Aehr Press Release - New order from very large customer

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
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Aehr Receives Order from New Customer for FOX-NP™ Multi-Wafer Test and Burn-in System for Silicon Carbide MOSFETs

Sep. 18, 2023 7:30 AM ETAehr Test Systems (AEHR)

Aehr Test Systems (AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and burn-in equipment, today 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…

(Press release continues)

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“US based, multi-billion dollar company…”

That narrows it down to three companies (I’m pretty sure): INTC, AMD or TI.

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INTC or AMD unlike to get into SiC

And there are probably half dozen others in multi-$B category in the US

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The above is the thing I found most encouraging within this overall good-news announcement. What have we been hearing for several quarters now on almost every earnings call from most, if not all, of our companies? “Elongated sales cycles.” Interest not waning, but deals taking longer to close, companies taking longer to consider the options and wait for their own balance sheets to be ready for a purchase/upgrade.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but the words “accelerated schedule” with a shipment of a really-pricey system by year’s end could be a leading indicator that, at least in some sectors, the “elongated sales cycle” issue may be returning to normal or even speeding up to meet the pent-up demand. So this may be good news beyond just AEHR.

A reminder that AEHR reports early. My Schwab account says it will report October 5. Yahoo has it between 10/4 - 10/9. So the very bullish shareholder letter Saul posted earlier along with this release were given with solid visibility into the report they’ll issue in just a few weeks. I’m optimistic.

JabbokRiver

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You’re absolutely correct. I didn’t realize that there were that many $1B+ semi makers based in the US. But google tells me that there are several. And some of them are privately held. My bad. I should have researched prior to posting. Generally, I do research prior to posting, but this time I thought I knew something which I obviously did not. Oh, BTW, TI is an abbreviation, the ticker for Texas Instruments is TXN.

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