Section 1Conflict Minerals Disclosure
Item 1.01 Conflict
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Minerals Disclosure and Report
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Conflict Minerals Disclosure
This Specialized Disclosure
Report on Form SD is filed as provided for in Rule 13p-1 promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Rule) for the reporting period January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.
Our business is focused on developing our proprietary PicoP® scanning technology that can be adopted by our customers to create high-resolution miniature projection and three-dimensional sensing and image capture solutions. Our PicoP scanning technology is
based on our patented expertise in micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS), laser diodes, opto-mechanics, and electronics and how those elements are packaged into a small form factor, low power scanning engine that can display, interact and
sense, depending on the needs of the application. For display, the engine can project a high-quality image on any surface (pico projection), a windshield (head-up display or HUD), or a retina (augmented
reality or AR). Our business strategy is to develop and supply PicoP scanning technology directly or through licensing arrangements to original device manufacturers (ODMs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in various market segments,
including consumer electronics and automotive, for integration into their products.
Our growth strategy includes selling LBS engines and components to
ODMs and OEMs in addition to our strategy of licensing LBS technology to licensees to offer their own solutions. We plan to offer three scanning engines to support a wide array of applications: a small form factor display engine for consumer
products, an interactive display engine for smart Internet of Things (IoT) products, and a mid-range light detection and ranging (LiDAR) engine for autonomous vehicles, industrial products and
robotics.
The Rule requires disclosure of certain information when a company manufactures or contracts to manufacture products for which the minerals
specified in the Rule are necessary to the functionality or production of those products. The specified minerals are gold, columbite-tantalite (coltan), cassiterite and wolframite, including their derivatives, which are limited to tantalum, tin and
tungsten (the Conflict Minerals). The Covered Countries for purposes of the Rule are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi,
Tanzania, Zambia and Angola.
As indicated above, we are primarily focused on developing our technology and, while selling LBS engines and components to
ODMs and OEMs is part of our growth strategy as described above, we generally are not presently in the business of manufacturing or contracting to manufacture any consumer products. However, from time to time we do procure components for packaged
MEMS, provide them to third parties that assemble the components for us and sell packaged MEMS to our customers. The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has stated that whether a company is considered under the Rule to contract to
manufacture a product depends on the degree of influence the company exercises over the
materials, parts, ingredients, or components to be included in any product
, but the SEC has not provided much guidance as to the
circumstances that would result in sufficient influence to fall within the scope of the Rule. As a result, it is possible that we may manufacture or contract to manufacture products within the meaning of the Rule. To the extent we do so, we do not
purchase any Conflict Minerals for these components directly from mines, smelters or refiners. We sometimes acquire components from suppliers and those components are used in the assembly of MEMS for us by third parties. It is also the case that
some components are sourced directly by these parties that are assembling products for us and are incorporated into MEMS packages. We must therefore rely on our suppliers to provide information regarding the composition and origin of such
components.
We have conducted a good faith reasonable country of origin inquiry by contacting and making inquiries of our suppliers. These inquiries were
designed to determine whether any of the components supplied to us contained Conflict Minerals and, if so, whether such Conflict Minerals originated in the Covered Countries. Each of our suppliers indicated that Conflict Minerals were necessary to
the functionality or production of the components it supplies to us but that such Conflict Minerals did not originate from the Covered Countries. As a result, following this inquiry, we do not have reason to believe that the Conflict Minerals that
are necessary to the functionality or production of products that we may be considered to manufacture or contract to manufacture may have originated in the Covered Countries. This information is publicly available on the corporate governance page of
the investors section of our website, www.microvision.com.