Camtek Ltd (CAMT) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I would like to welcome all of you to Camtek's Results Zoom Webinar. My name is Kenny Green, and I'm part of the Investor Relations team at Camtek. All participants other than the presenters are currently muted. Following the formal presentation, I will provide some instructions to participating in the live Q&A session.

女士們先生們，謝謝你們的支持。歡迎大家參加 Camtek 的放大版網路研討會。我叫 Kenny Green，是 Camtek 投資者關係團隊的一員。目前，除演示者外的所有參與者均已靜音。在正式演示之後，我將提供一些參與現場問答環節的說明。

I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded, and the recording will be available later on from Camtek's website. You should have all now received the company's press release. If not, please view it on the company's website.

我想提醒大家，這次電話會議正在錄製中，錄製內容稍後可以在 Camtek 網站上找到。你們現在應該已經收到該公司的新聞稿了。如果沒有，請到公司網站查看。

With me on the line today, we have Mr. Rafi Amit, Camtek's CEO; Mr. Moshe Eisenberg, Camtek's CFO; and Mr. Ramy Langer, Camtek's COO. Rafi will begin by providing an overview of Camtek's results and discuss recent market trends. Moshe will then summarize the financial results of the quarter. Following that, Rafi, Moshe and Ramy will be available to take your questions.

今天接我電話的是 Camtek 執行長 Rafi Amit 先生； Moshe Eisenberg先生，Camtek財務長；以及 Camtek 首席營運長 Ramy Langer 先生。 Rafi 將首先概述 Camtek 的業績並討論最近的市場趨勢。隨後，摩西將總結本季的財務表現。隨後，Rafi、Moshe 和 Ramy 將回答您的問題。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind our listeners that certain information provided on this call are internal company estimates, unless otherwise specified. This call may also contain forward-looking statements. These statements are any predictions and may change as time passes, statements on this call are made as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update any of that forward-looking statements contained whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in expectations or otherwise.

在開始之前，我想提醒聽眾，除非另有說明，本次電話會議中提供的某些資訊均為公司內部估計。本次電話會議也可能包含前瞻性陳述。這些陳述是任何預測，可能會隨著時間的推移而發生變化，本次電話會議的陳述截至今天，本公司沒有義務更新任何包含的前瞻性陳述，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件、變化在期望或其他方面。

Investors are reminded that actual events or results may differ materially from those projected, including as a result of the effects of general economic conditions, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on global markets and on the markets in which we operate, including the risk of continued disruption to our and our customers, providers, business partners, contractors' business, risks related to the concentration of a significant portion of Camtek's expected business in certain countries, particularly China, from which we expect to generate a significant portion of our revenues for the coming few quarters as well as Taiwan and Korea, including the risks of deviations from our expectations regarding timing and size of orders from customers in these countries, changing industry and market trends, reduced demand for our products, the timing development of our new products and their adoption by the market, increased competition in the industry, price reductions as well as due to other risks identified in the Company's filings with the SEC.

請投資人注意，實際事件或結果可能與預測有重大差異，包括由於總體經濟狀況的影響、COVID-19 大流行對全球市場和我們經營所在市場的影響，包括風險我們和我們的客戶、供應商、業務合作夥伴、承包商的業務持續受到干擾，Camtek 預期業務的很大一部分集中在某些國家（特別是中國）相關的風險，我們預計我們的很大一部分收入將來自中國未來幾個季度以及台灣和韓國的風險，包括這些國家客戶的訂單時間和規模偏離我們預期的風險、不斷變化的行業和市場趨勢、對我們產品的需求減少、我們新產品的及時開發產品及其市場採用、行業競爭加劇、價格下降以及公司向SEC 提交的文件中指出的其他風險。

Please note that the safe harbor statement in today's press release also covers the contents of this conference call. In addition, during this call, certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed. These are used by Camtek to make strategic decisions, forecast, future results and evaluate the company's future performance. Management believes that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors' understanding and assessment of the company's ongoing cooperation and prospects for the future. A full reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures are included in today's earnings press release.

請注意，今天新聞稿中的安全港聲明也涵蓋了本次電話會議的內容。此外，在本次電話會議中，也將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。 Camtek 使用這些來制定策略決策、預測未來結果並評估公司的未來業績。管理階層認為，非公認會計原則財務指標的呈現有助於投資者了解和評估公司正在進行的合作以及未來的前景。今天的收益新聞稿中包含了非公認會計準則與公認會計準則財務指標的全面調整。

I would now like to hand the call over to Rafi, Camtek's CEO. Rafi, Please go ahead.

我現在想將電話轉交給 Camtek 執行長拉菲 (Rafi)。拉菲，請繼續。

Thanks, Kenny. Good morning for everyone. The last quarter concluded a phenomenal year for Camtek. In Q4, our revenue was $74 million with operating profit of $21 million and 28% operating margin. 2021 was a record year for Camtek in all aspects. Revenue for the whole year was about $270 million, over 70% growth, compared with 2020 and operating profit of $77 million.

謝謝，肯尼。大家早安。上個季度為 Camtek 帶來了非凡的一年。第四季度，我們的營收為 7,400 萬美元，營業利潤為 2,100 萬美元，營業利潤率為 28%。 2021 年對 Camtek 來說在各方面都是創紀錄的一年。全年營收約2.7億美元，較2020年成長超過70%，營業利潤為7,700萬美元。

Since 2017, revenue has multiplied 3 times a net profit 7 times. We also achieved a very important goals. We became the main leader in the inspection and metrology for the mid-end segment. We installed our system at all top semiconductor manufacturers. We penetrated the front-end segment, which now accounts for 20% of our sales. We reached an installed base of over 1,500 systems at over 130 active customers.

