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Aehr Test Systems announced it has received an initial customer order for a FOX-NP™ wafer level test and burn-in system and a FOX WaferPak™ Aligner to be used for gallium nitride (GaN) power devices. The customer is a leading global supplier of semiconductor devices used in electric vehicles and power infrastructure and adds another major customer to the list of companies using Aehr’s FOX products for wafer level test and burn-in of wide bandgap compound semiconductors. The FOX-NP system, including the FOX WaferPak Aligner, is scheduled to ship and be installed in the current fiscal quarter.
As Aehr’s first gallium nitride customer to order a system, this company selected Aehr due in part to its unique ability to offer a total solution that allows customers to apply thermal and electrical stress conditions to thousands of devices while still in wafer form. Aehr’s cutting-edge technology provides critical geolocation information across the wafer while inducing the extrinsic (early life) failures that would otherwise fail in the field without reducing the long-term reliability or life of the good devices.
Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “After seeing the positive results from their long and extensive evaluation of our FOX wafer level test systems for their silicon carbide devices, this customer decided to first move forward with our FOX-NP system to test their gallium nitride devices’ long-term reliability failure rates, as well as qualify the production extrinsic failure screening process for their devices in applications where safety, reliability, and/or security are critical.
A key consideration behind their decision is that the FOX-NP system is 100% compatible with the Aehr FOX-XP system that is targeted for high volume production and can support all the test modes needed for both gallium nitride and silicon carbide device testing and burn-in, including high-voltage testing of up to 2,000 volts with full wafer test without electrical arcing that can damage the wafer, which is a distinct advantage of our unique patented technology.
“Similar to silicon carbide, gallium nitride semiconductor MOSFETs are considered wide bandgap devices with much higher efficiencies in terms of power conversion than silicon, with gallium nitride being particularly good for lower power devices such as under 1000 watt power converters used in consumer devices such as cell phones, tablets, and laptop computers, as well as being targeted for automotive power converters for all the electrical systems in automobiles, whether electric vehicles or traditional gasoline automobiles. Gallium nitride MOSFETs are also believed by many industry analysts and technical communities to likely take over silicon as the power converter of choice for photovoltaic (solar panel) applications.
“Gallium nitride and silicon carbide devices both have excellent long-term intrinsic reliability, making them very good for automotive and industrial applications. But both also experience higher than acceptable early life or extrinsic failures related to the material and processing steps. Gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductor suppliers can add a special stress or screening test known as burn-in on 100% of the devices to identify and remove these early life failures so that they can meet the end customers’ target reliability needs. This 100% burn-in requirement is not unique to these devices, as it is also the case with microprocessors and microcontrollers, dynamic random-access memories (DRAM), flash non-volatile memories, as well as many sensors used in automotive and other industrial applications.”
Aehr enables its customers to cost-effectively implement the needed testing and qualification process for semiconductor devices that experience early life failures by not only applying the electrical stress condition to every device on the wafer but by also testing up to 18 wafers at a time using the FOX-XP production test and burn in system. These electrical tests are done with up to thousands of precise calibrated electrical source and measurement instruments per wafer. These tests are done while maintaining the temperature at an accurately programmed thermal temperature across each of the wafers using a direct conduction thermal transfer via a proprietary patented precision thermal chuck per wafer.
The FOX-NP compliments Aehr’s production FOX-XP system by using the exact same test ‘Blades’ that are in the FOX-XP to allow 100% correlation between the results on the FOX-NP to the FOX-XP.
The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems, available with multiple WaferPak Contactors (full wafer test) or multiple DiePakTM Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, are capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of devices such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors, silicon photonics as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, magnetic sensors, microcontrollers, and other leading-edge ICs in either wafer form factor, before they are assembled into single or multi-die stacked packages, or in singulated die or module form factor.
Original – Aehr Test Systems
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Aehr Test Systems announced financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2024 ended August 31, 2023.
Fiscal First Quarter Financial Results:
- Net revenue was $20.6 million, up 93% from $10.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2023.
- GAAP net income was $4.7 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, up from GAAP net income of $589,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2023.
