Aehr Test Systems (AEHR) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome to the Aehr Test Systems Third Quarter Fiscal 2022 Financial Results Call.

美好的一天，歡迎來到 Aehr Test Systems 第三季度 2022 財年財務業績電話會議。

Today's conference is being recorded.

今天的會議正在錄製中。

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jim Byers of MKR investor relations. Please go ahead, sir.

此時，我想將會議轉交給 MKR 投資者關係部的 Jim Byers。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon and welcome to Aehr Test Systems' Third Quarter Fiscal 2022 Financial Results Conference Call.

謝謝你，運營商。下午好，歡迎來到 Aehr Test Systems 的 2022 財年第三季度財務業績電話會議。

With me on today's call are Aehr Test Systems' President and Chief Executive Officer, Gayn Erickson; and Chief Financial Officer, Ken Spink.

Aehr Test Systems 總裁兼首席執行官 Gayn Erickson 和我一起參加今天的電話會議；和首席財務官 Ken Spink。

Before I turn the call over to Ken and Gayn, I'd like to cover a few quick items. This afternoon, right after market close, Aehr Test issued a press release announcing its third quarter fiscal 2022 results. That release is available on the company's website at aehr.com. This call is being broadcast live over the Internet for all interested parties, and the webcast will be archived on the Investor Relations page of the company's website.

在我將電話轉給 Ken 和 Gayn 之前，我想簡要介紹一些內容。今天下午，收盤後，Aehr Test 發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了其 2022 財年第三季度的業績。該新聞稿可在公司網站 aehr.com 上獲取。此電話會議通過互聯網向所有感興趣的各方進行現場直播，網絡直播將在公司網站的投資者關係頁面上存檔。

I'd like to remind everyone that, on today's call, management will be making forward-looking statements today that are based on current information and estimates and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors that may cause results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are discussed in the company's most recent periodic and current reports filed with the SEC. These forward-looking statements, including guidance provided during today's call, are only valid as of this date; and Aehr Test Systems undertakes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements.

我想提醒大家，在今天的電話會議上，管理層今天將根據當前信息和估計做出前瞻性陳述，並受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與這些結果大不相同在前瞻性陳述中。那些可能導致結果與前瞻性陳述中的結果存在重大差異的因素在公司最近提交給美國證券交易委員會的定期和當前報告中進行了討論。這些前瞻性陳述，包括在今天的電話會議中提供的指導，僅在該日期有效； Aehr Test Systems 不承擔更新前瞻性陳述的義務。

Now with that said, I'd like to turn the call over to Gayn Erickson, President and CEO.

話雖如此，我想把電話轉給總裁兼首席執行官 Gayn Erickson。

Thanks, Jim. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us for our third quarter fiscal '22 earnings conference call.

謝謝，吉姆。大家下午好，感謝您參加我們第三季度的 22 財年財報電話會議。

Let's start with a quick summary of the highlights of the quarter and momentum we're experiencing in the semiconductor wafer level test and burn-in market. And then Ken will go over the financials in detail. Then we'll open up the lines to take your questions.

讓我們首先快速總結一下本季度的亮點以及我們在半導體晶圓級測試和老化市場中所經歷的勢頭。然後 Ken 將詳細介紹財務狀況。然後我們將開通線路來回答您的問題。

For the third quarter, revenue was $15.3 million, our highest quarterly revenue on record. This is a sequential increase of 59% over the second quarter and up 190% year-over-year. We also generated non-GAAP net income of $4.1 million and ended the quarter with a strong $26.9 million in backlog. And our effective backlog, which includes all orders announced since the end of the quarter, is over $30 million.

第三季度的收入為 1530 萬美元，是我們有記錄以來最高的季度收入。這比第二季度環比增長 59%，同比增長 190%。我們還產生了 410 萬美元的非 GAAP 淨收入，並在本季度結束時積壓了 2690 萬美元的強勁訂單。我們的有效積壓訂單（包括本季度末以來宣布的所有訂單）超過 3000 萬美元。

We continue to see very strong interest in demand for wafer level test and burn-in of silicon carbide devices; and enormous growth potential for Aehr's unique solutions to test and burn-in devices to support the worldwide electrification movement in electric vehicles, power conversion and power generation and storage infrastructure. During the quarter, 4 additional companies provided detailed wafer layouts to Aehr for their silicon carbide wafers as part of their evaluation of using Aehr's FOX-XP systems and WaferPak contactors for wafer level burn-in of their devices to meet the electric vehicle market and electrification infrastructure markets. We have provided those customers with the data confirming that we believe we can test their wafers and provide the proposals and lead times to meet their needs. This includes another major supplier of silicon carbide devices who has now committed to an on-wafer benchmark and asked us to put a system on their test floor to demonstrate our capabilities. This is now the second of the top 4 silicon carbide customers, and that's beyond our current lead silicon carbide considered to be 1 of the top 4, to engage with us in what we call on-wafer benchmarking of their actual wafers.

我們繼續看到對晶圓級測試和碳化矽器件老化的需求非常濃厚的興趣；以及 Aehr 獨特的測試和老化設備解決方案的巨大增長潛力，以支持電動汽車、電力轉換以及發電和存儲基礎設施的全球電氣化運動。在本季度，另外 4 家公司向 Aehr 提供了其碳化矽晶圓的詳細晶圓佈局，作為他們評估使用 Aehr 的 FOX-XP 系統和 WaferPak 接觸器對其設備進行晶圓級老化以滿足電動汽車市場和電氣化需求的一部分基礎設施市場。我們已經向這些客戶提供了數據，確認我們相信我們可以測試他們的晶圓並提供建議和交貨時間來滿足他們的需求。這包括另一家主要的碳化矽設備供應商，他們現在已承諾進行晶圓基準測試，並要求我們將系統放在他們的測試台上以展示我們的能力。現在，這是前 4 大碳化矽客戶中的第二個，這超出了我們目前被認為是前 4 大客戶之一的鉛碳化矽，與我們進行我們所謂的實際晶圓的晶圓基準測試。

We have now made several proposals to customers to place orders to lock in lead times of our FOX systems and WaferPaks. And then Aehr will provide on-wafer evaluations and validations for them within the lead time of those systems. In just the last few weeks, we met with multiple companies in both the U.S. and Europe face to face and are very encouraged by the positive feedback we received about their forecasts for wafer level burn-in needs and our expectations for winning this capacity with those prospective customers. This included very productive meetings with a major supplier of silicon carbide that is already currently doing on-wafer benchmarking and burn-in optimization investigations with our FOX system and WaferPaks today. It's apparent that wafer level burn-in will become the standard for silicon carbide devices. And based upon customer feedback, we continue to believe that Aehr is unique in our ability to meet the cost and volume production needs of this market.

我們現在已向客戶提出多項建議，要求他們下訂單以鎖定我們的 FOX 系統和 WaferPak 的交貨時間。然後 Aehr 將在這些系統的交付週期內為他們提供晶圓上評估和驗證。在過去的幾周里，我們與美國和歐洲的多家公司進行了面對面的會面，我們收到的關於他們對晶圓級老化需求的預測以及我們希望通過這些公司贏得這種能力的積極反饋讓我們感到非常鼓舞潛在客戶。這包括與一家主要碳化矽供應商的非常富有成效的會議，該供應商目前已經在使用我們的 FOX 系統和 WaferPaks 進行晶圓基準測試和老化優化研究。很明顯，晶圓級老化將成為碳化矽器件的標準。根據客戶的反饋，我們仍然相信 Aehr 在滿足該市場的成本和批量生產需求方面是獨一無二的。

Last quarter, we said that we believe we'll add several new customers that will be ramping into production by the end of our fiscal '23, which ends May 31, 2023. I'm often asked by investors about whether I'm more or less confident about our forecast than last time. I can go ahead and answer that question before someone answers -- or asks, sorry. The answer is yes. I'm feeling more confident, actually even much more confident, that we will add new customers that will be ramping into production by next May. We continue to work closely with our lead silicon carbide test and burn-in customer. And earlier this month, we announced follow-on orders from them for additional WaferPak contactors that reflect multiple new silicon carbide device designs they're building to be qualified by their customers, along with several silicon carbide devices now qualified and ramping into volume production to meet demand for electric vehicles. This customer continues to forecast the need for additional capacity to meet their goal of achieving a major market share of the silicon carbide market. We continue to expect significant additional system and WaferPak purchases from them over the next several years and through the end of the decade.

上個季度，我們說我們相信我們將增加幾個新客戶，這些客戶將在 23 財年末（即 2023 年 5 月 31 日結束）前投產。投資者經常問我是否更或者比上次對我們的預測更有信心。對不起，我可以在有人回答或提問之前繼續回答這個問題。答案是肯定的。我感覺更有信心，實際上更有信心，我們將增加新客戶，這些客戶將在明年 5 月投入生產。我們繼續與領先的碳化矽測試和老化客戶密切合作。本月早些時候，我們宣布了來自他們的額外 WaferPak 接觸器的後續訂單，這些訂單反映了他們正在構建的多種新碳化矽器件設計，以通過其客戶的認證，以及一些現已通過認證並開始批量生產的碳化矽器件滿足電動汽車的需求。該客戶繼續預測需要額外的產能來實現他們在碳化矽市場取得主要市場份額的目標。我們繼續期望在未來幾年和本十年末從他們那裡購買大量額外的系統和 WaferPak。

The silicon carbide semiconductor test and burn-in market is being driven substantially by anticipated growth in electric vehicles. And the combination of the industry moving to multi-die modules and the cost implication of burning-in [at a] packaged part versus at wafer or die level is a significant opportunity for Aehr. And this is where we have a clearly differentiated solution for full wafer level test and burn-in of these devices. Our FOX-XP wafer level burn-in system can test up to 18 wafers at a time, with 100% of the devices being tested and burned in, in parallel at the same time. It provides an unprecedented unit-per-hour capacity for wafer level test and burn-in.

電動汽車的預期增長極大地推動了碳化矽半導體測試和老化市場。行業轉向多芯片模塊，以及封裝部件與晶圓或芯片級老化的成本影響對 Aehr 來說是一個重要的機會。這就是我們為這些設備的全晶圓級測試和老化提供明顯差異化解決方案的地方。我們的FOX-XP晶圓級老化測試系統一次最多可測試18個晶圓，100%的器件同時並行測試和老化。它為晶圓級測試和老化提供了前所未有的單位/小時容量。

Wafer level test and burn-in is becoming the preferred way to do the required stress and reliability testing referred to as "burn-in" to remove the extrinsic or early-life failures needed to meet the market requirements for reliability. The reality is this burn-in is really a stress test to weed out weak devices that would otherwise fail later on, such as after it's installed in an electric vehicle. This can result in a walk-home event, where the EV will simply not operate and the driver and anyone else in the vehicle will need to walk home. The need to remove these failures before they're packaged into multi-die modules is critical to reducing the manufacturing cost impact from yield loss. Having devices fail during burn-in at module level if they're not burned in at wafer level before being put into the modules is extremely costly and reduces customer overall output capacity. Even a small 1% yield loss can have an 8% yield loss impact on an 8-die module. We have seen modules being designed right now with as many as 32 silicon carbide die in them. And it's very clear to those customers that screening out the failures of the die before they're put into the module is the only way to go.