自2017年以來，營收成長了3倍，淨利潤成長了7倍。我們也實現了一個非常重要的目標。我們成為中階領域檢測和計量領域的主要領導者。我們在所有頂級半導體製造商中安裝了我們的系統。我們滲透到前端領域，目前占我們銷售額的 20%。我們已為超過 130 位活躍客戶安裝了 1,500 多個系統。

With 2021 behind us, 2022 is shaping up to be another growth year. We started the year with a healthy backlog and received over $40 million of order, since the beginning of this year, leading to a very good visibility for the first half of the 2022 with the second half of the year is starting to build up nicely. I expect revenue in the first quarter of 2022 to be between $75 million to $76 million, with continued growth in Q2.

2021 年已經過去，2022 年將成為另一個增長年。今年伊始，我們就積壓了大量訂單，自今年年初以來收到了超過 4000 萬美元的訂單，這為 2022 年上半年帶來了非常好的能見度，下半年也開始良好發展。我預計 2022 年第一季的營收將在 7,500 萬美元至 7,600 萬美元之間，第二季將持續成長。

Last November, we finalized a $200 million convertible notes offering at favorable terms. The main reason for this transaction was to make sure that we have enough cash to support our growth strategy, including inorganic growth. In the fourth quarter, about 50% of our sales were for its vast interconnect packaging mainly for heterogeneous integration and fan-out. 15% of our revenue were for expecting compound semi-wafers. These wafers are used for power devices and RF devices, which will go into mobile phone and for automotive industry, especially for electric cars. About 20% of our sales were for front-end applications, which continue to grow and has become a significant part of our business.

去年 11 月，我們最終以優惠條件發行了 2 億美元的可轉換票據。這項交易的主要原因是為了確保我們有足夠的現金來支持我們的成長策略，包括無機成長。在第四季度，我們約 50% 的銷售額來自其龐大的互連封裝，主要用於異質整合和扇出。我們 15% 的收入來自複合半晶圓。這些晶圓用於功率元件和射頻元件，這些元件將進入手機和汽車產業，特別是電動車。我們約 20% 的銷售額來自前端應用程序，該應用程式持續成長並已成為我們業務的重要組成部分。

In Q4, sales to Europe and US accounted for about 22% of total sales, and I expect these territories to continue to generate significant revenue in the coming years. China continues to be our largest territory this quarter. We have managed to ramp the business by 70% in 2021, and our operations were able to keep up with the pace. We invested in our infrastructure and our facility is ready to support continued strong growth. We are investing substantial efforts to overcome the shortage and long lead times in the supply chain. So far, we have done this successfully. This is the major focus of the company and we'll continue to be so.

第四季度，歐洲和美國的銷售額約佔總銷售額的22%，我預計這些地區在未來幾年將繼續產生可觀的收入。中國仍然是本季我們最大的領土。 2021 年，我們的業務成長了 70%，我們的營運也能夠跟上這一步伐。我們投資了基礎設施，我們的設施已準備好支持持續的強勁成長。我們正在投入大量精力來克服供應鏈中的短缺和交貨時間長的問題。到目前為止，我們已經成功地做到了這一點。這是公司的主要關注點，我們將繼續如此。

We have increased our R&D investment and we expect to launch several innovative products in 2022. 2021 was an exceptional year for the semiconductor industry as there was a great demand for semiconductor components, but elect of fab production capacity. At the same time, the COVID-19 epidemic continued to disrupt daily life. Obtaining parts and materials, due to the shortage in supply chain was also a challenging issue. Despite all that, Camtek has managed to increase its revenue by 70%, compared to 2020.

我們增加了研發投入，預計在2022年推出幾款創新產品。2021年對於半導體產業來說是不平凡的一年，因為對半導體元件的需求很大，但晶圓廠的產能有限。同時，COVID-19疫情持續擾亂日常生活。由於供應鏈短缺，取得零件和材料也是一個具有挑戰性的問題。儘管如此，與 2020 年相比，Camtek 的營收仍成長了 70%。

As for 2022, I am extremely encouraged with the strong start for 2022. The shortage in supply chain will continue to be a challenge and risk. However, we are doing all efforts to properly manage the shorter supply chain and make 2022 another growth year. Regarding the $20 million order for both Tier 1 IDM that we announced earlier this week, these systems provide inspection and metrology solutions to the most challenging applications in the field of advanced interconnect packaging.

至於2022年，我對2022年的強勁開局感到非常鼓舞。供應鏈短缺將繼續是一個挑戰和風險。然而，我們正在盡一切努力妥善管理較短的供應鏈，使2022年又一個成長年。關於我們本週稍早宣布的 2000 萬美元一級 IDM 訂單，這些系統為先進互連封裝領域最具挑戰性的應用提供檢測和計量解決方案。

On this occasion, I would like to thank those customers, who trust us and choose us as their main provider for the most challenging applications. And to all our dedicated employees and management for all the hard work, which was crucial in delivering such an amazing performance in 2021.

值此之際，我要感謝那些信任我們並選擇我們作為最具挑戰性應用的主要提供者的客戶。感謝我們所有敬業的員工和管理層的辛勤工作，這是我們在 2021 年取得如此驚人業績的關鍵。

I would like to hand over to Moshe for a more detailed discussion of the financial results. Moshe?

我想請摩西對財務表現有更詳細的討論。摩西？

Thank you, Rafi. In my financial summary ahead, I will provide the results on a non-GAAP basis. The reconciliation between the GAAP results and the non-GAAP results appear in the table at the end of the press release issued earlier today.