- Non-GAAP net income, which excludes the impact of stock-based compensation, was $5.2 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $1.3 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2023.
- Bookings were $18.4 million for the quarter.
- Backlog as of August 31, 2023 was $22.3 million. Effective backlog, which includes all orders received since the end of the first quarter, is $24.0 million.
- Cash provided by operations was $3.9 million.
- Total cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments as of August 31, 2023 were $51.0 million, up from $47.9 million at May 31, 2023.
Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented:
“We finished the first quarter with solid revenue and non-GAAP net income, the strongest first quarter in our history, which has historically been our seasonally softest quarter. We are off to a very good start to our fiscal year and are reaffirming our expectation to grow fiscal full year revenue by at least 50% and profit by over 90% year over year.
“During the quarter we had record shipments of our FOXTM WaferPak full wafer Contactors in both revenue and units and are very pleased with the continued stream of new designs we are seeing. Our new design volume has tripled over the last nine months as we are seeing more electric vehicles coming online with their own specific device design for inverters and onboard chargers.
“We have now received customer acceptance of both configurations of our new fully automated FOX WaferPak Aligner, which allows hands free operation of WaferPak handling and alignment and is available either as a standalone unit or in full integration with the FOX-XP system. We recognized revenue for two standalone WaferPak Aligners in the first quarter and received customer acceptance and sign off on two fully integrated WaferPak Aligners with the integrated FOX-XPs in September. These acceptances and the associated revenue recognition are a great way to start our second quarter and pave the path for revenue recognition immediately upon future shipments of these products.
“Additionally, we announced last month our sixth customer for silicon carbide wafer level burn-in. This new customer is a US-based multibillion-dollar semiconductor supplier that serves several markets, including automotive, computing, consumer, energy, industrial, and medical markets. After conducting a detailed financial evaluation of Aehr and Aehr’s FOX family of products, including multiple onsite visits to Aehr’s application lab, this new customer purchased an initial FOX-NP system, WaferPak Aligner, and multiple WaferPaks for engineering, qualification, and small lot production of their silicon carbide power devices.
This system is configured with our new Bipolar Voltage Channel Module (BVCM) and Very High Voltage Channel Module (VHVCM) options that enable new advanced test and burn-in capabilities for silicon carbide power semiconductors. This customer has indicated that as their production capacity increases, they intend to quickly move to our FOX-XP multi-wafer test and burn-in systems for high-volume production.
“Including this newest customer, our last two announced customers have selected our systems primarily for applications other than electric vehicles including industrial, solar, and commuter electric trains. This further extends our application space beyond the opportunity we see in silicon carbide for traction inverters and onboard and offboard chargers for electric vehicles. These applications expand our market opportunity to include what William Blair forecasts will be an additional 2.8 million 6” equivalent wafers needed per year by 2030 for applications beyond the 4.5 million 6” equivalent wafers per year it forecasts will be needed just for electric vehicles.
“We continue to see increased interest from prospective new customers for our solutions for silicon carbide wafer level burn-in. In the last few weeks, we have attended two international conferences in Europe and met with more than a dozen companies that are not currently using our solutions, in addition to meeting with all six of our current silicon carbide customers. These face-to-face meetings included multiple meetings with one of the market leaders in silicon carbide with whom we have been doing a significant automotive qualification of wafer level burn-in for well over two years.
This benchmark and qualification process has made even more progress in the last few months with a very large number of wafers being run at our facility and multiple meetings and reviews of the data. We continue to feel confident that this customer will move forward with us using the FOX-XP multi-wafer solution for their high-volume needs, including initial purchase orders and system shipments within this fiscal year. In the next few weeks, we also plan to meet with a significant number of potential new customers as well as end users in Asia, as we are seeing increasing activities and opportunities heating up there. It is a very exciting time in the silicon carbide and electric vehicle markets right now and we have never been busier.