晶圓級測試和老化正在成為進行所需壓力和可靠性測試（稱為“老化”）以消除滿足市場可靠性要求所需的外部或早期故障的首選方法。事實上，這種老化實際上是一種壓力測試，目的是淘汰那些以後可能會發生故障的薄弱設備，例如在將其安裝在電動汽車中之後。這可能會導致步行回家事件，即 EV 根本無法運行，駕駛員和車內的任何其他人都需要步行回家。在將這些故障封裝到多管芯模塊之前消除這些故障對於降低良率損失對製造成本的影響至關重要。如果在將器件放入模塊之前未在晶圓級進行老化，那麼在模塊級老化過程中出現設備故障的成本極高，並且會降低客戶的整體輸出能力。即使是 1% 的小良率損失也會對 8 芯片模塊產生 8% 的良率損失影響。我們已經看到現在正在設計的模塊中有多達 32 個碳化矽芯片。那些客戶非常清楚，在將芯片放入模塊之前篩選出故障是唯一的方法。

We're also seeing a major trend to do a test process that we call stabilization of key parametric specifications such as the threshold voltage, which is the voltage at which an individual device turns on; or the on resistance, which is the forward and reverse resistance of the device when turned on and is a key parameter related to power loss or inverter efficiency. Companies are now driving to only put [matched Vth or RDS(on)] parts in the same modules as a way to increase efficiency and reliability of the modules. This is another key driver for the shift to why customers are driving toward wafer level burn-in. It's also important to understand that this stabilization is not something that is believed to be able to be done with short burn-in times and actually increases the opportunity for wafer level burn-in market. With the most cost-effective solution in the market to address this significant opportunity, we believe that Aehr can achieve a significant, perhaps dominant, share of the silicon carbide wafer level burn-in market.

我們還看到一個主要趨勢是進行測試過程，我們稱之為關鍵參數規範的穩定性，例如閾值電壓，這是單個設備開啟的電壓；或導通電阻，即器件導通時的正向和反向電阻，是關係到功率損耗或逆變器效率的關鍵參數。公司現在正致力於僅將 [匹配的 Vth 或 RDS(on)] 部件放入相同的模塊中，以提高模塊的效率和可靠性。這是客戶轉向晶圓級老化的另一個關鍵驅動因素。同樣重要的是要了解這種穩定性並不是人們認為可以通過較短的老化時間來實現的，它實際上增加了晶圓級老化市場的機會。憑藉市場上最具成本效益的解決方案來應對這一重要機遇，我們相信 Aehr 可以在碳化矽晶圓級老化市場中佔據重要份額，甚至佔據主導地位。

Forecast from Canaccord Genuity estimates that the silicon carbide market for devices and electric vehicles, such as traction inverters and on-board chargers as well as the off-board charging stations used for electric vehicle charging, is expected to grow from fewer than 150,000 6-inch equivalent wafers of capacity built in 2021 to more than 4 million wafers built in 2030 to meet the more than 30 million electric vehicles anticipated to be built per year by then. This projected demand for just electric vehicle-related silicon carbide wafers represents at least a $1 billion market opportunity for our wafer level test and burn-in systems and consumables over the next 8 years. Canaccord also forecasts an additional capacity need of more than 4 million more silicon carbide wafers made in 2030 to meet the demand in 2030 for other electrification infrastructure, industrial and photovoltaic power devices. In our recent customer visits, we're now seeing demand surface for the wafer level burn-in in silicon carbide devices beyond electric vehicles; and we believe it's likely to become a significant market opportunity for Aehr Test as well.

Canaccord Genuity 的預測估計，牽引逆變器和車載充電器以及用於電動汽車充電的非車載充電站等設備和電動汽車的碳化矽市場預計將從不到 150,000 個增長到 6- 2021 年建成的英寸等效晶圓產能到 2030 年建成超過 400 萬片晶圓，以滿足屆時預計每年建造的超過 3000 萬輛電動汽車。這一僅與電動汽車相關的碳化矽晶圓的預計需求代表了我們未來 8 年的晶圓級測試和老化系統及耗材至少有 10 億美元的市場機會。 Canaccord 還預測，到 2030 年，碳化矽晶圓的產能需求將增加超過 400 萬片，以滿足 2030 年其他電氣化基礎設施、工業和光伏發電設備的需求。在我們最近的客戶訪問中，我們現在看到了電動汽車以外的碳化矽器件晶圓級老化的需求面；我們相信這也可能成為 Aehr Test 的重要市場機會。

Moving to some other markets. We're also seeing a recovery and strengthening in the silicon photonics test and burn-in market reflecting the post-COVID recovery that's driving devices to meet 5G and data center infrastructure build-out. Several customers addressing the silicon photonics market have forecast additional FOX system and WaferPak or DiePak contactor capacity needs from us over the next 12 months. In addition to the silicon carbide and silicon photonics markets that are strong drivers for our business, during the quarter, we received an initial order from a current FOX-XP customer for our proprietary DiePak Carriers for a new optical sensor device, representing -- I, we're getting some feedback here. All right, thanks. Sorry about that, folks.

轉移到其他一些市場。我們還看到矽光子學測試和老化市場的複蘇和加強，反映出 COVID 後的複蘇正在推動設備滿足 5G 和數據中心基礎設施的建設。一些專注於矽光子市場的客戶預測，在未來 12 個月內，我們需要額外的 FOX 系統和 WaferPak 或 DiePak 接觸器產能。除了碳化矽和矽光子市場是我們業務的強勁推動力外，在本季度，我們還收到了當前 FOX-XP 客戶的初始訂單，要求我們為新的光學傳感器設備使用我們專有的 DiePak 載體，代表——我，我們在這裡得到了一些反饋。好的，謝謝。對不起，伙計們。

So we've received an initial order from a current XP customer for our proprietary DiePak Carriers for a new optical sensor device. It represents a new application for our FOX-XP system. This customer is a supplier of sensors to a major mobile device, personal computer and consumer electronics manufacturer. This is the first order of DiePaks for this device, which is expected to move to production and will require additional DiePak Carriers and may also require additional FOX-XP system production capacity.

因此，我們收到了當前 XP 客戶的初始訂單，要求我們為新的光學傳感器設備使用專有的 DiePak 載體。它代表了我們 FOX-XP 系統的新應用。該客戶是一家大型移動設備、個人電腦和消費電子產品製造商的傳感器供應商。這是該設備的第一個 DiePak 訂單，預計將投入生產，並將需要額外的 DiePak 載體，並且可能還需要額外的 FOX-XP 系統生產能力。

Now turning to our historical packaged parts business. As we emerge from this 2-year pandemic, it has become clear that the forecast we saw from packaged part customers heading into the pandemic are not holding up on the other side. We now believe that material we had purchased against the customer forecast at the time is likely not to be needed anytime soon. As a result, we're taking a $1 million onetime charge in fiscal Q3 for excess and obsolete material related to these products, primarily ABTS configurations and packaged part burn-in products.

現在轉向我們的歷史包裝零件業務。隨著我們從這場持續 2 年的大流行中走出來，很明顯，我們從包裝零件客戶那裡看到的進入大流行的預測並沒有站得住腳。我們現在認為，我們當時根據客戶預測購買的材料可能很快就不需要了。因此，我們將在第三財季一次性收取 100 萬美元的費用，用於與這些產品相關的過剩和過時材料，主要是 ABTS 配置和封裝部件老化產品。

In addition, discussions with customers, such as silicon carbide, silicon photonics and memory, about products to address their packaged part needs are met with a ho-hum attitude that quickly turns to request for more information about our FOX wafer level burn-in systems. With the increased interest and demand we're seeing for wafer level burn-in, we are turning our focus to full attention and doubling down on our efforts in the near term to fully capitalize on the substantial opportunity for our FOX full wafer test and burn-in systems and consumables. This includes several new R&D enhancements to our FOX-P family of products that include FOX test system hardware and software features to expand the [application space] of our systems; enhancements to our WaferPaks to address higher-power and higher-voltage applications; and upgrades to our road map for WaferPak aligners that we provide with our solutions, including the ability to meet the high-volume capacity and full automation requirements we see with several customers we're engaged with today. We plan to be publicly announcing these new enhancements over the next couple of quarters.

此外，與碳化矽、矽光子學和內存等客戶就滿足其封裝部件需求的產品進行討論時，態度冷淡，很快轉而要求提供有關我們的 FOX 晶圓級老化系統的更多信息.隨著我們對晶圓級老化的興趣和需求的增加，我們正在將注意力轉向全面關注並在近期加倍努力，以充分利用我們的 FOX 全晶圓測試和燃燒的重要機會-in 系統和消耗品。這包括對我們的 FOX-P 系列產品進行多項新的研發改進，其中包括 FOX 測試系統硬件和軟件功能，以擴展我們系統的[應用空間]；增強我們的 WaferPaks 以滿足更高功率和更高電壓的應用；併升級我們隨解決方案提供的 WaferPak 對準器的路線圖，包括滿足我們今天接觸的幾個客戶的大容量和全自動化要求的能力。我們計劃在接下來的幾個季度內公開宣布這些新的增強功能。

So I've had lots of questions about how our supply chain is holding up. As I've noted in past calls, Aehr has the manufacturing infrastructure and supply chain in place to ramp to significantly higher revenue levels. For example, this year, we'll ship 3x what we did last year; and we're just getting started. We have been ordering long-lead components for systems and WaferPaks, particularly for the enormous opportunity we see for silicon carbide that is gaining momentum. There are many integrated circuits used in our system that currently have greater than 12-month lead times.

所以我有很多關於我們的供應鏈如何支撐的問題。正如我在過去的電話中指出的那樣，Aehr 擁有製造基礎設施和供應鏈，可以顯著提高收入水平。例如，今年我們的出貨量將是去年的 3 倍；我們才剛剛開始。我們一直在為系統和 WaferPaks 訂購長引線組件，特別是因為我們看到碳化矽的巨大機遇正在獲得動力。我們的系統中使用了許多集成電路，目前的交貨時間超過 12 個月。

Our aggressive purchasing of IC components that began last -- February of last year, of 2021, is really paying off. With a few bumps in the road, our supply chain is holding up very well to the increase in demand and growth. And we've been able to maintain reasonable lead times to meet customer requests. Aehr has a very robust supply chain with world-class subcontract manufacturers and subsystems [or] test systems, contactors, WaferPak aligners and DiePak handlers. These are very mature subcontractors that have successfully supplied these systems to Aehr for years. In all cases, the suppliers have capacity well in excess of Aehr's historical shipments and the ability to ramp significantly higher as well. We're very confident in our ability to meet the customer forecasted demand plus considerable upside.