謝謝你，拉菲。在接下來的財務摘要中，​​我將提供非公認會計準則基礎上的結果。公認會計準則 (GAAP) 業績與非公認會計準則 (Non-GAAP) 業績之間的調節表顯示在今天早些時候發布的新聞稿末尾的表格中。

Fourth quarter revenue came at a record $74.2 million, an increase of 53%, compared with the fourth quarter of 2020 and 5%, compared with the previous quarter. This marks the 7th consecutive quarter of growth. The geographic revenue split for the quarter was as follows: Asia, 78% and the rest of the world accounted for 22%. This represents a significant increase in the revenue from US and Europe.

第四季營收達到創紀錄的 7,420 萬美元，較 2020 年第四季成長 53%，較上一季成長 5%。這標誌著連續第七個季度成長。本季營收地域分佈如下：亞洲佔 78%，世界其他地區佔 22%。這代表來自美國和歐洲的收入顯著增加。

Gross profit for the quarter was $37.8 million. The gross margin for the quarter was 50.9% versus 48.2% in the fourth quarter of last year and 50.9% in the previous quarter. This is the fourth quarter in a row of gross margin of above 50%, a result of the significant increase in the business volume.

該季度毛利為 3780 萬美元。本季毛利率為 50.9%，去年第四季為 48.2%，上一季為 50.9%。這是毛利率連續第四個季度超過50%，是業務量大幅成長的結果。

I'll remind you that the gross margin also varies a function of the sales mix, typically within the range of 50.5% to 51.5%. We expect higher than usual gross margin in Q1 of 2022, due to favorable mix. Operating expenses in the quarter were $16.8 million, this is compared with $14.2 million in the fourth quarter of last year and to the $14.3 million reported in the previous quarter.

我要提醒您的是，毛利率也會隨著銷售組合的變化而變化，通常在 50.5% 到 51.5% 的範圍內。由於有利的組合，我們預計 2022 年第一季的毛利率將高於平常。本季的營運費用為 1,680 萬美元，而去年第四季的營運費用為 1,420 萬美元，上一季的營運費用為 1,430 萬美元。

As we said in the previous call, both R&D and sales expenses increased in Q4, this was a result of a planned investment in R&D and the sales channel mix in the quarter. The effect of this was a slight reduction in the operating margin to 28% from 30.6% in the third quarter. We expect further increase in our OpEx in Q1, in particular, due to continued expansion in R&D and sales, yet with the higher gross margin, I expect operating margin to be similar to the current level.

正如我們在上次電話會議中所說，第四季度研發和銷售費用均有所增加，這是本季計劃對研發和銷售管道組合進行投資的結果。其影響是營業利潤率從第三季的 30.6% 略有下降至 28%。我們預計第一季的營運支出將進一步增加，特別是由於研發和銷售的持續擴張，但由於毛利率較高，我預計營業利潤率將與當前水準相似。

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $19.7 million or $0.43 per diluted share, this is compared to a net income of $8.8 million or $0.21 per share in the fourth quarter of last year. Total diluted number of shares as of the end of the fourth quarter was $46.3 million. As a result of the successful completion of the convertible notes offering, we need to include the potential share of 3.3 million shares in the number of the diluted share. As the transaction took place in mid-November, the effect in the fourth quarter is partial. In the first quarter of 2022, there will be further increase.

2021 年第四季的淨利潤為 1,970 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.43 美元，而去年第四季的淨利潤為 880 萬美元，即每股收益 0.21 美元。截至第四季末，攤薄後的股票總數為 4,630 萬美元。由於可轉換票據發行順利完成，我們需要將330萬股潛在股份計入稀釋股份數量。由於交易發生在11月中旬，因此對第四季的影響是部分的。 2022年第一季還將進一步增加。

In the Company's GAAP results, we recorded a one-time tax expense of $5.3 million with respect to historical exempt income. I would like to provide some more details on this. The company elected to take advantage of the temporary rule, which is applicable to 2022 only and pay a reduced tax rate on its exempt earnings to allow the company to distribute dividends from these earnings in the future with no additional corporate tax liability.

在公司的 GAAP 業績中，我們記錄了與歷史免稅收入相關的一次性稅費 530 萬美元。我想提供更多有關此事的細節。該公司選擇利用僅適用於 2022 年的臨時規則，對其免稅收入繳納較低的稅率，以便公司將來可以從這些收入中分配股息，而無需承擔額外的企業稅。

Turning to some high-level balance sheet and cash flow metrics. We generated $21.5 million in cash from operations in the quarter. Following the convertible note transaction in November, total cash and cash equivalents and short-term deposits, together with the $32 million cash that we have in the long-term deposits is $430 million. Inventory level was $63.9 million, and it went up by $2.1 million over the quarter. This is to support the current demand for our products and to ensure the availability of key components. We monitor the supply chain confirmed on an ongoing basis. At this point, we do not foresee any impact on our projected revenues. And finally, guidance. We expect revenues of $75 million to $76 million in the first quarter and continued growth in Q2.

轉向一些高階資產負債表和現金流量指標。我們本季的營運產生了 2,150 萬美元的現金。繼 11 月的可轉換票據交易後，現金和現金等價物以及短期存款總額，加上長期存款中的 3,200 萬美元現金，達到 4.3 億美元。庫存水準為 6,390 萬美元，本季增加了 210 萬美元。這是為了支援當前對我們產品的需求並確保關鍵組件的可用性。我們持續監控已確認的供應鏈。目前，我們預計不會對我們的預期收入產生任何影響。最後，指導。我們預計第一季的營收將達到 7,500 萬至 7,600 萬美元，並在第二季繼續成長。

And with that, Rafi, Ramy and myself will be open to take your questions. Kenny?