“We are also in extensive engagements with multiple gallium nitride suppliers, including companies that also supply silicon carbide devices. Gallium nitride is similar to silicon carbide in that both of these semiconductor compounds are considered wide bandgap semiconductors that are able to withstand high-voltage applications more directly than silicon. Gallium nitride semiconductor material has characteristics that make it optimal for lower power converter applications such as consumer power converters, solar micro inverters, and industrial motor controllers, compared with silicon carbide that is optimal for higher power / higher voltage applications such as traction inverters in electric vehicles, trucks, trains, and converters used in charging infrastructure and storage.
The gallium nitride market is another potential growth driver for our wafer level solutions, particularly for automotive and photovoltaic applications where burn-in appears to be critical for meeting the initial quality and reliability needs of those markets. This fiscal year, while we do expect to recognize some revenue for systems, WaferPaks and Aligners for gallium nitride applications, we continue to expect a significant majority of our revenue to come from silicon carbide.
“In addition to these power semiconductor applications, we continue to be excited about the current application of silicon photonics devices for fiber optic transceivers used in data centers and data and telecommunication networks, as well as the major market opportunity we see with the upcoming application of silicon photonics integrated circuits for use in optical chip-to-chip communication. As we’ve previously announced, we received a first order from a current major silicon photonics customer for a new configuration of our FOX-XP multi-wafer test and burn-in system for use in very high-power silicon devices, and we expect to receive orders for additional production systems as they increase production of these devices.
While we believe that it will likely be several years before we will potentially see significant revenue generated from this optical chip-to-chip communications market, we are working with some of the leaders in silicon photonics to ensure that we have the products and solutions available to meet their needs for this potentially significant market application.
“In conclusion, we are encouraged by the continued positive momentum we are seeing for silicon carbide in electric vehicles and are also excited about the expanding growth opportunities we are seeing in several additional markets with current and prospective customers.”
Original – Aehr Test Systems
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Aehr Test Systems announced it has received an initial customer order for a FOX-NP™ wafer level test and burn-in system, multiple WaferPak™ Contactors, and a FOX WaferPak Aligner to be used for engineering, qualification, and small lot production wafer level test and burn-in of their silicon carbide devices. The customer is a US-based multibillion-dollar semiconductor supplier serving several markets including automotive, computing, consumer, energy, industrial, and medical. The FOX-NP system, including the FOX WaferPak Aligner and initial WaferPaks are scheduled per the customer’s requested accelerated schedule to ship by the end of the calendar year 2023.
The FOX-NP system is configured with the new Bipolar Voltage Channel Module (BVCM) and Very High Voltage Channel Module (VHVCM) options that enable new advanced test and burn-in capabilities for silicon carbide power semiconductors using Aehr’s proprietary WaferPak full wafer Contactors. This new order highlights Aehr’s continued progression within the growing silicon carbide global power market.
Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “We are very excited that after conducting a detailed financial evaluation and multiple onsite visits to Aehr’s application lab, this new customer selected our FOX-P solution for engineering, qualification, and production of their silicon carbide power devices.
This evaluation included cost of ownership and system throughput, as well as device test, burn-in, and stabilization coverage. As their production capacity increases, they told us that they will quickly move to our FOX-XP multi-wafer test and burn-in systems for high-volume production. In addition to the automotive electric vehicle device opportunity, this customer in particular sees the enormous opportunity for silicon carbide power devices in industrial, solar, and other power applications.
“William Blair forecasts that in addition to the 4.5 million six-inch equivalent wafers that will be needed to meet the demand for electric vehicle related silicon carbide devices in 2030, another 2.8 million wafers are needed to address industrial, solar, electric trains, energy conversion and other applications in 2030. The interesting part of this is that most of these applications will be served with discrete MOSFETS in single die packages.
The cost of ownership of our solution proved to be more cost-effective and efficient for these devices than package part burn-in after the die are packaged in packages such as TO-247 or other discrete packages. This is a strong testimony of the advantage of wafer level burn-in as a better alternative to package part burn-in. This expands our silicon carbide test and burn-in market even more and this new customer helps expand Aehr’s presence in this market as our total addressable market (TAM) continues to grow.
