suppliers in this space, as well as directly to service providers that are building their own equipment. We believe we bring certain advantages to the market. First, our products support the spectrum from 66 GHz to 71 GHz, which is often referred to as channels 5 and 6 in the 802.11ad/ay specifications. The key advantage in supporting these channels is that the signals are able to propagate much further than channels 1 through 4; this is a result of significantly lower oxygen absorption at frequencies above 66 GHz. To date, our FWA customers have achieved links in the range of 25 kilometers, which is substantially longer than any past 60 GHz links.

In the indoor area, the 802.11ad technology is ideal for high-speed, low-latency video applications. In indoor applications, our products can support 3Gb/s links with under 5 ms of latency. Example applications include:

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AR/VR links between the headset and the video console;

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USB video cameras for corporate video conferencing;

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wireless security cameras; and

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smart factory safety and surveillance.

Our mmWave ICs have been in volume production since 2018. A core competency of the Company is phased-array technology, or beamforming, in which an array of antenna elements work in unison to create a focused RF beam. Through adjustment of the relative phase of the antenna signals, the beams can be directed to support robust wireless connection. We are a leader in the production of mmWave devices and have pioneered a high-volume mmWave production test methodology using standard low-cost production test equipment. It has taken us several years to refine performance of this production test methodology, and we believe this places us in a leadership position in addressing operational challenges of delivering mmWave products into high-volume markets.

Our second product line addresses the 5G mmWave opportunity. Given our extensive experience in the development of mmWave technology, 5G mmWave is a logical adjacent and larger market. We have commenced sampling a highly integrated 5G mmWave beamformer IC, which operates from the 24 GHz to 43 GHz frequency range. The device supports dual-stream multiple input, multiple output, or MIMO, with two 16-channel beamforming arrays. In June 2023, we announced a collaboration with pSemi, a Murata company, for the development of a 5G customer premise receiver utilizing our beamformer IC and pSemi’s up-down converter IC. The goals of the collaboration are to reduce the number of components and cost of each RF module to promote faster time to market for more rapid deployment by prospective customers.

mmWave Antenna Modules

In the second half of 2021, we augmented our business model to produce and sell complete mmWave antenna modules for license-free 60 GHz applications. The primary advantage provided by our antenna modules is that our proprietary mmWave ICs and the antenna are integrated into a single device. A differentiating characteristic of mmWave technology is that the RF amplifiers must be as close as possible to the antenna to minimize loss. With our module, we can guarantee the performance of the amplifier/antenna interface and simplify customers’ RF engineering, facilitating more opportunities for customer prospects that have not provided RF-type systems, as well as shortening the time to market for new products. It is possible for third parties to provide competitive module products, but, because we utilize our mmWave ICs and incorporate our proprietary mmWave antenna IP, we can provide a highly-competitive solution based on our internally-owned and developed module components.

During 2022, we launched our PERSPECTUS family of mmWave antenna modules to enable WISPs to offer high-capacity FWA networks in the unlicensed 60-GHz spectrum. The PERSPECTUS product family includes a new generation of integrated 60 GHz mmWave antenna modules and enhanced software for PtMP FWA applications. Our PERSPECTUS products allow rapid development of low-cost network equipment utilizing over 14 GHz of spectrum to provide multi-gigabit access services. Leveraging our integrated phased-array antennas and operating in the upper channels of the band, link ranges from 1.5 kilometers up to extended ranges of 30 kilometers can be achieved using a parabolic reflector.

Additionally, we have established an innovative user arbitration protocol called DUNE that is specifically designed to optimize network performance in dense urban environments using our PERSPECTUS antenna modules. DUNE is a result of our decade-long experience in mmWave technology and in-house development of the intellectual property incorporated in media access control, which controls the hardware, the physical layer, which controls the physical connection and software drivers, as well as novel antenna designs and beamforming algorithms. DUNE takes a multi-level approach to reducing contention and interference by incorporating both physical, e.g. antenna and beamforming, and protocol-level innovations.