至此，拉菲、拉米和我本人將願意回答你們的問題。肯尼？

Thank you, Moshe. We will now open the call for the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) So we'll give a moment to review who wants to ask questions. And our first question will be from Tom O'Malley from Barclays.

謝謝你，摩西。我們現在將開始問答環節。 （操作員說明）因此，我們將花一點時間來審查誰想提問。我們的第一個問題將由巴克萊銀行的湯姆·奧馬利提出。

Congrats on the nice results. The order patterns look good to start the year here. I just wanted to ask a question on the broader year. You've seen a lot of equipment guys report already and talk about a WFE growth rate that's above 20% for the calendar year 2022? Can you talk about why advanced packaging would be a greater or lesser growth rate than that for the year? And when you look at what's may be limiting you not getting to that greater than 20% growth rate, is it supply? Or are you guys just being kind of conservative to start the year here?

恭喜取得好成績。新年伊始，訂單模式看起來不錯。我只是想問一個關於更廣泛的一年​​的問題。您已經看到很多設備人員報告並談論 2022 年 WFE 成長率將超過 20%？您能否談談為什麼先進封裝的成長率會高於或低於今年？當你看看是什麼可能限制你無法達到超過 20% 的成長率時，是供應嗎？或者你們在新的一年開始時只是有點保守？

Okay. Rafi is talking. First of all, we have to distinguish between the front-end equipment and the back-end and the mid-end. There are some always delay between them. If most of the front-end company, they announce about order and growing about 20%. I would say that if we take just specific investment, we can considering having for us the result about a year later, okay? There are always delay between the front-end and the mid-end this in general.

好的。拉菲正在說話。首先我們要區分前端設備和後端、中端。他們之間總是有一些延遲。如果是大多數前端公司，他們公佈的訂單量和成長大約在20%左右。我想說，如果我們只進行具體的投資，我們可以考慮一年後給我們一個結果，好嗎？一般來說，前端和中端之間總是存在延遲。

Now the advanced packaging in other mid-end application sometimes do not behave like the front-end. This is from our experience being here that we saw that the front-end was almost -- we didn't see any increase. We made an excellent increase. So it is not so easy to find correlation between these 2. But in general, I totally agree that the positive trend in the semiconductor sooner or later will come to our field, and we will enjoy it. When exactly will be the timing, we don't know yet.

現在其他中階應用程式中的進階封裝有時表現得不像前端。根據我們在這裡的經驗，我們看到前端幾乎沒有看到任何成長。我們取得了巨大的進步。所以要找到這兩者之間的相關性並不容易。但總的來說，我完全同意半導體的正面趨勢遲早會來到我們的領域，我們會享受它。具體時間是什麼時候，我們還不知道。

In general, in the mid-end, the delivery time is shortage than the front-end. Our customers can place orders 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 weeks, that's good enough for them. I think in the front-end, the delivery time is much stronger, and it's a matter of infrastructure or building new fabs and expansion. So they know more about the whole year claim, okay? This is that to give you an idea about it.

整體來說，中階的交付時間比前端短。我們的客戶可以在 6 週、8 週、10 週下訂單，這對他們來說已經足夠了。我認為在前端，交付時間要強得多，這是基礎設施或建造新晶圓廠和擴張的問題。所以他們對全年索賠有更多了解，好嗎？這是為了讓您對此有一個想法。

That's very helpful. I appreciate that. I just have one more. Moshe, you talked about the if-converted method, you saw shares tick up by about half of the amount of the convert that you described. Is a good way to think about the March quarter having the other half come in, so close to 48 million shares. And when you just take the midpoint of your guidance, which is op margin in the 13.6% range, which is where you guys were in the December quarter, it looks like when you do the math there, you have EPS declining slightly. Is that the right way to think about the quarter-over-quarter, because of the change, do you see some EPS headwind?

這非常有幫助。我很感激。我只剩下一張了摩西，您談到如果轉換方法，您看到股票上漲了大約您所描述的轉換金額的一半。這是一個很好的方式來考慮 3 月季度的另一半股票的數量，接近 4800 萬股。當你只取指導的中點時，即營運利潤率在 13.6% 範圍內，這就是你們在 12 月季度的水平，當你在那裡進行數學計算時，每股收益似乎略有下降。這是考慮季度環比的正確方法嗎？由於這一變化，您是否看到每股收益出現一些逆風？

First of all, with respect to the number of shares you are correct. The applicable number of shares for Q -- end of Q1 will be approximately 48 million shares. We will see -- I said that we will see same margin for the operating margin. That means that on a higher level of revenues, we will see an improvement in the absolute dollar value. And I expect, therefore, that the EPS to be pretty much the same as this quarter.

首先，關於股票數量，你是正確的。第一季末 Q 的適用股票數量約為 4,800 萬股。我們將會看到——我說過我們將會看到相同的營業利潤率。這意味著在更高的收入水平上，我們將看到絕對美元價值的提高。因此，我預計每股收益將與本季基本相同。

The next question will be from Brian Chin of Stifel.

下一個問題將由 Stifel 的 Brian Chin 提出。

Great. Can you hear me okay?

偉大的。你聽得到我說話嗎？

Yes, we hear you very well.

是的，我們聽得很清楚。

All right. Perfect. Congratulations on the good results, and thanks for us ask a few questions. And maybe just a couple here. To start with the magnitude of growth you're anticipating in the June quarter. I know you gave more of a directional indication. But again, the order intake and backlog does support good business trends, magnitude-wise, are we talking maybe ballpark 10% sequential growth? And I ask because I don't think seasonality is a strong factor for the business per se, but the past few years, Camtek has exhibited very strong sequential growth in prior June quarters?