“Aehr’s FOX-P systems and proprietary WaferPak full wafer Contactors enable our customers to do economical production volume test and reliability burn-in with processes such as High Temperature Gate Bias (HTGB) and High Temperature Reverse Bias (HTRB) very cost-effectively and ensure extremely high device quality. Our systems are typically used for long burn-in times lasting up to 24 hours or more.
We can do this for under $5.00 per hour per wafer capital depreciation cost while testing and burning-in up to several thousand devices at a time per wafer. This is also in a test system footprint that is up to 94% less than a typical test system on a standard semiconductor wafer prober, which in a precious clean room wafer facility is extremely important and saves a great deal of cost.
“The FOX family of compatible systems including the FOX-NP and FOX-XP multi-wafer test and burn-in systems and Aehr’s proprietary WaferPak full wafer contactors provide a uniquely cost-effective solution for burning in multiple wafers of devices at a single time to remove early life failures of silicon carbide devices, which is critical to meeting the initial quality and long-term reliability of the automotive, industrial, and electrification infrastructure industry needs.”
The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems, available with multiple WaferPak Contactors (full wafer test) or multiple DiePakTM Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, are capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of devices such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors, silicon photonics as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, magnetic sensors, microcontrollers, and other leading-edge ICs in either wafer form factor, before they are assembled into single or multi-die stacked packages, or in singulated die or module form factor.
Original – Aehr Test Systems
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Aehr Test Systems announced financial results for its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter and full year ended May 31, 2023.
Fiscal Fourth Quarter Financial Results:
- Net sales were a record $22.3 million, up from $20.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.
- GAAP net income was a record $6.1 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, up from GAAP net income of $5.8 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.
- Non-GAAP net income, which excludes the impact of stock-based compensation, was a record $6.8 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $6.5 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.
- Backlog as of May 31, 2023, was $24.5 million. Effective backlog, which includes all orders received since the end of the fourth quarter, is $39.7 million.
- Total cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments as of May 31, 2023 were $47.9 million, up from $31.5 million at May 31, 2022.
Fiscal Year Financial Results:
- Net sales were a record $65.0 million, up 28% from $50.8 million in fiscal 2022.
- GAAP net income was a record $14.6 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, up 54% from GAAP net income of $9.5 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, in fiscal 2022.
- Non-GAAP net income, which excludes the impact of stock-based compensation, was a record $17.3 million, or $0.59 per diluted share, up 62% from non-GAAP net income of $10.7 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, in fiscal 2022.
An explanation of the use of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of Aehr’s non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the accompanying tables.
Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented:
“We are pleased to report record financial performance for both the quarter as well as the entire fiscal year ended May 31. For fiscal 2023, total revenue grew 28% to a record $65.0 million, bookings reached a record of $78.3 million, and our GAAP profit of $14.6 million and non-GAAP profit of $17.3 million were also records, growing 54% and 62% year over year, respectively. This record performance was driven by bookings and revenue shipments of our FOX wafer level test and burn-in systems and WaferPak full wafer Contactors for silicon carbide semiconductors used in electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as silicon photonics devices used in data and telecommunications infrastructure and a new application for multichip modules using optical data interconnections.
“We saw fiscal 2023 as a breakout year for our unique and proprietary wafer level test and burn-in products. These products provide complete solutions for semiconductor manufacturers for high-volume test, burn-in, and stabilization of semiconductors such as those used in electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, photovoltaic (solar) power conversion, and data and telecommunications infrastructure. We also see on the horizon a significant new market opportunity for test and burn-in of semiconductors such as silicon photonics devices used in optical input/output (I/O) and co-packaged optics for data farms, computing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) markets.
“In our fiscal fourth quarter just completed, we received the first purchase order from another new silicon carbide semiconductor company for our production FOX-XP solution to be used for volume production wafer level test and burn-in of silicon carbide devices for electric vehicles, trucks, and train traction inverter modules. The train traction inverter application represents an exciting new market driver for our FOX production test solutions due to the extreme reliability and length of service requirements of this application leading to prolonged test times. This new customer, a multinational industrial conglomerate and manufacturer of semiconductors including power semiconductors, is forecasting to grow their silicon carbide business significantly to meet the market demand, which we forecast will in turn drive incremental capacity of our FOX systems as well as our proprietary WaferPak full wafer Contactors.