我們從去年 2 月開始的積極採購 IC 組件，即 2021 年，確實得到了回報。儘管道路上有一些顛簸，但我們的供應鏈很好地滿足了需求和增長的增長。而且我們已經能夠保持合理的交貨時間來滿足客戶的要求。 Aehr 擁有非常強大的供應鏈，擁有世界一流的分包製造商和子系統 [或] 測試系統、接觸器、WaferPak 對準器和 DiePak 處理器。這些都是非常成熟的分包商，多年來已成功向 Aehr 供應這些系統。在所有情況下，供應商的產能都遠遠超過 Aehr 的歷史出貨量，並且有能力大幅提高。我們對滿足客戶預測需求的能力以及相當大的優勢充滿信心。

Lastly, I'm excited to announce today the appointment of a gentleman named Adil Engineer as Chief Operating Officer at Aehr Test. Adil has built a career in operations and supply chain and has been in the semiconductor and medical equipment field for over 20 years. He started his career with semiconductor equipment company KLA-Tencor, where he spent 11 years; and also worked at Coherent and Kateeva, in positions of increasing responsibility in manufacturing and engineering, new product introduction and supply chain. Most recently, he was the Head of Operations at Tecan, a Swiss company manufacturing medical test and diagnostic tools, devices and solutions, where he oversaw operations for Tecan's primary site in the U.S. for manufacturing located in San Jose. Adil has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from TKIET and a graduate certificate in management science and engineering from Stanford. In his role as COO, Adil will focus on continuing to ramp our supply chain, manufacturing as well as increases in infrastructure to meet anticipated demand. We're certainly pleased with our record revenue in Q3 and forecast to finish the fiscal year with our highest annual revenue on record. And Adil will be working to continue to ramp our ability to meet the needs of the silicon carbide, silicon photonics, 2D and 3D sensors and other markets to support further growth momentum. We welcome him to Aehr Test and look forward to his contribution.

最後，我很高興今天宣布任命一位名叫 Adil Engineer 的先生為 Aehr Test 的首席運營官。 Adil 在運營和供應鏈方面建立了自己的職業生涯，並在半導體和醫療設備領域工作了 20 多年。他的職業生涯始於半導體設備公司 KLA-Tencor，在那裡他工作了 11 年；還曾在 Coherent 和 Kateeva 工作，在製造和工程、新產品引進和供應鏈方面擔任越來越重要的職責。最近，他在一家製造醫療測試和診斷工具、設備和解決方案的瑞士公司 Tecan 擔任運營主管，負責監督 Tecan 在美國主要生產基地聖何塞的運營。 Adil 擁有 TKIET 的化學工程學士學位和斯坦福大學的管理科學與工程研究生證書。作為首席運營官，Adil 將專注於繼續提升我們的供應鏈、製造以及增加基礎設施以滿足預期需求。我們當然對第三季度創紀錄的收入感到滿意，並預測本財年將以創紀錄的最高年收入結束。 Adil 將致力於繼續提升我們的能力，以滿足碳化矽、矽光子學、2D 和 3D 傳感器以及其他市場的需求，以支持進一步的增長勢頭。我們歡迎他加入 Aehr Test，並期待他的貢獻。

In closing. We're very excited about the unprecedented inbound interest and expanding growth opportunities we're seeing with a significant number of new potential customers that are evaluating the unique capabilities and cost effectiveness of our FOX-P multi-wafer test and burn-in systems for their test and burn-in needs. We remain very focused on serving the several large market opportunities we see ahead and are confident in our growth forecasts and ability to meet them.

在關閉。我們很高興看到大量新的潛在客戶對我們的 FOX-P 多晶圓測試和老化系統的獨特功能和成本效益進行評估，從而獲得前所未有的入境興趣和不斷擴大的增長機會他們的測試和老化需求。我們仍然非常專注於服務我們看到的幾個巨大的市場機會，並對我們的增長預測和滿足這些機會的能力充滿信心。

For the fiscal year, this one we're in right now, ending May 31, 2022, Aehr is reiterating its previously provided guidance for full year total revenue of at least $50 million and to be profitable consistent with our operating model. Given our revenue in fiscal Q3 of $15.3 million reported just today, totaling over $30.5 million for the first 3 quarters, that equates to a fiscal Q4 revenue at least $19.5 million, which would equate to another solid and record-revenue quarter for Aehr Test.

對於我們現在所處的財政年度，截至 2022 年 5 月 31 日，Aehr 重申其先前提供的全年總收入至少 5000 萬美元的指導意見，並根據我們的運營模式實現盈利。鑑於我們今天公佈的第三財季收入為 1530 萬美元，前三個季度總計超過 3050 萬美元，這相當於第四財季收入至少為 1950 萬美元，這相當於 Aehr Test 又一個穩定且創紀錄的收入季度。

With that, let me turn it over to Ken to review our financial results and guidance in more detail. And we'll open up the lines for questions.

有了這個，讓我把它交給 Ken 來更詳細地審查我們的財務結果和指導。我們將開通提問熱線。

(inaudible) Gayn. And good afternoon, everyone.

（聽不清）蓋恩。大家下午好。

As Gayn noted, we had a strong financial performance in Q3 which included our highest quarterly revenue on record, solid non-GAAP net income and a healthy backlog of $26.9 million at quarter end.

正如 Gayn 所指出的，我們在第三季度的財務表現強勁，其中包括我們創紀錄的最高季度收入、穩健的非 GAAP 淨收入以及季度末 2690 萬美元的健康積壓訂單。

Looking at our financial results. Net sales in the third quarter were a record $15.3 million, which is up 59% sequentially from $9.6 million in the preceding second quarter and up 190% from $5.3 million in the third quarter of the previous year. The sequential increase in net sales from the preceding second quarter includes an increase in system revenues of $3.4 million; and WaferPak, DiePak revenues of $2.3 million. Customer service revenues were down $82,000. The increase from Q3 last year includes an increase in WaferPak, DiePak revenues of $5.5 million; and an increase in system revenues of $4.7 million. Customer service revenues were down $217,000.

看看我們的財務業績。第三季度淨銷售額達到創紀錄的 1530 萬美元，比上一季度的 960 萬美元環比增長 59%，比去年第三季度的 530 萬美元增長 190%。與前一第二季度相比，淨銷售額環比增長包括系統收入增長 340 萬美元；和 WaferPak，DiePak 的收入為 230 萬美元。客戶服務收入下降了 82,000 美元。與去年第三季度相比的增長包括 WaferPak、DiePak 收入增加 550 萬美元；系統收入增加 470 萬美元。客戶服務收入下降了 217,000 美元。

WaferPak and DiePak revenue comprised nearly half, $7.4 million or 49%, of our total revenue in the third quarter. Third quarter shipments were more than double the total number of WaferPaks and DiePaks shipped in all of last fiscal year. This is our second consecutive quarter of record WaferPak and DiePak shipments and reflects the growth in the consumables piece of our business as well as our ability to scale and meet customer demand.

WaferPak 和 DiePak 收入占我們第三季度總收入的近一半，即 740 萬美元或 49%。第三季度出貨量是上一財年 WaferPaks 和 DiePaks 總出貨量的兩倍多。這是我們連續第二個季度創紀錄的 WaferPak 和 DiePak 出貨量，反映了我們業務消耗品的增長以及我們擴展和滿足客戶需求的能力。

Non-GAAP net income for the third quarter was $4.1 million or $0.14 per diluted share, which excludes the impact of $880,000 in stock-based compensation and $1 million onetime charge for excess and obsolete inventory. This compares to non-GAAP net income of $1.5 million or $0.05 per diluted share, which excludes the impact of $718,000 in stock-based compensation, in the preceding second quarter; and a non-GAAP net loss of $360,000 or $0.02 per diluted share, which excludes the impact of $271,000 in stock-based compensation, in the third quarter of fiscal 2021.

第三季度非 GAAP 淨收入為 410 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.14 美元，其中不包括 880,000 美元的股票薪酬和 100 萬美元的過剩和過時庫存一次性費用的影響。相比之下，上一個第二季度的非 GAAP 淨收入為 150 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.05 美元，其中不包括 718,000 美元股票薪酬的影響； 2021 財年第三季度非 GAAP 淨虧損為 360,000 美元或每股攤薄收益 0.02 美元，其中不包括 271,000 美元的股票薪酬的影響。

The increase in stock-based compensation compared to prior year is primarily due to stock awards of $278,000 accrued in Q3 '22 related to exceeding stretch goals for fiscal 2022 key business objectives and revenue targets and an increase of $346,000 in expense related to the employee stock purchase plan due to increased employee contributions and new enrollments. While these noncash expenses exceeded our plan, it is good to have such problems where stretch goals are being exceeded. And we recognize and appreciate the hard work of our employees to help achieve these goals. Excess and obsolete inventory reserves of $1 million were taken in Q3 '22, primarily related to packaged part burn-in product inventory as well as some legacy FOX inventory. We believe that this is a onetime adjustment. And we're very happy with our inventory levels to support the significant opportunity we see in wafer level tests with our FOX family of products and consumables.

與上一年相比，基於股票的薪酬增加主要是由於 22 年第三季度累計的 278,000 美元股票獎勵與超過 2022 財年關鍵業務目標和收入目標的延伸目標相關，以及與員工股票相關的費用增加 346,000 美元由於員工繳款增加和新入學人數增加而導致的採購計劃。雖然這些非現金支出超出了我們的計劃，但在超出延伸目標的情況下出現此類問題是件好事。我們認可並感謝我們的員工為實現這些目標所做的辛勤工作。 22 年第 3 季度提取了 100 萬美元的過剩和過時庫存儲備，主要與包裝部件老化產品庫存以及一些遺留 FOX 庫存有關。我們認為這是一次性的調整。我們對我們的庫存水平感到非常滿意，以支持我們在 FOX 系列產品和耗材的晶圓級測試中看到的重大機會。

On a GAAP basis, net income for the third quarter was $2.2 million or $0.08 per diluted share and compares to GAAP net income of $717,000 or $0.03 per diluted share in the preceding second quarter and a GAAP net loss of $735,000 or $0.03 per diluted share in the third quarter of the previous year.

根據 GAAP，第三季度淨收入為 220 萬美元或稀釋後每股收益 0.08 美元，而上一季度的 GAAP 淨收入為 717,000 美元或稀釋後每股收益 0.03 美元，第二季度的 GAAP 淨虧損為 735,000 美元或稀釋後每股收益 0.03 美元去年第三季度。

Gross profit in the third quarter was $6.4 million or 42% of sales. The $1 million charge for excess and obsolete inventory taken in Q3 had a 7 percentage point impact on our gross margin. Excluding the impact of this onetime charge, gross margin for the third quarter was 49%, up compared to gross profit of $4.5 million or 47% of sales in the preceding second quarter and up from gross profit of $1.9 million or 36% of sales in the third quarter with the previous year. Excluding the impact of the onetime charge, the increase in gross margin from both the preceding second quarter and Q3 of last year is primarily due to a decrease in unabsorbed overhead costs to cost of goods sold.

第三季度的毛利潤為 640 萬美元，佔銷售額的 42%。第三季度為過剩和過時庫存收取的 100 萬美元費用對我們的毛利率產生了 7 個百分點的影響。剔除這一一次性費用的影響，第三季度的毛利率為 49%，高於上一季度毛利潤 450 萬美元或占銷售額的 47%，高於第二季度毛利潤 190 萬美元或占銷售額的 36%。第三季度與上年持平。排除一次性費用的影響，毛利率較前一第二季度和去年第三季度有所增加，這主要是由於未吸收的間接費用佔銷售商品成本的減少。

For the third quarter, labor and overhead as a percentage of sales improved by 1.4 percentage points from the preceding second quarter and 12.4 percentage points from Q3 last year due to the efficiencies gained with the increase in revenue and our relatively fixed manufacturing overhead. While third quarter gross margin percentage compares favorably to the preceding second quarter and Q3 last year, the company continues to recognize costs impacting cost of sales related to the semiconductor shortage and challenging purchasing environment. In addition to increased direct material costs as a percentage of sales, freight and tariff increases from our business model related to supply chain issues. We are finally starting to see some of these shipping costs come back down, so we think that these will ultimately settle down to previous levels.