好的。完美的。恭喜您取得了良好的成果，並感謝我們提出了一些問題。也許這裡只有幾個。首先是您預計六月季度的成長幅度。我知道你給了更多的方向指示。但同樣，訂單攝取量和積壓訂單確實支持良好的業務趨勢，就規模而言，我們是否在談論大約 10% 的環比增長？我問這個問題是因為我不認為季節性對業務本身來說是一個重要因素，但在過去幾年中，Camtek 在 6 月之前的幾個季度中表現出了非常強勁的連續成長？

Regarding the -- our estimate about the growth rate, again, it's not so simple, as I said before, because we know very well the first half, we don't have enough information for the second half. But in general, I don't see that we are going to lose any competitive position. I don't think we are going to lose any orders. And it doesn't matter when our customer in the mid-end plan to place order and some of them maybe surprise us and give it later. Some of them will do it in shorter delivery time.

關於我們對成長率的估計，正如我之前所說，這並不是那麼簡單，因為我們對上半年非常了解，但我們對下半年沒有足夠的資訊。但總的來說，我認為我們不會失去任何競爭地位。我認為我們不會失去任何訂單。我們的客戶在中端規劃何時下訂單並不重要，其中一些可能會讓我們感到驚訝並稍後再給我們。他們中的一些人會在更短的交貨時間內完成。

So this is why we cannot give enough, I would say, a good forecast for the whole year. We can see very good the first half. By the way, a year ago, the maximum we can see the quarter ahead. Now we can see 2 quarter ahead is excellent. But that's it, we cannot see more than that. But in general, I think the positive environment definitely can work for us, but we will know later about it, not now.

因此，我想說，這就是為什麼我們無法對全年做出足夠的良好預測。我們可以看到上半場非常好。順便說一句，一年前，我們可以看到未來一個季度的最大值。現在我們可以看到未來兩個季度的表現非常好。但僅此而已，我們無法看到更多。但總的來說，我認為積極的環境肯定對我們有用，但我們稍後會知道，而不是現在。

Okay. Fair enough. And maybe this is a little bit related, but clearly beginning to see good order intake from the heterogeneous integration applications. If you had to put a finger on it, when do you think the spending has a real chance to begin to accelerate? Do you think second half this year, first half next? And also for Camtek, what do you think the customer breadth should look like? Or will it be a little bit more concentrated?

好的。很公平。也許這有點相關，但顯然開始從異質整合應用程式中看到良好的訂單量。如果你必須指出這個問題，你認為支出何時真正有機會開始加速？您認為今年下半年還是明年上半年？對於 Camtek，您認為客戶廣度應該是什麼樣的？還是會更集中一點？

Ramy, do you want to share about it?

拉米，你想分享一下嗎？

Let me (inaudible) So no doubt that when we look at the advanced packaging as a segment, it is continuing to grow. And out in the advanced packaging, there are 2 main segments that are growing much faster, and this is the heterogeneous integration and the fan-out. As far the heterogeneous integration, this is something that already started in magnitude in '21. And definitely, we are seeing this trend growing much faster in '22 and beyond. No doubt the applications are there, it's primarily the high-performance computing and when you look at the breadth of applications from the cloud applications and all the AI that is popping up in all the -- in many, many applications, definitely, this segment is going to grow.

讓我（聽不清楚）因此，毫無疑問，當我們將先進封裝視為一個細分市場時，它正在持續成長。在先進封裝中，有兩個主要部分成長得更快，這就是異質整合和扇出。就異質整合而言，這在 21 年就已經開始大規模開展。當然，我們看到這種趨勢在 22 年及以後增長得更快。毫無疑問，應用程式就在那裡，主要是高效能運算，當你看到雲端應用程式的應用程式廣度以及所有出現在所有應用程式中的人工智慧時，肯定是這個領域。將會成長。

One good example is the high band memory, you can see that growing very fast. So we are seeing the heterogeneous integration really growing in 2 ways: One, you see it on the general heterogeneous integration and then you see the high bandwidth memory also accelerating. We are definitely seeing a lot of (inaudible) activities this year. And I think we mentioned it in previous calls, we will start to ship to the DRAM world, which is very much related to this segment already in the first quarter of this year. So that's definitely a positive news in the overall advanced packaging environment.

一個很好的例子是高頻段內存，您可以看到它增長得非常快。因此，我們看到異質整合確實以兩種方式成長：其一，您在通用異質整合上看到它，然後您看到高頻寬記憶體也在加速。今年我們一定會看到很多（聽不清楚）活動。我想我們在之前的電話會議中提到過，我們將開始向 DRAM 領域發貨，這與今年第一季的這一細分市場非常相關。因此，這對於整個先進封裝環境來說絕對是一個正面的消息。

And maybe just to sneak one last one in. You referenced some new products this year. Can you maybe just -- and talk about how large your existing [SAM] is? And how much of these new products could potentially increase your SAM and also whether you expect a meaningful contribution throughout this year?

也許只是為了偷偷帶上最後一件。你提到了今年的一些新產品。您能否談談您現有的 [SAM] 有多大？這些新產品中有多少可能會增加您的 SAM，以及您是否期望今年能做出有意義的貢獻？

Ramy, you continue with that?

拉米，你繼續嗎？

We look at our SAM, we estimate today at about $800 million and those products will definitely increase it. And I believe once we will launch them, we'll definitely go beyond the $1 billion mark.

讓我們看看我們的 SAM，我們今天估計約為 8 億美元，這些產品肯定會增加它。我相信一旦我們推出它們，我們的銷售額肯定會突破 10 億美元大關。

Our next question will be from Jamie Zakalik of Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題將來自美國銀行的 Jamie Zakalik。

Can you hear me okay?