“With the addition of this latest customer, we have significantly expanded our customer base by adding a total of four new silicon carbide customers this year. Each of these customers is already ramping or plans to ramp our products into high-volume production using our multi wafer test and burn-in systems.
“We also have multiple potential customers inquiring about our systems with the new high voltage option introduced last year to test and burn-in gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors for power conversion applications. The gallium nitride market appears to be a potentially significant growth driver for our systems and WaferPak full wafer Contactors, particularly for automotive and photovoltaic applications where burn-in appears to be critical for meeting the initial quality and reliability needs of those markets.
“We also see a major market opportunity with the upcoming application of silicon photonics integrated circuits for use in optical chip-to-chip communication. This is in addition to the current photonics transceiver market used in data and telecommunications. Multiple companies such as Intel, nVidia, AMD, TSMC, and Global Foundries have made announcements regarding their product roadmaps for co-packaged photonics integrated circuits with microprocessors, graphics processors, chip sets for computing as well as artificial intelligence applications. During the fiscal fourth quarter, we received our first order from a current major silicon photonics customer for a volume production FOX-XP configured to enable cost-effective production test of wafers of next-generation photonic integrated circuits, which can be used in new optical I/O or heterogeneous integrated packages. This customer is one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers and we expect to receive orders for additional production systems as they increase production of these devices.
“Another major milestone is that we have now installed both configurations of our new fully automated WaferPak Aligner at multiple customers, with the standalone Aligner already accepted and released into production just this week, and the FOX-XP with integrated Aligner expected to receive acceptance before the end of our current fiscal first quarter. Our new automated WaferPak Aligner allows hands free operation of WaferPak handling and Alignment and is available either as a standalone with movement between the Aligner and portable carts or in full integration with the FOX-XP system. As capacity and volume forecast increase, eliminating all manual interfaces for automated handling can become critical. The added automation capability of our new Aligner gives our wafer level test and burn-in offering even greater value and opens several incremental markets to Aehr, such as high-volume processors and chipsets with integrated photonics transceivers, flash and ultimately DRAM memories. This capability is also important for high volume, high mix devices requiring extremely high reliability and 100% burn-in such as automotive microcontrollers and sensors. We have received positive feedback on our new Aligner from multiple current and prospective customers across several markets and believe it will be an important addition to our product portfolio going forward.
“The market forecast for wafer level burn-in products is significant. William Blair estimates that the total available market for wafer level burn-in products for silicon carbide alone will be over $400 million by 2027. We believe Aehr has the potential to capture a significant portion of that market based on the level of silicon carbide engagements we have with customers across the globe.
“We start fiscal 2024 with an effective backlog of almost $40 million and a strong forecast from our current and prospective customers. Our engagements with numerous potential customers give us confidence in our growth expectations over the next several years, including record revenue and profit projections for this current fiscal year that ends next May, particularly as the positive momentum in demand for silicon carbide in electric vehicles continues to accelerate.”
Fiscal 2024 Financial Guidance:
For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2024, Aehr expects total revenue to be at least $100 million, representing growth of over 50% year over year, and GAAP net income of at least $28 million, representing earnings growth of greater than 90% year over year.
Management Conference Call and Webcast
Aehr Test Systems will host a conference call and webcast today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern (2:00 p.m. PT) to discuss its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter and full year operating results. To access the live call, dial +1 844-735- 3765 (US and Canada) or +1 412-317-5712 (International) and ask to join the Aehr Test Systems earnings call.
In addition, a live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available over the Internet at www.aehr.com in the Investor Relations section and may also be accessed by clicking here. A replay of the conference call will also be available via telephone beginning approximately two hours after conclusion of the call and will remain available for one week. To access the call replay, dial +1 877-344-7529 (US and Canada) or +1 412-317-0088 (International) and enter replay passcode 7898611.
Original – Aehr Test Systems