第三季度，勞動力和管理費用佔銷售額的百分比比上一季度提高了 1.4 個百分點，比去年第三季度提高了 12.4 個百分點，這是由於收入增加和我們相對固定的製造費用提高了效率。雖然第三季度的毛利率比第二季度和去年第三季度要好，但公司繼續認識到與半導體短缺和具有挑戰性的採購環境相關的影響銷售成本的成本。除了增加直接材料成本佔銷售額的百分比外，我們與供應鏈問題相關的商業模式還增加了運費和關稅。我們終於開始看到其中一些運輸成本回落，因此我們認為這些成本最終會下降到以前的水平。

Operating expenses in the third quarter were $4.1 million, an increase of $339,000 or 9% from $3.8 million of preceding second quarter and up $1.6 million or 63% from $2.5 million in the third quarter of last year. The increase from the prior year Q3 was primarily due to the elimination of cost reduction initiatives put in place during fiscal 2021.

第三季度的運營費用為 410 萬美元，比上一季度的 380 萬美元增加 339,000 美元或 9%，比去年第三季度的 250 萬美元增加 160 萬美元或 63%。與去年第三季度相比的增長主要是由於取消了 2021 財年實施的成本削減計劃。

SG&A in the third quarter was $2.6 million, an increase of $123,000 from $2.5 million in the preceding second quarter and up $969,000 from $1.6 million in the prior year third quarter. The increase from the preceding second quarter includes an increase in employment costs of $143,000 due to higher incentive payments related to bonus objectives and stock compensation costs related to restricted stock bonuses and our employee stock purchase plan due to new participants to the plan and employee contribution increases. The increase from prior year third quarter included an increase in employment costs of $731,000. The increase in employment costs included head count increases; salary increases for employees during fiscal 2022; higher commissions and incentive payments related to bookings, revenues and key bonus objectives; and stock compensation costs related to stock bonuses and our employee stock purchase plan due to new participants to the plan and employee contribution increases.

第三季度的 SG&A 為 260 萬美元，比上一季度的 250 萬美元增加 123,000 美元，比去年第三季度的 160 萬美元增加 969,000 美元。與上一季度相比的增加包括僱傭成本增加 143,000 美元，這是由於與獎金目標相關的更高激勵付款和與限制性股票紅利相關的股票補償成本以及我們的員工股票購買計劃由於計劃的新參與者和員工貢獻增加.與去年第三季度相比的增長包括就業成本增加 731,000 美元。就業成本的增加包括員工人數的增加； 2022財年員工加薪；與預訂、收入和關鍵獎金目標相關的更高佣金和獎勵金；由於計劃的新參與者和員工貢獻增加，與股票獎金和我們的員工股票購買計劃相關的股票補償成本。

R&D in the third quarter was $1.5 million, up $216,000 compared to $1.3 million in the preceding second quarter and up $626,000 from $903,000 in the third quarter of the prior year. The increase in R&D from the preceding second quarter includes an increase in employment costs of $136,000 due to higher incentive payments related to bonus objectives and stock compensation costs related to stock bonuses and employee stock plan -- purchase plan due to new participants to the plan and employee contribution increases. In addition to the increase in employment costs, the company recognized increases in professional, consulting and project materials related to R&D program initiatives during fiscal 2022. The increase from prior year third quarter included an increase in employment costs of $463,000. The increase in employment costs included head count increases, salary increases for employees during fiscal 2022, higher incentive payments related to key bonus objectives and stock compensation costs related to stock bonuses and our employee stock purchase plan due to new participants to the plan and employee contribution increases. In addition to the increase in employment costs, the company recognized an increase in consulting costs and R&D project materials related to R&D program initiatives during fiscal 2022. We continue to invest in R&D to enhance our existing market-leading products and introduce new products to maintain our competitive advantages and expand our applications and addressable markets.

第三季度的研發費用為 150 萬美元，比上一季度的 130 萬美元增加 216,000 美元，比去年第三季度的 903,000 美元增加 626,000 美元。研發較上一季度有所增加，包括由於與獎金目標相關的更高激勵付款以及與股票紅利和員工股票計劃相關的股票補償成本增加了 136,000 美元 - 由於計劃的新參與者而導致的購買計劃以及員工貢獻增加。除了僱傭成本的增加外，公司還確認了 2022 財年與研發計劃舉措相關的專業、諮詢和項目材料的增加。與去年第三季度相比的增加包括僱傭成本增加 463,000 美元。就業成本的增加包括員工人數增加、2022 財年員工工資增加、與關鍵獎金目標相關的更高激勵付款以及與股票紅利相關的股票補償成本，以及我們的員工股票購買計劃由於新參與者加入計劃和員工貢獻增加。除了就業成本增加外，公司還認識到 2022 財年與研發計劃舉措相關的諮詢成本和研發項目材料的增加。我們繼續投資研發以增強我們現有的市場領先產品並推出新產品以維持我們的競爭優勢，並擴大我們的應用和目標市場。

Turning to the balance sheet for the third quarter. Our cash and cash equivalents were $32 million at February 28, down $3 million from $35 million at the end of the preceding quarter and up $27.4 million from $4.6 million at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. The increase from Q4 '21 included the impact of $24 million in net proceeds from our successful ATM offering in the second quarter of fiscal 2022.

轉向第三季度的資產負債表。截至 2 月 28 日，我們的現金和現金等價物為 3200 萬美元，比上一季度末的 3500 萬美元減少 300 萬美元，比 2021 財年第四季度末的 460 萬美元增加 2740 萬美元。與 21 年第四季度相比的增長包括我們在 2022 財年第二季度成功推出 ATM 產品帶來的 2400 萬美元淨收益的影響。

Accounts receivable at quarter end was $8.5 million, up from $7.4 million at the preceding quarter end due to the impact of higher revenue levels. Inventories at February 28 were $14.2 million, an increase of $1.1 million from the preceding quarter end and $5.3 million from Q4 '21 to support our strong backlog. As Gayn indicated, we have been ordering long-lead components for systems and WaferPaks to ensure adequate supply to meet customer lead times and forecasts. Property and equipment were $776,000 compared to $661,000 at the preceding quarter end.

由於較高收入水平的影響，本季度末的應收賬款為 850 萬美元，高於上一季度末的 740 萬美元。 2 月 28 日的庫存為 1420 萬美元，比上一季度末增加 110 萬美元，比 21 年第四季度增加 530 萬美元，以支持我們強勁的積壓訂單。正如 Gayn 所指出的，我們一直在為系統和 WaferPaks 訂購長周期組件，以確保充足的供應以滿足客戶的交貨時間和預測。財產和設備為 776,000 美元，上一季度末為 661,000 美元。

Customer deposits and deferred revenue short term and long term were $6.3 million, a decrease of $4 million from the preceding quarter and an increase of $6 million from Q4 '21 related to changes in our backlog from prior quarter. The company has no debt. This compares to May 31, 2021, fiscal year-end, where we had $1.4 million outstanding on our line of credit and $1.7 million outstanding on our Paycheck Protection Program or PPP loan.

短期和長期客戶存款和遞延收入為 630 萬美元，比上一季度減少 400 萬美元，比 21 年第四季度增加 600 萬美元，這與上一季度積壓訂單的變化有關。公司沒有債務。相比之下，2021 年 5 月 31 日財政年度結束時，我們的信貸額度有 140 萬美元未償付，我們的薪資保護計劃或 PPP 貸款有 170 萬美元未償付。

Bookings in the third quarter were $6 million. Including orders announced after quarter end, our year-to-date bookings total over $59 million. Backlog as of February 28 was $26.9 million compared to $36.1 million at the end of the preceding quarter and up from $3.7 million at the end of the third quarter last year. Effective backlog, which includes backlog at February 28 and all orders announced since the end of quarter -- the third quarter, is over $30 million.

第三季度的預訂額為 600 萬美元。包括季度結束後宣布的訂單，我們年初至今的預訂總額超過 5900 萬美元。截至 2 月 28 日，積壓訂單為 2690 萬美元，而上一季度末為 3610 萬美元，高於去年第三季度末的 370 萬美元。有效積壓訂單（包括 2 月 28 日的積壓訂單和自本季度末（即第三季度）以來宣布的所有訂單）超過 3000 萬美元。

Now turning to our outlook for fiscal 2022, which ends on May 31, 2022. We are reiterating our previously provided guidance for full year total revenue of at least $50 million, which would represent revenue of 3x that of last fiscal year and be our highest annual revenue on record. We expect to be profitable for the fiscal year at these revenue levels based upon our operating model, excluding the impact of the onetime excess and obsolescence charge and the impact of increased stock compensation and bonus costs associated with exceeding stretch goals for fiscal 2022 key business objectives and revenue targets.

現在轉向我們對 2022 年 5 月 31 日結束的 2022 財年的展望。我們重申我們之前提供的全年總收入至少為 5000 萬美元的指導，這將是上一財年收入的 3 倍，並且是我們最高的年收入記錄在案。根據我們的運營模式，我們預計本財年將在這些收入水平上實現盈利，不包括一次性超額和過時費用的影響，以及與超過 2022 財年關鍵業務目標的延伸目標相關的股票薪酬和獎金成本增加的影響和收入目標。

Lastly, looking at the investor relations calendar. Aehr Test will be participating in 3 investor conferences over the next few months. We will be meeting with investors virtually at the Oppenheimer Emerging Growth Conference on May 10; and also at the Craig-Hallum institutional investor conference, virtual conference, on June 1. And we will be presenting and meeting with investors in person at the LD Micro invitational conference taking place in Los Angeles June 7 through June 9. We hope to see some of you at these conferences.

最後，查看投資者關係日曆。 Aehr Test 將在未來幾個月內參加 3 場投資者會議。我們將在 5 月 10 日的奧本海默新興增長會議上與投資者進行虛擬會面；以及 6 月 1 日的 Craig-Hallum 機構投資者會議，虛擬會議。我們將在 6 月 7 日至 6 月 9 日在洛杉磯舉行的 LD Micro 邀請會議上展示並與投資者親自會面。我們希望看到你們中的一些人參加了這些會議。

This concludes our prepared remarks. We are now ready to take your questions. Operator, please go ahead.

我們準備好的發言到此結束。我們現在準備好回答您的問題。接線員，請繼續。

(Operator Instructions) And we will go first to Christian Schwab of Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

（操作員說明）我們將首先聯繫 Craig-Hallum Capital Group 的 Christian Schwab。

Congratulations on another solid quarter. And thank you for the continued clarity not only on the projected TAM over the next few years but an update on the customers, but I -- my question comes from you said in your prepared comments, Gayn, as well as in the press release -- I'm trying to understand where your conviction comes from. Maybe it comes from the dialogue with the next 4 customers that you've talked to other than on, that it's become apparent that wafer level burn-in will become the standard for silicon carbide devices is a pretty big statement.