你聽得到我說話嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Yes.

是的。

So some of your semi cap peers highlighted supply issues in late December that impacted Q1, some of them even up to 10% impact. Does your March quarter guide assume any sort of impact from supply constraints? And if not, what is Camtek doing differently from peers to mitigate these supply issues?

因此，一些半市值同業強調了 12 月底影響第一季的供應問題，其中一些影響甚至高達 10%。您的三月季度指南是否假設供應限制會產生任何影響？如果沒有，Camtek 與同業採取了哪些不同的措施來緩解這些供應問題？

Okay. I think in general, we organized our purchasing and inventory maybe more than a year ago when we just started the beginning of this program. And we increased our inventory called the only item where order on time. And I think we have a very good operation system that doing day by day. I couldn't say that we don't have an issue and challenge in some time. We have to find a replacement for some components. But in general, I think, you -- by the way, you've been seeing in the results that our inventory going up and one of the main reasons that some need a longed item, we have to place order even a year ahead. In the past, we didn't place other so long. So I think we did it on time and we do it day by day. And up to now, we believe we manage it successfully. Hopefully, we continue doing it in 2022 as well.

好的。我認為總的來說，我們組織採購和庫存的時間可能是一年多前，當時我們才剛開始這個計劃。我們增加了庫存，稱為唯一按時訂購的商品。我認為我們有一個非常好的作業系統，日復一日地運作。我不能說我們在一段時間內沒有遇到問題和挑戰。我們必須找到一些部件的替代品。但總的來說，我認為，順便說一句，您在結果中看到我們的庫存在增加，這是一些人需要渴望的物品的主要原因之一，我們甚至必須提前一年下訂單。過去，我們沒有把其他的放那麼久。所以我認為我們按時做到了，而且我們日復一日地做到了。到目前為止，我們相信我們成功地管理了它。希望我們在 2022 年也能繼續這樣做。

For my follow-up, you mentioned higher gross margins in Q1 on a favorable mix, which applications are most accretive to margins? And do you expect those markets to be faster growth markets throughout 2022, so maybe these higher margins could sustain throughout the year?

在我的後續行動中，您提到第一季在有利的組合下毛利率更高，哪些應用程式最能增加利潤？您是否預期這些市場在 2022 年將成為成長更快的市場，因此也許這些較高的利潤率可以全年持續？

Moshe, do you want to answer for that?

摩西，你想回答這個問題嗎？

Yes. It's not necessarily -- first of all, advanced packaging, we have a nice gross margin on advanced packaging, but that is not different from previous quarters. It's more like a specific product mix or deal mix that we have in the first quarter that favor or resulting in a favorable gross margin.

是的。這不一定——首先是先進封裝，我們在先進封裝方面有不錯的毛利率，但這與前幾季沒有什麼不同。它更像是我們在第一季擁有的特定產品組合或交易組合，有利於或帶來有利的毛利率。

And did you quantify -- is it still within your long-term range? Or is it potentially above that?

您是否進行了量化——它是否仍在您的長期範圍內？或者它有可能高於這個值嗎？

We -- our gross margin, you know, typical gross margin varies between 50.5% to 51.5%, as I've mentioned in my prepared remarks. This quarter, we expect it to be higher. And overall, we are making efforts and we are increasing -- we are making other activities within the operations to make it more productive and to improve the gross margin. To what extent this will have an impact this year, it's too early. The visibility that we have for Q1 shows -- indicates the higher gross margin.

我們的毛利率，你知道，典型的毛利率在 50.5% 到 51.5% 之間變化，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣。本季度，我們預計會更高。總的來說，我們正在努力，我們正在增加——我們正在運營中進行其他活動，以提高生產力並提高毛利率。這會在多大程度上影響今年，現在還為時過早。我們對第一季的可見度表明，毛利率更高。

And I'll squeeze one more in here, and then I'll jump back in the queue. But I wanted to ask some follow-ups about the $20 million design win, can you give any color on timing? Was anything recognized in Q4? Is it all going to be recognized in '22? And then also geographically, do these wins help expand your exposure to the US and Europe markets?

我會再擠一個進去，然後我會跳回隊列。但我想問一些關於 2000 萬美元設計勝利的後續問題，你能透露一下時間安排嗎？第四季有什麼被體認到的嗎？這一切都會在22年得到認可嗎？然後，從地理角度來看，這些勝利是否有助於擴大您在美國和歐洲市場的曝光？

Well, first of all, this win relates only to '22. And so from that point of view, that's nothing to do with '21. No doubt this is -- as we mentioned, this is the higher-end applications of advanced packaging. So no doubt these orders are very important. Obviously, we are very careful to speak with about customers' names and regions, but these are 2 leading IDMs and they're really in the very top of the list.

嗯，首先，這場勝利只與'22有關。所以從這個角度來看，這與「21」無關。毫無疑問，正如我們所提到的，這是先進封裝的更高端應用。所以毫無疑問這些命令非常重要。顯然，我們在談論客戶名稱和地區時非常謹慎，但這些都是兩家領先的 IDM，而且它們確實名列前茅。

Our next question is going to be from Charles Shi of Needham.

我們的下一個問題將由李約瑟的查爾斯史提出。

Rafi, Moshe, Ramy. Maybe the first question, so a follow-up on the $20 million order you announced earlier. You said it's targeting the most challenging applications coming from 2 of the Tier 1 IDMs. I know you probably are not going to name the customers, but can you give us a sense whether the IDMs are in the leading logic or memory or auto industrial or like your traditional market like a CMOS image sensor, but some end market color will be great?