Memory

Our memory products comprise our Bandwidth Engine ICs, which are memory-dominated ICs that were designed to be i) high-performance companion ICs to packet processors and ii) targeted for high-performance applications where throughput is critical. These products integrate our proprietary, 1T-SRAM high-density embedded memory and a highly-efficient serial interface protocol resulting in a monolithic memory IC solution optimized for memory bandwidth and transaction access performance. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, or TSMC, is the sole foundry that manufactures the wafers used to produce our memory IC products. TSMC has informed us that it would be discontinuing the foundry process used to produce wafers, in turn, necessary to manufacture our memory ICs. As a result, in May 2023, we initiated an end-of-life, or EOL, of our memory IC products. We notified our customers to provide purchase orders by December 22, 2023, and we commenced initial EOL shipments during the quarter ended September 30, 2023. We have requested customers to pay a deposit upon purchase order placement to reserve supply and provide funding for our required inventory purchases. In addition, we have requested customers to accelerate payments to improve our cash flows. Under our EOL plan, we expect shipments of our memory products to continue until at least December 31, 2024. However, the timing of EOL shipments will be dependent on receipt of purchase orders from customers, deliveries from our suppliers, and the delivery schedules requested by our customers. As of March 1, 2024, we have received EOL purchase orders totaling approximately $14.0 million, of which $3.7 million of these orders were shipped during 2023.

Research and Development

Our ability to compete in the future depends on successfully improving our technology to meet the increasing demand for higher performance and lower cost solutions. Development of new IC products requires specialized chip design and product engineers, expensive computer-aided design software licenses, and significant fabrication and testing costs, including mask costs.

We have over 14 years of technical know-how in the design and manufacturing of mmWave technology. The most important aspect of this knowledge is knowing how mmWave circuits will perform in a real-world environment. Traditionally, semiconductor design utilizes sophisticated computer-aided design software to simulate the performance of a device that is manufactured at a specific semiconductor manufacturing plant. However, mmWave is extremely difficult to model precisely. Therefore, the only path to understand how well a device will perform is to produce the device and test it in a real-world application. Over the last decade, many companies have attempted to develop mmWave semiconductor devices, however, given that the devices had inconsistent or weak performance, a number of the companies were unsuccessful and abandoned their design and product development efforts. As an example of our leadership and expertise in the development of mmWave technology, we were an active participant in the development of the IEEE 802.11ay wireless specification and, to date, have been granted nine essential claims patents with respect to this standard.

At a system level, there are additional technical challenges presented by mmWave technology that we have overcome and form a key part of our internal know-how. For example, a key technology of mmWave is the concept of beamforming and beam steering using a phased-array antenna. This technology is utilized to concentrate the RF energy into a narrow beam to improve the range and coverage of mmWave devices. We have developed effective beamforming and beam steering technology for phased-array circuits and antennas. While there are many academic examples of successful phased-array implementations, there is a vast barrier between a “laboratory” version of phased-array technology and a version that is deployed for commercial use. One such aspect is the implementation of the beamforming procedure, which seeks to maximize throughput and do so while not impacting latency. While the details of achieving this are complex, it is important-intellectual property that we have gained through real-world experience.

mmWave is not without challenges, as mmWave signals do not typically travel as far as traditional wireless signals and are more attenuated by solid objects. Mitigation strategies must be deployed, particularly with regard to the management of signal propagation. Whereas traditional wireless devices utilize a broad, omni-antenna pattern, mmWave systems rely on phased-array technology, which focusses the radio signal into a narrow beam to improve propagation characteristics. We consider ourselves to be a global leader in implementing these sophisticated radio systems and one of the few providers in the market successfully shipping phased-array devices in mass production.

While we have developed products for the 60 GHz and 5G mmWave markets, we believe there are other market opportunities that could utilize mmWave technology. For example, in the WiFi Alliance there is a pending proposal to utilize mmWave technology in WiFi 8, which is the next generation of WiFi technology. We believe this proposal is primarily driven by the anticipated use of mmWave to support VR applications, which require very high data rates, and to reduce congestion in multi-dwelling units. In the mobile carrier market, there is some early research in the use of terahertz technology to make even more spectrum available for network capacity. While the proposed frequencies are higher than mmWave (above 100 GHz), we believe that many of our technological developments, particularly our beamforming and beamsteering concepts, can be applied to terahertz technology.

With regard to our memory products, we have ceased and do not intend to expend any development efforts or funds to develop new memory products. We believe our Bandwidth Engine IC products will provide us with meaningful revenue and gross margin contributions through at least the end of 2024, as we complete the EOL of these products. We intend to continue to devote substantially all of our research and development efforts toward further expanding our mmWave technology portfolio and expanding our product offerings.

Sales and Marketing

In addition to our direct sales personnel, we sell through sales representatives and distributors in the United States, Asia and Europe. Our distributors have a global presence with offices and technical selling and applications engineering capabilities, which we believe will enable us to reach new potential customers for our products.

We also have applications engineers who support our customer engagements and engage with the customers’ system architects and designers to propose and implement our products and solutions to address system design challenges and improve performance.