祝賀又一個穩定的季度。並且感謝您不僅對未來幾年預計的 TAM 以及對客戶的更新的持續清晰，而且我 - 我的問題來自你在你準備好的評論中所說的，Gayn，以及在新聞稿中 - - 我想了解你的信念從何而來。也許它來自與您與其他 4 位客戶的對話，很明顯晶圓級老化將成為碳化矽設備的標準是一個非常重要的聲明。

Yes, thanks, Christian. Yes, I actually heard a few things in that question. Just sort of where is my conviction coming from [ON] -- I mean, to be fair, I'll throw it out there. Our orders are not -- we're not setting records with orders for the quarter, so where is the strength and conviction and confidence coming from? It's a combination of several things, but it is from direct conversation with customers; seeing their forecasts, seeing their tension related to the capacity that they're going to be bringing on this year, next year and into the decade; and then talking to them even personally. So when I said we were traveling in U.S. and Europe, I -- it included me. I personally got to be in front of a large number of customers, and it was a very consistent [thread]. It was like you go from one to the other and it's very clear within the industry that the -- that silicon carbide absolutely, positively has this extrinsic failure rate, which is the infant mortality that, through burn-in, through stress test, you can remove the failures and hit the needs of the end market. It's widely understood. It's now being clear to what's called the Tier 1s or Tier 0s, Tier 0s being OEMs or the car manufacturers, who are specifically talking about burn-in requirements of silicon carbide, including conversations related to wafer level, which I've heard from customers directly is like a first ever. Like you never have those conversations. People are very clear about the requirements because they do not want to get this into a car. They don't want it to be in their car because of the failure implications of having that inverter fail with just a single silicon carbide shorting during a regular run.

是的，謝謝，克里斯蒂安。是的，我實際上在那個問題中聽到了一些事情。 [ON] 我的信念來自哪裡——我的意思是，公平地說，我會把它扔在那裡。我們的訂單不是——我們沒有創造本季度訂單的記錄，那麼力量、信念和信心從何而來？它是幾件事的結合，但它來自與客戶的直接對話；看到他們的預測，看到他們與今年、明年和未來十年將帶來的能力相關的壓力；然後甚至親自與他們交談。所以當我說我們在美國和歐洲旅行時，我 - 它包括我。我個人必須在大量客戶面前，這是一個非常一致的[線程]。就像你從一個轉到另一個，並且在行業內非常清楚 - 碳化矽絕對肯定具有這種外在故障率，這是通過老化，通過壓力測試的嬰兒死亡率，你可以消除故障並滿足終端市場的需求。它被廣泛理解。現在，所謂的 Tier 1 或 Tier 0 已經很清楚了，Tier 0 是 OEM 或汽車製造商，他們專門談論碳化矽的老化要求，包括與晶圓級相關的對話，我從客戶那裡聽到了這些直接就像第一次。就像你從來沒有過那樣的談話。人們對要求非常清楚，因為他們不想把它裝進車裡。他們不希望它出現在他們的汽車中，因為在正常運行期間，逆變器僅因單個碳化矽短路而發生故障會帶來故障影響。

So everybody is clear it's burn-in. I've heard multiple specific statements with some real data behind that burn-in is not going away. We had some investors call and say, "Hey. I've heard that in the past there are devices that burn-in starts and then they go away." And I always remind them that DRAM and microprocessors have been burnt in for 30, 40 years and that hasn't gone away. Not all devices ever get out of burn-in. Certain devices, silicon photonics-based devices, microprocessors, DRAM, NAND today for any kind of commercial applications, silicon carbide, absolutely is going to continue to burn-in. The debate is not whether it's burnt in. It's where you burn it in. Do you burn it in, yes, the package or a module? Or do you at wafer level? We've -- I was on some customer visits, some of which were brand-new customers. And it -- as if someone had gotten there before us and told them about our products. They were reiterating exactly what we've been talking about, the necessity of these gate stress tests as a way to both weed out infant mortality but to stabilize the threshold voltages and RDS(on), the amount of hours that are needed to actually burn that in and how you're going to do it cost effectively. And so that's what I'm hearing. And you get it directly from the customers. And then you see it in the news every day about the pull that's going on, just every car manufacturer, all of the things that are going on, all the infrastructure. GM is going to have 30 cars by 2025. It's like Ford is building an F-150, for heaven's sakes, that's electric vehicle-based. And then you have -- I don't want to get into the politics of what's going on and crisis in the world, but if you thought people were running away [from their dependencies on] gasoline oil and internal combustion engines before, it's even getting more extreme.

所以每個人都清楚這是老化。我聽過多個具體陳述，其中包含一些真實數據，表明老化不會消失。我們有一些投資者打電話說，“嘿。我聽說過去有一些設備會開始老化，然後它們就會消失。”我總是提醒他們，DRAM 和微處理器已經老化 30、40 年了，而且還沒有消失。並非所有設備都能擺脫老化。某些設備，基於矽光子學的設備、微處理器、DRAM、NAND 今天用於任何類型的商業應用，碳化矽，絕對會繼續老化。爭論不在於它是否被燒入。它是你燒入的地方。你燒入它，是的，包還是模塊？或者你在晶圓級？我們——我正在拜訪一些客戶，其中一些是全新的客戶。而且——就好像有人比我們先到那裡並向他們介紹了我們的產品。他們重申了我們一直在談論的內容，即這些柵極壓力測試的必要性，既可以消除嬰兒死亡率，又可以穩定閾值電壓和 RDS(on)，即實際燃燒所需的小時數那以及你將如何以成本效益的方式做到這一點。這就是我聽到的。你直接從客戶那裡得到它。然後你每天都在新聞中看到關於正在發生的拉力，每個汽車製造商，所有正在發生的事情，所有的基礎設施。到 2025 年，通用汽車將擁有 30 輛汽車。這就像福特正在製造 F-150，看在上帝的份上，它是基於電動汽車的。然後你 - 我不想談論世界上正在發生的事情和危機的政治，但如果你認為人們以前正在逃避 [從他們對] 汽油和內燃機的依賴，它甚至越來越極端。

And so it's certainly one of the most exciting times of my career. And we think we can help. We've heard customers say, "You are absolutely unique in what you do. Please just make sure you can ramp and meet our needs." So that's where my conviction is coming from. And it's coming firsthand from looking at big and small customers that are out there. And if you don't hear it in my voice, you don't know me very well. I'm very -- it's a really exciting time.

因此，這無疑是我職業生涯中最激動人心的時刻之一。我們認為我們可以提供幫助。我們聽到客戶說，“你所做的絕對是獨一無二的。請確保你能提高並滿足我們的需求。”這就是我的信念的來源。它是通過觀察那裡的大小客戶而獲得的第一手資料。如果你聽不出我的聲音，那你就不太了解我。我非常 - 這是一個非常激動人心的時刻。

Great. I appreciate that, Gayn. And then just a quick follow-up on that then. As it -- as you have these dialogues with your customers and you -- and the concern is about being able to be in a position to ramp a material amount of product or systems for them quickly, has the conversation about payment terms changed in any way? Should we continue to assume that leading customers will put a substantial amount of cash down or prepaid COGS in essence, if you will. Has there been any -- is there any dialogue or change with, say, the 4 customers you highlighted in the press release that's different than the way that [ON has been giving you first]?

偉大的。我很感激，蓋恩。然後只是快速跟進。因為它 - 當您與您的客戶和您進行這些對話時 - 並且關注的是能夠為他們快速增加大量產品或系統，關於付款條件的對話是否發生了任何變化方法？如果您願意的話，我們是否應該繼續假設領先客戶實質上會投入大量現金或預付銷貨成本。是否有任何 - 與您在新聞稿中強調的 4 位客戶的對話或變化是否與 [ON 一直給您的] 方式不同？

Well, I can answer that, honestly, but also as I always have to remind people, that we have on these calls not only investors. We have key customers. And we have potential want-to-be competitors and other things too, but we have stated very publicly with people we have agreements with our large customers today. That is all of them, if you look at our 10% customers that we have publicly announced due to SEC requirements. That includes the likes of Intel, Apple, ST, ON Semiconductor, TI, okay? We have had and continue to have down payment requirements from them and we have agreed to do the same with other customers. Honestly, it hasn't been that big of a deal. I know this is interesting and certainly the financial [community] will understand this. Now that we have cash in the bank, people are less worried about giving us down payments. It's sort of like our bankers are really happy to give us great terms on money right now when we don't need it, but that hasn't been an issue. And if it comes up, we'll have a conversation about that, but yes, that hasn't been an issue, so far.

好吧，老實說，我可以回答這個問題，但正如我總是要提醒人們的那樣，我們不僅接到了投資者的電話。我們有主要客戶。我們也有潛在的想成為競爭對手和其他東西，但我們已經向人們公開表示，我們今天與我們的大客戶達成了協議。如果您查看我們根據 SEC 要求公開宣布的 10% 客戶，那就是所有這些客戶。這包括 Intel、Apple、ST、ON Semiconductor、TI 等公司，好嗎？我們已經並將繼續收到他們的預付款要求，我們已經同意對其他客戶也這樣做。老實說，這沒什麼大不了的。我知道這很有趣，金融 [社區] 肯定會理解這一點。既然我們在銀行里有現金，人們就不那麼擔心給我們首付了。這有點像我們的銀行家真的很樂意在我們不需要的時候給我們提供優惠的資金條件，但這不是問題。如果它出現，我們將就此進行對話，但是是的，到目前為止，這還不是問題。

And we'll go next to Tom Diffely of D.A. Davidson.

接下來我們將介紹 D.A. 的湯姆·迪菲利 (Tom Diffely)。戴維森。

So Gayn, I would like to talk a little bit about the sales cycle. And in particular, when you look at the 4 new customers that gave you wafer layouts, I assume that's so you can build your WaferPaks to start the testing process, but I'm more interested, I guess, in where is this in the sales cycle. And how long would you expect it to take to get to orders after this?

蓋恩，我想談談銷售週期。特別是，當您查看為您提供晶圓佈局的 4 個新客戶時，我認為這是為了讓您可以構建您的 WaferPaks 以開始測試過程，但我想我更感興趣的是，它在銷售中的位置循環。您預計在此之後需要多長時間才能收到訂單？

Okay. You know what, I -- it's a very -- it's a valid question. It's very kind of pertinent right now. So if you look at what we had been touting a couple years ago is we have actually demonstrated to our lead customer at the time our ability to do an amazing thing. And that was not only test an entire wafer of these silicon carbide devices but be able to tell them with 100% confidence everything about the device and when it actually failed during burn-in. And then we could test 18 of them. Quite frankly, when we said that to them, there was a reasonable level of disbelief. And we said, "We'll show you. We'll prove it to you." Soon as we did, they immediately, as we have told people, said, "Can you start shipping me wafers while I order one [until] you build me one?" And technically that's how the process went. As we have gone around to other customers, particularly during COVID, we actually have this sort of marketing campaign that said, "Listen. I know you can't travel, et cetera. Send us your wafer. We'll do a benchmark for you." And as people (inaudible), "Well, where are you?" We actually have been talking about another large supplier who has been doing a benchmark with us now for a while. They've actually continued to do optimization. We can't get into all the details, but that, I can tell you, is actually going very well. And then we just specifically pointed out that another 1 of the big ones, the big 4, we have 1 of them, there's 3 other big ones, has now moved forward and said, "Listen. We want you to test wafers. We want you to put a system on our floor."