拉菲、摩西、拉米。也許是第一個問題，所以接下來是您之前宣布的 2000 萬美元訂單的後續問題。您說過它的目標是來自 2 個 1 級 IDM 的最具挑戰性的應用程式。我知道您可能不會說出客戶的名字，但您能否讓我們了解一下 IDM 是否處於領先的邏輯或記憶體或汽車工業領域，或者像 CMOS 影像感測器這樣的傳統市場，但一些終端市場顏色將是偉大的？

Charles, we are very careful about names of customers. What I can say is what I said in the previous, it really is for the very top names on the list. I can say that it's not related to memory.

查爾斯，我們對客戶的姓名非常謹慎。我能說的是我之前說過的，這確實是針對名單上最頂尖的名字。我可以說這與記憶無關。

So maybe the second question. I look at your order announcements history. It seems like every year at the beginning, you have a good visibility into the first half, maybe by the end of March, early April, you start to make new announcements on orders and that could contribute to like Q3 of the year? My question is, based on what you see in terms of the ordering? Are you expecting a similar pace of -- in terms of how your order book is filling up, especially for Q3 this year? And I have a follow-up after this.

所以也許是第二個問題。我查看您的訂單公告歷史記錄。似乎每年一開始，你對上半年都有很好的了解，也許到三月底、四月初，你開始發布新的訂單公告，這可能有助於今年第三季？我的問題是，根據您所看到的順序？您是否預期訂單簿的填滿速度會類似，特別是今年第三季？此後我有一個後續行動。

Ramy?

拉米？

Well, I'll tell you Charles, it's very hard to compare it, because the mix is different, and it's very hard to look at the year before and compare it to this year. I think as we said, the order flow of the orders and when we see the applications and we see the market trends, definitely, it's a very healthy first half, and we are starting to see a very nice buildup of applications, customers inputs and also backlog into the second quarter -- and into the second half of '22. It's a little bit too early to give the whole picture of '22, and this is very typical to the kind of business that we are in. The customers -- our customers, their forecast is a little bit, I would say, shorter or the visibility they provide us is shorter than if you compare it to the WFE, but no doubt it's building up to be a growth year.

好吧，我告訴你，查爾斯，很難比較，因為混合是不同的，很難回顧前一年並將其與今年進行比較。我認為正如我們所說，訂單的訂單流，當我們看到應用程式和市場趨勢時，毫無疑問，這是一個非常健康的上半年，我們開始看到應用程式、客戶輸入和還積壓到第第二季以及22 年下半年。現在描述 22 年的全貌還為時過早，這對我們所處的行業來說是非常典型的。我想說，客戶——我們的客戶，他們的預測有點短或短。他們為我們提供的可見度比與WFE 相比要短，但毫無疑問，今年將成為成長的一年。

So a quick follow-up to that still kind of related to the second half. I know for most of the years in the past, you've kind of have a steady kind of linear growth throughout the year. I mean maybe with a couple of exceptions like in 2019. So I wonder what's your thinking so far, because last night, I think ASC, they talked about a relatively linear continued growth for their business. I don't know whether that's a good indicator for your business or not? But are you kind of extracting the similar seasonality pattern or revenue profile throughout the rest of '22. If that's going to be a little different, say, maybe second half going up or going down, what will decide -- what are the leading indicators you are looking at?

因此，快速跟進仍然與下半場有關。我知道在過去的大部分時間裡，你全年都會有穩定的線性成長。我的意思是，也許有幾個例外，例如 2019 年。所以我想知道到目前為止您的想法是什麼，因為昨晚，我認為 ASC 談到了其業務相對線性的持續增長。我不知道這對您的業務來說是否是一個好的指標？但是，您是否在 22 世紀剩餘的時間裡提取了類似的季節性模式或收入狀況？如果情況會有所不同，比如說，下半年可能會上升或下降，那麼什麼將決定——您正在關注的領先指標是什麼？

So first of all, you know, Charles what's differs Camtek from this market is the fact that we have 130 customers. And we got a quite a few different segments that grow at different pace, and this is why it's sort of hard to say. I think that in our prepared notes, we said that we definitely see a growth into the second quarter, and we are behind it. Above that, things are building up positively. It's very, very hard for us to give more accurate projection in this stage. But definitely, it's a very good start for the year.

首先，Charles，Camtek 與這個市場的不同之處在於我們擁有 130 個客戶。我們有很多不同的細分市場，它們以不同的速度成長，這就是為什麼很難說的原因。我認為，在我們準備的筆記中，我們說過我們肯定會看到第二季的成長，而且我們對此表示支持。除此之外，事情正在積極發展。在這個階段我們很難給出更準確的預測。但毫無疑問，這是今年一個非常好的開始。

Next, we'll go to Gus Richard of Northland.

接下來，我們將前往北國的格斯理查德。

In advanced packaging, can you give me a sense of how much is high bandwidth memory? How much is heterogeneous and how much is fan-out, just a relative mix?

在高級封裝中，您能給我大概了解高頻寬記憶體有多少嗎？有多少是異構的，有多少是扇出的，只是相對的混合？

How much is it from a mix. I'm trying to think of the numbers. I would say -- and first of all, it's I want to try and look from a -- not just a quarter. When you look in the quarter, it's a little bit misleading. But if I look at the entire year, so no doubt, first of all, there is the broad applications in the advanced packaging of all the different customers. And this would probably -- this is still a big portion. If I'm looking at the -- it's a significant percent, the heterogeneous integration in the overall business. The fan-out is also very significant, the high band memory is a little smaller in magnitude, and then comes a lot of different in smaller applications.