In the markets we serve, the time from a design win to production volume shipments of our IC products can range from 12 to 36 months. We believe that networking, wireless and wired communication and security appliance systems can have a product life from a few years to over 10 years once a product like ours has been designed into the system. Historically, our revenue has been highly concentrated, with a few customers accounting for a significant percentage of our total revenue.

In the FWA market, our primary customer base is OEMs, but we also have multiple WISP customers in the U.S. and Canada. Our OEM customers in the fixed wireless space include Ubiquiti, WeLink, which operates as both an OEM and a WISP, Tachyon Networks, or Tachyon, and China Unicom. Ubiquiti, an OEM in the unlicensed fixed wireless space, relies on us as its sole source mmWave IC supplier for its “Wave” products, which Ubiquiti introduced in 2022. Ubiquiti introduced three new Wave models in 2023. WeLink has relied on us as its sole source supplier for WeLink designed equipment used to deliver WISP residential service since 2022. WeLink currently deploys 60 GHz technology in multiple U.S. cities, including Las Vegas, Dallas and Los Angeles. Tachyon utilizes our mmWave antenna modules in its TNA-30X family of PtP and PtMP solutions for 60 GHz unlicensed FWA networks. Peraso and Tachyon jointly announced production readiness of the TNA-30X product family in June 2023. Finally, China Unicom is a Chinese mobile carrier that uses our 60 GHz technology for 5G PtP backhaul. In addition to OEMs, we have partnered with several WISPs in the U.S. and Canada that have deployed our 60 GHz technology, including WeLink. We continue to focus on securing new OEM and WISP customers.

During the year ended December 31, 2023, three customers accounted for 10% or more of our net revenues, including Nokia Corporation at 35%, F5/Flextronics at 22% and Alltek Technology Corp at 18%. During the year ended December 31, 2022, four customers accounted for 10% or more of our net revenues, including Nokia Corporation at 26%, WeLink Communications LLC, or WeLink, at 21%, CEAC International Limited, or CEAC, a distributer selling to Ubiquiti, at 16%, and F5, Inc. at 11%.

Intellectual Property

We regard our patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and similar intellectual property as critical to our success and rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret laws to protect our proprietary rights.

As of March 1, 2024, we held 96 United States patents and 67 foreign patents on various aspects of our mmWave, antenna, memory and other technology, with expiration dates ranging from 2025 to 2041. We also held 13 pending patent applications in the United States and abroad. There can be no assurance that others will not independently develop or patent similar or competing technology or design around any patents that may be issued to us, or that we will be able to successfully enforce our patents against infringement by others.

We were also an active participant in the development of the IEEE 802.11ay wireless specification and, to date, have been granted nine essential claims patents with respect to this standard. Essential claims patents are of particular value as a specification cannot be implemented without obtaining a license to the patents from us.

The semiconductor industry is characterized by frequent litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. Our IC customers, licensees or we might, from time to time, receive notice of claims that we have infringed patents or other intellectual property rights owned by others. Our successful protection of our patents and other intellectual property rights and our ability to make, use, import, offer to sell, and sell products free from the intellectual property rights of others are subject to a number of factors, particularly those described in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”

Competition

mmWave

mmWave circuit and system design is a highly specialized engineering skill, as mmWave is a challenging technology to ship in mass production. At frequencies above 24 GHz, circuits are extremely vulnerable to small variances in the semiconductor manufacturing process. Designing circuits that minimize susceptibility to these variances takes years of development, and we believe we are one of the few companies in the world that is skilled in mmWave design. Further, we have shipped mmWave devices in volume, and ensuring all devices sold adhere to strict performance standards is a core competency we have developed. In addition, we have developed our own mmWave phased-array antenna technology, which allows us to be highly competitive in terms of overall system cost. Our customers do not need to engage with third-party antenna suppliers, thus eliminating the additional cost for a third-party antenna.

Unlicensed IEEE 802.11ad/ay Market:

Our primary competitor in the IEEE802.11ad/ay market is Qualcomm. The primary benefit that we provide to the market is the support of the higher frequency bands from 66 GHz to 71 GHz. The advantage at these frequencies is that oxygen attenuation is significantly reduced, and signals can travel much further.

We also have key points of differentiation compared to Qualcomm for wireless video devices. We are well positioned in this market, as we have USB 3.0 built into our devices, so our products generally support USB architectures. A prime example is the replacement of the USB cable with a wireless version using our technology. There are many applications where this can be of use, including USB web cams, wireless displays, and AR/VR headsets. We have invested significant software resources into providing the market with wireless USB solutions, and we believe there is no other mmWave vendor in the world that can offer multi-gigabit solutions as a replacement for wired USB.

Licensed 5G Market:

SEC Form 10-K filed by Peraso Inc.