好的。你知道嗎，我 - 這是一個非常 - 這是一個有效的問題。它現在非常相關。所以如果你看看我們幾年前一直在吹捧的東西，我們實際上已經向我們的主要客戶展示了我們做一件了不起的事情的能力。這不僅是測試這些碳化矽器件的整個晶圓，而且能夠 100% 自信地告訴他們關於該器件的所有信息以及它在老化過程中實際失敗的時間。然後我們可以測試其中的 18 個。坦率地說，當我們對他們這麼說時，他們有一定程度的懷疑。我們說，“我們會告訴你。我們會證明給你看。”正如我們告訴人們的那樣，我們一這樣做，他們就立即說，“你能不能在我訂購晶圓的同時開始向我運送晶圓，[直到]你為我製造一個？”從技術上講，這就是過程的進行方式。當我們拜訪其他客戶時，尤其是在 COVID 期間，我們實際上開展了這樣的營銷活動：“聽著。我知道你不能旅行，等等。把你的晶圓寄給我們。我們會做一個基準你。”作為人們（聽不清），“嗯，你在哪裡？”我們實際上一直在談論另一家大型供應商，他們已經與我們進行了一段時間的基準測試。他們實際上一直在進行優化。我們無法了解所有細節，但我可以告訴你，這實際上進行得非常順利。然後我們剛剛特別指出另外 1 個大公司，4 個大公司，我們有 1 個，還有 3 個大公司，現在已經向前說，“聽著。我們要你測試晶圓。我們想要你在我們的地板上安裝一個系統。”

What we have shifted to, candidly, is customers, for the most part, aren't questioning us at all. They're kind of, "I believe you. Tell me about your lead times." So this idea that I need to prove it to them along the way, while we are still perfectly comfortable doing that -- they're still like, "Well, okay, if I do that and it takes you 8 weeks to show me a wafer or something and then I order, when is -- what's that look like?" So the conversation has started to shift towards, well, maybe you ought to buy a system and then I will demonstrate it along the way. And so I think that's a more reasonable thing to move towards. There may be still customers that want us to demonstrate it first and then order a system afterwards with whatever lead times, and we're perfectly happy to do that. I mean everybody would like orders sooner, but quite frankly, I think we're going to see more shift towards customers: They place [the] order. We will guarantee its, well, feasibility. We do that all the time, anyhow. I mean, if it didn't work, we would not charge them for it. So we always put our money where our mouth is. That has never been a change with any order we've ever taken. And then it will shift towards maybe you [lead] with an order and the benchmark goes along the way.

坦率地說，我們已經轉向的是，在大多數情況下，客戶根本不會質疑我們。他們有點像，“我相信你。告訴我你的交貨時間。”所以我需要在整個過程中向他們證明這一點，而我們仍然非常樂意這樣做——他們仍然喜歡，“好吧，好吧，如果我這樣做，你需要 8 週的時間來向我展示威化餅之類的，然後我點菜，什麼時候——那看起來像什麼？”所以談話開始轉向，好吧，也許你應該買一個系統，然後我會一路演示。所以我認為這是更合理的做法。可能仍有客戶希望我們先進行演示，然後再以任何交貨時間訂購系統，我們非常樂意這樣做。我的意思是每個人都希望盡快下訂單，但坦率地說，我認為我們會看到更多轉向客戶：他們下訂單。我們將保證它的可行性。無論如何，我們一直這樣做。我的意思是，如果它不起作用，我們不會向他們收費。所以我們總是把錢放在嘴邊。這從來沒有改變過我們接受過的任何訂單。然後它會轉向你 [lead] 一個訂單，基準也會隨之而來。

So we think that's an appropriate thing to do, particularly as we go forward. As people start looking at their ramps to meet the EV needs in '23, '24, '25 in particular -- I mean there are some big numbers that are coming on, starting next year. And it's like, well, how many systems do you need. I'm going to need to start allocating capacity to you. I'm not just going to do it on a forecast. You're going to need to give me some commitments, et cetera.

所以我們認為這是一件合適的事情，尤其是在我們前進的時候。隨著人們開始關注他們的坡道以滿足 23 年、24 年、25 年的電動汽車需求——我的意思是從明年開始會有一些大數字出現。就像，嗯，你需要多少個系統。我將需要開始為您分配容量。我不只是要根據預測來做。你需要給我一些承諾，等等。

So we're going to start driving for kind of long-lead orders and commitments from customers, including new customers. And that's going to have to be a shift to -- so that people can count on us. So stay tuned for that. I mean next quarter is where we'll announce. Obviously the year-end, but we'll give guidance for the year. And we hope to be able to have nailed down some agreements and other things with customers so we'll be able to give some more clear resolution throughout the year and what next year looks like, okay? I hope that helps.

因此，我們將開始推動客戶（包括新客戶）的長期訂單和承諾。這將不得不轉變為——這樣人們就可以指望我們了。所以請繼續關注。我的意思是下個季度我們將宣布。顯然是年底，但我們會給出今年的指導。我們希望能夠與客戶達成一些協議和其他事情，這樣我們就能夠在全年和明年的情況下給出更明確的解決方案，好嗎？我希望這有幫助。

Yes. No, absolutely. And you gave some nice clarity on some of the lead times for things like ICs and how you kind of get ahead of that. I'm curious. Are you doing any other prebuilding of these systems ahead of what could be a very strong year?

是的。不，絕對。你清楚地說明了 IC 之類的東西的一些交貨時間以及你如何領先於此。我很好奇。在可能非常強勁的一年之前，您是否正在對這些系統進行任何其他預構建？

We are. We are. We actually -- so our supply chain is -- I'd say by many people's [knot], is pretty complicated. [I'm very -- or we're very] familiar with it. I've been doing this my whole life. It's very similar to other ATE systems. You have large enclosures. You have printed circuit boards. You have subassembly mechanicals. We do all those through subcontract manufacturers. And tools come in and they get assembled and tested here and out the door. And we always invite shareholders or customers who want to come visit us. We'd be happy to show you our manufacturing floor.

我們是。我們是。我們實際上 - 所以我們的供應鍊是 - 我會說很多人的[結]，非常複雜。 [我非常 - 或者我們非常] 熟悉它。我一生都在這樣做。它與其他 ATE 系統非常相似。你有大圍欄。你有印刷電路板。你有子裝配機械。我們通過分包製造商完成所有這些工作。工具進來，在這里和外面進行組裝和測試。我們總是邀請想來參觀我們的股東或客戶。我們很樂意向您展示我們的製造車間。

So all of that comes in. We are -- honestly, we're not trying to be -- I'm looking across. We're actually in the same room for the first time for a while, Ken and I, for these conferences. I'm not being cheap right now. We are buying ahead on material to ensure we do not have -- we're not caught. And so we're capturing chambers. We're [capping in] interiors. We're capping in thermal systems. We're capturing printed circuit boards. Right now the most critical thing in our lead time is that, when the components are coming in, we put them on printed circuit boards to ship the final systems. And we're kind of hand to mouth on that right now. And we think we're going to start catching up during this quarter, to actually have some additional buffer, but so far, for the most part, we've been able to meet even the pull-in requirements of some of our customers, probably more than what's reasonable. But of course, everybody would like stuff a little bit sooner. So we're stocking up and that's why it shows up in our inventory.

所以所有這些都進來了。我們 - 老實說，我們並沒有試圖成為 - 我正在尋找。實際上，Ken 和我第一次在同一個房間參加這些會議。我現在可不便宜。我們正在提前購買材料，以確保我們沒有 - 我們不會被抓住。所以我們正在捕獲房間。我們正在[封頂]室內設計。我們正在熱力系統中封頂。我們正在捕獲印刷電路板。現在，我們交付週期中最關鍵的事情是，當組件進來時，我們將它們放在印刷電路板上以運送最終系統。我們現在有點口口相傳。我們認為我們將在本季度開始迎頭趕上，實際上有一些額外的緩衝，但到目前為止，在大多數情況下，我們甚至能夠滿足一些客戶的引入要求，可能超出合理範圍。但當然，每個人都希望早點得到東西。所以我們正在備貨，這就是它出現在我們庫存中的原因。

So we've got -- we've kind of shifted our previous inventory all over into now FOX-related inventory instead of the old packaged part and some other things. So if you go out there and you look at all the dollars, they're all FOX related, in the FOX-P family and WaferPaks and DiePaks that are all shippable good revenue. And then of course, we still have dry powder in the bank, thanks to everybody on the ATM raise that we did, to actually allow us to buy more as necessary. So -- and then we are -- as I said, we started buying components last February. I'm buying parts out through next summer right now. And I know everybody would like to know how many. I'm not going to tell you, but it's certainly enough to exceed reasonable expectations of our revenue, so that's a good thing.

所以我們已經 - 我們已經將以前的庫存全部轉移到現在與 FOX 相關的庫存中，而不是舊的包裝部件和其他一些東西。因此，如果你去那裡看看所有的美元，它們都是與 FOX 相關的，在 FOX-P 系列以及 WaferPaks 和 DiePaks 中，它們都是可交付的良好收入。當然，我們銀行里還有乾火藥，這要感謝我們所做的 ATM 加註的每個人，實際上允許我們在必要時購買更多。所以——然後我們——正如我所說，我們從去年 2 月開始購買組件。我現在正在購買明年夏天的零件。我知道每個人都想知道有多少。我不會告訴你，但這肯定足以超出我們收入的合理預期，所以這是一件好事。

Yes, okay. And maybe just the last question on this topic. When you look at the systems, the FOX family of systems, it's pretty uniform across customers. There's not a lot of customization and so there's not a big risk of not being fungible across different customers.

是的，好的。也許只是關於這個話題的最後一個問題。當您查看這些系統時，FOX 系列系統在客戶之間非常統一。定制化不多，因此不存在無法在不同客戶之間互換的大風險。

That's right, yes. Every one of my customers uses the same chamber. They all use the same what we call blades, with slight variations that are -- that actually can be reconfigured here. They all use the same which we call channel module controllers, which is the base system for power and communication. And then they use variations of what we call channel modules. And each of the customers is some combination of 3 channel modules today. We're actually working on a couple of different flavors of them. They themselves share like 75% of the components are the same. So the family and this platform, to be able to kind of mix and match and kind of configure to order, is -- was a critical strategy for us. We knew that when we came up with that and we built this new family, and it is really paying off right now because -- I don't care what I tell you. We can never forecast exactly what's going to happen, so what you do is you build a product line to where, within a wide range of forecasts, you can still meet the customers' needs. And we're actually proving that as we go. We've had some drop-in orders from our silicon photonics customer. We basically took capacity that we were building ahead on some silicon carbide capacity, reconfigured it and shipping it to the silicon photonics customer.

沒錯，是的。我的每一位客戶都使用同一個腔室。它們都使用我們所說的刀片，只是略有不同——實際上可以在這裡重新配置。它們都使用我們稱之為通道模塊控制器的相同部件，這是電源和通信的基礎系統。然後他們使用我們稱之為通道模塊的變體。今天，每個客戶都是 3 個通道模塊的某種組合。我們實際上正在研究幾種不同的口味。他們自己共享大約 75% 的組件是相同的。所以家庭和這個平台，能夠混合搭配和配置訂單，對我們來說是一個關鍵戰略。我們知道，當我們想出這個辦法並建立這個新家庭時，它現在真的得到了回報，因為——我不在乎我告訴你什麼。我們永遠無法準確預測會發生什麼，所以你要做的是建立一條產品線，在廣泛的預測範圍內，你仍然可以滿足客戶的需求。我們實際上正在證明這一點。我們從我們的矽光子學客戶那裡收到了一些臨時訂單。我們基本上採用了我們正在建設的一些碳化矽產能，重新配置它並將其運送給矽光子學客戶。

Great. And just one question for Ken. From a modeling point of view, how do you view the steady-state level of stock-based comp?

偉大的。只問 Ken 一個問題。從建模的角度來看，您如何看待基於股票的公司的穩態水平？

That's an excellent question. As I spoke about, we have a significant increase in stock-based comp this -- actually this fiscal year, including $880,000 this quarter, yes. For the fiscal year, I would not plan on having that significant of an amount. Yes, Gayn is trying to have me state a specific amount. I don't want to lock into any specific [now]...

這是一個很好的問題。正如我所說，我們的股票補償顯著增加——實際上是本財年，包括本季度的 880,000 美元，是的。對於本財政年度，我不打算有那麼大的數額。是的，Gayn 正試圖讓我說明具體金額。我不想鎖定任何特定的[現在]......

It's not -- Tom, it's not going to go down to where it was before anytime soon just because of the way some of the stock works right now. It's -- but I guess it's good problems to have, but it's these are real numbers right now.

它不是 - 湯姆，它不會因為一些股票現在的運作方式而很快下降到以前的水平。這是——但我想這是個好問題，但現在這些都是實數。

And a key item of that is the relative bonuses. Keep in mind that, at the -- when we developed our compensation plans at the beginning of the year, it was based upon revenue levels of $28 million. And then we actually had thresholds to -- and we've exceeded, based upon this year, the highest thresholds. We will be adjusting our numbers up for next year. And as Gayn and I chatted about earlier...

其中一個關鍵項目是相對獎金。請記住，在 - 當我們在年初制定薪酬計劃時，它是基於 2800 萬美元的收入水平。然後我們實際上有門檻 - 根據今年的情況，我們已經超過了最高門檻。我們將在明年調整我們的數字。正如 Gayn 和我早些時候聊過的...

Ratcheting up...

漸行漸遠...

Ratcheting up. And if we exceed it next year, the investor base will be [very, very rewarded].

棘輪上升。如果我們明年超過它，投資者基礎將[非常非常有回報]。

Yes. If we take our forecast and double it again, we might actually have excess. We might have some more again. And that would be a wonderful problem to have, so...

是的。如果我們將我們的預測再次翻倍，我們實際上可能會過剩。我們可能還會再來一些。那將是一個很好的問題，所以...

Yes. No, understood. And congratulations on the nice momentum.

是的。不，明白。並祝賀勢頭良好。

Thanks, Tom.

謝謝，湯姆。

Thanks, Tom.

謝謝，湯姆。

And we'll move next to Jon Gruber of Grube Mccaine (sic) [Gruber & McBaine].

接下來我們將轉到 Grube Mccaine (sic) [Gruber & McBaine] 的 Jon Gruber。

Jon, you're on mute.

喬恩，你靜音了。

Jon, we're not able to hear you.

喬恩，我們聽不到你的聲音。

Operator, maybe we'll move on. Let's make sure we come back to Jon, okay, all right? Because I always like getting beat up about "where are the orders" from Jon, so I don't want to miss out on my quarterly -- okay, go ahead.

接線員，也許我們會繼續前進。讓我們確保我們回到喬恩身邊，好吧，好嗎？因為我總是喜歡因為喬恩的“訂單在哪裡”而被毆打，所以我不想錯過我的季度報告——好吧，繼續吧。

And we'll go next to Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis.

接下來我們將介紹 SemiAnalysis 的 Dylan Patel。

I wanted to focus in on one of your comments on the earlier questions, specifically on automotive customers. You mentioned -- a lot of these automotive and industrial companies are becoming hyperaware of semiconductors. And so they've been reaching out deeper into their supply chains and started working directly with (inaudible) and the suppliers of the chips and one previously they may not have. And you mentioned that -- about, wafer level's burn-in, an automotive customer potentially having brought that up. Do you think that these automotive customers could start demanding wafer level burn-in and then that drives sales of your products?

我想重點談談您對早期問題的評論之一，特別是關於汽車客戶的評論。你提到 - 許多這些汽車和工業公司正在變得對半導體非常敏感。因此，他們一直在深入了解他們的供應鏈，並開始直接與（聽不清）和芯片供應商合作，而以前他們可能沒有。你提到過——關於晶圓級的老化，一個汽車客戶可能已經提出來了。您是否認為這些汽車客戶會開始要求晶圓級老化，然後推動您的產品銷售？

I hope so. The way we're looking at this is that we're trying to provide our customers, the industry -- in the last quarter actually, we just attended this big conference called PowerAmerica, which is an industry conference of about 60 companies helping to drive silicon carbide and electrification. It was a fantastic meeting of companies I had a chance to meet and rub elbows with. And one of the critical things that -- it's one of the critical things with silicon carbide, in addition to actually capacity, is quality. I mean it's like capacity, quality. How do I get [quality defects] out? How do I try and go out there? And then one of the tones I hear is it's sort of a rising tide. Maybe I've shared this before. We had a direct customer of ours directly talk to us. And they said, "Listen. We think the world of your system. We think you should go tell so and so about it." It's like, "That's your competitor." He goes, "Yes. I don't care." He goes, "They have issues with their product." And the -- if they have issues in the industry, that could impact or give -- I mean, tarnish the reputation of all of us.

但願如此。我們看待這個問題的方式是，我們正在努力為我們的客戶和行業提供服務——實際上在上個季度，我們剛剛參加了這個名為 PowerAmerica 的大型會議，這是一個由大約 60 家公司組成的行業會議，幫助推動碳化矽和電氣化。這是一次很棒的公司會議，我有機會會面並與之交流。關鍵的事情之一——它是碳化矽的關鍵事情之一，除了實際容量之外，就是質量。我的意思是它就像容量，質量。我如何排除[質量缺陷]？我該如何嘗試走出去？然後我聽到的其中一個音調是一種漲潮。也許我以前分享過這個。我們有一位直接客戶直接與我們交談。他們說，“聽著。我們認為你的系統世界。我們認為你應該去講述它。”就像，“那是你的競爭對手。”他說，“是的。我不在乎。”他說，“他們的產品有問題。”而且 - 如果他們在行業中遇到問題，那可能會影響或給予 - 我的意思是，玷污我們所有人的聲譽。

And so there's this awareness and people rolling up their sleeves. Like, listen. They don't have to differentiate necessarily on which tool they use, just long as everybody, please, do not ship these things without going through burn-in. And so there's an awareness in the industry that we're trying to help enable. We also think that there's evidence that -- so we know for a fact, many of the devices that are being used in our system, what end customer it goes to, okay? And we know that, that customer is involved in signing off on the qualification and the quality burn-in. And so that eventually could show up as they buy from other companies as well in sort of an expectation. And at least it's our expectation that, if anybody goes to a VW or a Mercedes or a Tesla or a [NIO] or -- name it -- and says, "By the way, we're doing wafer level burn-in," and they say, "And it's Aehr," and they say, "That's great. We're familiar with that. Check the box," it would be great if they could say, "Oh, are you using Aehr?" That would be an aspiration for us, but at this point we just want to be known as the one you can count on to ship quality products. If you follow our processes, use our WaferPaks and our procedures for actually qualifying your devices and -- that would be a good thing.

因此，人們有了這種意識，並且捲起了袖子。喜歡，聽。他們不必區分他們使用的工具，只要每個人，拜託，不要在沒有經過老化的情況下運送這些東西。因此，我們正在努力幫助實現行業內的意識。我們還認為有證據表明 - 所以我們知道一個事實，我們系統中使用的許多設備，它去往哪個最終客戶，好嗎？我們知道，該客戶參與了資格認證和質量老化的簽署。因此，當他們從其他公司購買商品時，最終也會出現這種情況，這也是一種期望。至少我們的期望是，如果有人去大眾、梅賽德斯、特斯拉或 [NIO] 或 - 說出它的名字 - 並說，“順便說一下，我們正在進行晶圓級老化， ”然後他們說，“這是 Aehr，”然後他們說，“那太好了。我們對此很熟悉。勾選方框，”如果他們能說，“哦，你在使用 Aehr 嗎？這對我們來說是一個願望，但在這一點上，我們只想成為您可以信賴的交付優質產品的人。如果您遵循我們的流程，使用我們的 WaferPaks 和我們的程序來實際驗證您的設備，那將是一件好事。

Great. And then I wanted to ask if -- I wanted to ask another question specifically regarding the WaferPaks and sort of the reoccurring revenue stream there, right? So my understanding is that they're custom to each sort of wafer -- or die configuration, right, design or wafer configuration, and so I wanted to ask. So a lot of these probe card companies such as FormFactor spoke about low-yielding products demanding more [intensive] probe card usage. And you've previously described the WaferPak contactor sort of similarly to what a probe card is in some ways. And so silicon carbide has low yield. And obviously that increases the need to do burn-in, but as these companies move to more complex, [like, trench transistor or trench] designs and all these sort of other designs, do you think that the wafer level burn-in demand can pick up even more per wafer? Or do you think they'll sort of stick around that -- you previously mentioned the amount of time that each wafer is burned in. And then how long do you think...

偉大的。然後我想問是否 - 我想問另一個問題，特別是關於 WaferPaks 和那裡經常出現的收入流，對吧？所以我的理解是，它們是針對每種晶圓或芯片配置定制的，對，設計或晶圓配置，所以我想問一下。因此，許多此類探針卡公司（例如 FormFactor）談到了要求更多 [密集] 探針卡使用的低產產品。您之前在某些方面將 WaferPak 接觸器描述為類似於探針卡。所以碳化矽的成品率很低。顯然，這增加了老化的需要，但隨著這些公司轉向更複雜的 [例如，溝槽晶體管或溝槽] 設計和所有這些其他設計，您認為晶圓級老化需求是否可以每片晶圓拾取更多？或者你認為他們會堅持下去——你之前提到過每個晶圓被燒毀的時間。然後你認為多長時間......

(inaudible) -- yes, let me try and answer that. For some reason, I have this quote that's coming back about Reagan saying, "I won't let the age of my opponent get in the way," or something like that. I'm not going to -- I don't want FormFactor's statement that they said people have to use a lot more of those probe cards as some indication of quality. They're actually a fantastic company. I know Mike and those folks really well.

（聽不清）- 是的，讓我試著回答這個問題。出於某種原因，關於里根的這句名言又回來了，“我不會讓我對手的年齡成為障礙”，或者類似的話。我不會 - 我不想要 FormFactor 的聲明，他們說人們必須使用更多的探針卡作為質量的一些指標。他們實際上是一家很棒的公司。我非常了解邁克和那些人。

So it's a little different. So in their -- most semiconductor devices today, with the exception of memories and those being used in burn-in, the test time is measured in seconds, often 2 seconds, okay? And so every 2 seconds, you actually what you'd call touchdown. You actually touch the device with the needles. And you make an electrical test, low speed, high speed, DC, whatever it is. Then you move to the next device and you test the next one, so every couple seconds, the needle is moving. I wouldn't want to quickly do the math in my head, but that's a lot of touchdowns per day. And for example, okay, 60 seconds times 60 minutes, times 24; divide it by 2. Somebody do that math for me, okay? Probe cards are often specified or differentiated based upon how many touchdowns they can make before they wear out. They actually scrub off a little bit of metal, every time they touch, at some micron level. And so after maybe 100,000 touchdowns, they might wear out, or 200,000 touchdowns. And if you get 1,000 touchdowns a day, maybe 200 days later, it wears out. Are you with me on that? Okay.

所以有點不同。所以在今天的大多數半導體設備中，除了存儲器和用於老化的那些，測試時間以秒為單位，通常是 2 秒，好嗎？因此，每 2 秒，您實際上就是所謂的觸地得分。您實際上是用針觸摸設備。然後你進行電氣測試，低速、高速、直流，無論它是什麼。然後你移動到下一個設備並測試下一個，所以每隔幾秒鐘，指針就會移動。我不想在腦海中快速計算，但每天都有很多達陣。例如，60 秒乘以 60 分鐘，再乘以 24；將它除以 2。有人幫我算一下，好嗎？探針卡通常根據它們在磨損前可以進行的觸地次數來指定或區分。實際上，每次接觸時，它們都會擦掉一些微米級的金屬。因此，在大約 100,000 次達陣後，它們可能會磨損，或者 200,000 次達陣。如果你每天有 1000 次達陣，也許 200 天后，它就會磨損。你同意我嗎？好的。

So we're actually similar. We have the same, I'd say, quality levels. In fact, our probe cards are probably more robust than many others. It's they're also not quite as high frequency and some other things. They're designed to go at much higher temperature than the average probe card does. So we'll do ours up to 150 degrees Celsius, versus many probe cards can only go to 85 or 100 or 125, but nevertheless, we'll still last 100,000 touchdowns. But keep in mind that -- I mean I just had a conversation with a customer this morning who was asking me about the life of their WaferPaks that they buy it -- from us. And they have an estimated burn-in time of 48 hours. So I just tell them, well, it's going to last about 100,000 insertions, which is 200,000 days. I'm pretty sure that even your automotive device will never last that long. So they don't really wear out. Instead, it will last the life of the device. And so the key is how often will they change to a smaller device or a new die size or something. And right now in silicon carbide there's a lot of turnover. People are going to gen 1, gen 2, gen 3, gen 4; 150-millimeter, 200-millimeter wafers. And when they do that, they end up with new WaferPaks or probe cards.

所以我們其實很像。我想說，我們有相同的質量水平。事實上，我們的探針卡可能比許多其他探針卡更堅固。它們也沒有那麼高的頻率和其他一些東西。它們設計用於承受比普通探針卡高得多的溫度。因此，我們將在高達 150 攝氏度的溫度下進行測試，而許多探針卡只能達到 85 或 100 或 125，但儘管如此，我們仍將持續 100,000 次觸地得分。但請記住——我的意思是我今天早上剛剛與一位客戶交談，他問我他們從我們這裡購買的 WaferPak 的壽命。它們的預燒時間估計為 48 小時。所以我只是告訴他們，好吧，它將持續大約 100,000 次插入，也就是 200,000 天。我很確定即使是您的汽車設備也不會持續那麼久。所以他們並沒有真正磨損。相反，它將持續設備的使用壽命。因此，關鍵是他們多久更換一次更小的設備或新的芯片尺寸或其他東西。現在在碳化矽方面有很多營業額。人們將進入第 1 代、第 2 代、第 3 代、第 4 代； 150 毫米、200 毫米晶圓。當他們這樣做時，他們最終會得到新的 WaferPaks 或探針卡。

So we're right now thinking that, maybe about every 4 years or so, there will be a turnover, more of the devices than of the probe card wearing out, or the WaferPak. And so -- and you need 1 WaferPak with each tester blade in a tester. So keep in mind that FOX-XP configured for silicon carbide gate is 18 wafers at a time. You also need 18 WaferPaks, so you buy a system. You buy 18 WaferPaks. That gets you a 18-wafer test cell. And then every 4 years, you might buy another 18 WaferPaks. So over about 10 years, you buy 3 sets of WaferPaks and one hardware, something like that. It might be a way of looking at it if that helps.

所以我們現在在想，也許大約每 4 年左右，就會有一個更替，更多的設備而不是探針卡或 WaferPak 的磨損。因此——您需要 1 個 WaferPak 和測試儀中的每個測試儀刀片。因此請記住，為碳化矽柵極配置的 FOX-XP 一次是 18 個晶圓。您還需要 18 個 WaferPak，因此您購買了一個系統。您購買了 18 個 WaferPak。這將為您提供一個 18 晶圓測試單元。然後每 4 年，您可能會再購買 18 個 WaferPak。所以在大約 10 年的時間裡，你購買了 3 套 WaferPaks 和一個硬件，諸如此類。如果有幫助，這可能是一種看待它的方式。

That's very helpful and gives me some napkin math to try and do or maybe some more in-depth maths. Lastly, I wanted to ask about the automotive lidar market. Last quarter, we talked about smartphones and AR sensors [as the -- I just wanted to ask you] about automotive lidar. They're very expensive, high cost, high reliability requirements, right, because they go in automotive. Do you have any visibility into whether lidar could start requiring wafer level burn-in like other photonics applications that you've spoken about in the past? And can you just talk about that?

這非常有幫助，讓我可以嘗試做一些餐巾紙數學或者一些更深入的數學。最後想問一下汽車激光雷達市場。上個季度，我們談到了智能手機和 AR 傳感器 [作為 -- 我只是想問你] 關於汽車激光雷達。它們非常昂貴，成本高，可靠性要求高，對，因為它們用於汽車。您是否了解激光雷達是否會像您過去談到的其他光子學應用一樣開始需要晶圓級老化？你能談談嗎？

(inaudible) not really. So yes, we have some visibility of it. We can't really talk much about it, but we are talking to -- we do have some information under nondisclosures related to it. There does appear to be some reasons to consider the lidar to do burn-in and also some applications of -- value of doing it at wafer level. I think the jury is still out, in my mind, but we're working on some stuff right now in that space, okay? So we'll see. It's not clear exactly how that volume would -- what that would turn into yet. What we do know is that lidar or the emitter itself, like all optical emitters, have some infant mortality, okay, and therefore may want to go through a burn-in or a stress test to weed out the infant failures. And they -- that also they have a -- what they call a stabilization issue, which means that their output intensity decays with time during the first 24 to 48 hours. In certain applications like communications, that intensity decay is extremely critical. It's why all the silicon photonics guys do burn-in. On lidar, it's not as clear; same as 2D, 3D facial recognition. The intensity drop may not be as significant in that application, so it may be more to do with the infant mortality. So we'll see, but I would not count on that being a big driver for our business right now. But I might be wrong. Did we -- Jon, did you try and get back in again?

（聽不清）不是真的。所以是的，我們對它有一些了解。我們真的不能談論太多，但我們正在談論——我們確實有一些與此相關的保密信息。似乎確實有一些理由考慮激光雷達進行老化以及一些應用——在晶圓級進行老化的價值。在我看來，我認為陪審團還沒有定論，但我們現在正在那個領域做一些事情，好嗎？所以我們拭目以待。目前還不清楚這個數量究竟會怎樣——會變成什麼樣。我們所知道的是，激光雷達或發射器本身，就像所有的光學發射器一樣，有一些嬰兒死亡率，好吧，因此可能需要通過老化或壓力測試來消除嬰兒故障。他們——他們也有一個——他們稱之為穩定問題，這意味著他們的輸出強度在最初的 24 到 48 小時內隨時間衰減。在通信等某些應用中，強度衰減非常關鍵。這就是為什麼所有矽光子學專家都進行老化測試的原因。在激光雷達上，它不那麼清楚；與2D、3D人臉識別一樣。強度下降在該應用中可能不那麼顯著，因此它可能更多地與嬰兒死亡率有關。所以我們拭目以待，但我現在不指望它成為我們業務的重要推動力。但我可能錯了。我們有沒有——喬恩，你有沒有試著重新回來？

And we'll see if we're able to hear Jon at this time.

我們會看看此時是否能聽到 Jon 的聲音。

Yes, yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Sorry. I [moved up].

是的是的。你能聽到我嗎？是的。對不起。我[向上移動]。

Yes, we can.

我們可以。

We can, Jon.

我們可以，喬恩。

Congratulations on the commentary of the 2 new guys ready to roll here. I mean, is -- what do you [really specifically think it will] take to get the first of the 2 here to come over the goal line?

祝賀 2 位新人的評論準備就緒。我的意思是，你 [真的特別認為] 需要什麼才能讓 2 人中的第一個越過球門線？

Well, they're both a little different. I can't get into a lot of it. They both have a balance of short and longer 1- and 2-year goals of intercepting capacity, and they're kind of coming out this a little different. Again I can't get into all of that, but we're -- I think we've got what has demonstrated a very good working relationship at the executive level of both of them. And I believe we can help them and I believe they think we can help them as well. And so we're just trying to be an impedance match and make sure that we're addressing what their needs are, being the [guide], being communicating what our capacities are. And we think that -- yes. I mean I personally think that we're going to end up with them being customers as well, yes. My attorneys always warn me about saying that stuff, but that's what I think.

好吧，他們都有點不同。我無法參與很多。他們都有短期和長期的 1 年和 2 年攔截能力目標的平衡，而且他們有點不同。同樣，我無法深入了解所有這些，但我們 - 我認為我們已經證明在他們雙方的執行層面上都表現出非常良好的工作關係。我相信我們可以幫助他們，我相信他們認為我們也可以幫助他們。因此，我們只是試圖成為一個阻抗匹配，並確保我們正在解決他們的需求，成為[指南]，傳達我們的能力。我們認為 - 是的。我的意思是，我個人認為我們最終也會讓他們成為客戶，是的。我的律師總是警告我不要說那些話，但這就是我的想法。

Yes. And second, gross margin was lower than the first 2 quarters. What do you attribute that to? I think it was [41-something].

是的。其次，毛利率低於前兩個季度。你認為這是什麼原因？我認為是 [41 歲左右]。

Yes. So Jon, I think I touched on that a little bit. We actually took an E&O provision for our legacy products of a little over $1 million, which had a 7 percentage point...

是的。所以喬恩，我想我稍微談到了這一點。實際上，我們為略高於 100 萬美元的遺留產品提取了 E&O 準備金，其中有 7 個百分點……

That was in that number.

那是那個數字。

Yes, that's in there. Otherwise, they're fine.

是的，就在裡面。否則，他們很好。

[Excluding that], we're at [49%].

[不包括]，我們是 [49%]。

And excluding that -- yes, right in line with what we expect.

並且不包括 - 是的，符合我們的預期。

So then they were pretty decent then, so forget that.

所以那時他們還不錯，所以忘了吧。

And at this time, I would like to turn the call back to Aehr Test management.

而這個時候，我想把電話轉回給 Aehr 測試管理。

All right, well, thank you, everybody. And actually this is great because we did have some feedback from folks to try and see if we can kind of aim for 1 hour. That worked out great this time. We'll try and continue to be as concise as we can in our prepared remarks. And as always, if people have questions, please follow back up with us directly or with MK IR. We'll be happy to set up a phone call for follow-up conversations.

好的，好的，謝謝大家。實際上這很棒，因為我們確實從人們那裡得到了一些反饋，嘗試看看我們是否可以瞄準 1 小時。這次效果很好。我們將嘗試並繼續在我們準備好的評論中盡可能簡潔。與往常一樣，如果人們有任何疑問，請直接與我們聯繫或與 MK IR 聯繫。我們很樂意撥打電話進行後續對話。

We are excited about Q4; looking forward to seeing some of you folks at some of the conferences; and closing the loop with you on year-end, I guess, here in July. It's a long ways out -- and giving guidance towards next year, which ought to be exciting.

我們對第四季度感到興奮；期待在某些會議上見到你們中的一些人；並在年底與您結束循環，我想是在 7 月這裡。這還有很長的路要走——並為明年提供指導，這應該是令人興奮的。

Take care. Bye-bye.

小心。再見。

And this concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。