混合的話多少錢。我正在努力思考數字。我想說——首先，我想嘗試從——而不僅僅是四分之一的角度來看。當你查看這個季度時，你會發現它有點誤導。但如果我看看全年，毫無疑問，首先，所有不同客戶的先進封裝都有廣泛的應用。這可能仍然是很大一部分。如果我看一下——整個業務中的異質整合佔了相當大的比例。扇出也非常重要，高帶記憶體的量級要小一些，然後在較小的應用中會有很多不同。

And that's just in terms of advanced packaging, correct?

這只是在先進封裝方面，對嗎？

Absolutely. We are talking just about the 50% of our business that is advanced packaging.

絕對地。我們談論的只是我們 50% 的業務是先進封裝。

And then if -- could you do the same slit foundry, OSAT, IDM? In terms of advanced packaging, just to give us a sense of where the revenue in that bucket is coming from?

然後如果──你能做同樣的狹縫代工、OSAT、IDM 嗎？就先進封裝而言，只是為了讓我們了解該桶中的收入來自哪裡？

Well, this is a little bit harder for me just to give you this number from the top of my head. But definitely, the IDMs is an important portion. Then comes the OSATs that are very important, because there are many of them and they covers a lot of applications. Some of them are not high-end application in advanced packaging, but still the quantities are very large. And then obviously, it comes the foundries and here, it depends, it differs. So it would be very hard at this stage to give you here an accurate number or an accurate indication.

好吧，對我來說，從頭到尾給你這個數字有點困難。但毫無疑問，IDM 是重要的部分。然後是非常重要的 OSAT，因為它們數量很多，而且涵蓋了許多應用。其中一些不是先進封裝的高端應用，但數量仍然很大。顯然，這是鑄造廠，這取決於情況，有所不同。因此，現階段很難給您準確的數字或準確的指示。

And then I'm just curious in your front-end applications, is that currently dominated by discretes or compound? Can you give any color on what sorts of front-end customers you have?

然後我很好奇你們的前端應用程式目前是由分立元件還是複合元件主導？能具體說明一下您擁有哪些類型的前端客戶嗎？

Well, the portion that we do is more related to the -- what we call the back-end of the line of the front-end. So here, you would see a variety of applications from trailing hedges to leading edges. It will be both, it's not just one of them. It would be many applications. And this is, as we said, it's about 20% of our business, this is best portion. And then comes the -- what we call the compound semi that we separated and we look at it as a separate business, and this is about 15%. And this is definitely growing. A lot of it obviously is related to automotive, silicon carbide, but there are applications, they are like LIDAR, face recognition, which are more slightly different materials, but still in the same market segment.

嗯，我們所做的部分與我們所說的前端線的後端更相關。因此，在這裡，您會看到從後籬到前緣的各種應用。兩者都是，而不僅僅是其中之一。這將是許多應用程式。正如我們所說，這約占我們業務的 20%，這是最好的部分。然後是我們所說的我們分離的複合半成品，我們將其視為一項獨立的業務，約佔 15%。而且這個數字肯定在增加。其中許多顯然與汽車、碳化矽有關，但也有一些應用，例如雷射雷達、人臉識別，它們的材料略有不同，但仍然處於同一細分市場。

And then in the 10-K, do you disclose year-end backlog? And then if you do, can you give us a little preview of what that might be?

然後在 10-K 中，您是否揭露年終積壓？如果你這樣做了，你能給我們稍微預覽一下這可能是什麼嗎？

No, actually, we do not provide in our 20-F, which is the equivalent of 10-K for US companies or foreign issuers. We do not provide any backlog information. So we typically, we do not provide it also in our conference calls.

不，實際上，我們的 20-F 中沒有提供，這相當於美國公司或外國發行人的 10-K。我們不提供任何積壓資訊。因此，我們通常不會在電話會議中提供它。

We'll now go back to Jamie Zakalik of Bank of America for a follow-on question.

我們現在回到美國銀行的 Jamie Zakalik 回答後續問題。

I had a question on OpEx. It looks like it's starting the year pretty high based on my calculations, maybe in the $18 million range. How should we think about OpEx throughout the year? Is this the quarterly rate we should be thinking about? Is there -- are you guys going to potentially grow it sequentially each quarter? Basically, how should we think about it throughout the year?

我有一個關於營運支出的問題。根據我的計算，今年年初的收入似乎相當高，可能在 1800 萬美元左右。我們該如何思考全年的營運支出？這是我們應該考慮的季度利率嗎？你們是否有可能每個季度都按順序增長它？基本上，我們全年該如何思考？

Well, without referring specifically to the number. I think what we plan on OpEx is pretty flat quarters. We do not plan to increase much above and beyond the increase that you already see in Q4 and Q1. So it will be pretty flattish OpEx level throughout the year.

好吧，沒有具體提及數字。我認為我們對營運支出的計劃是季度持平。我們不打算增加太多超出您在第四季和第一季已經看到的成長。因此，全年營運支出水準將相當平穩。

And my last one would be -- when you're looking at the year from the visibility you have now, if you had to rank order your applications on which could grow fastest and which might be slightly less fast growth this year. How would you rank the applications across advanced packaging, compound semis, front end, et cetera?

我的最後一個問題是，當您從現在的可見性來看這一年時，如果您必須對今年成長最快的應用程式進行排序，而哪些應用程式的成長速度可能會稍慢。您如何對先進封裝、複合半成品、前端等領域的應用進行排名？

So let's go back, no doubt. Front end is 50% of our business. It's a very robust growth, and there are a couple of segments there that are going to grow very fast. And definitely, we are going to enjoy them. So there, specifically, we talked about the heterogeneous integration, we talked about the fan-out and we talked about the DRAM transition to high bandwidth memory, definitely, these are 3 strong trends that are going to go -- are going to be very dominant in '22, and I believe also in '23. So definitely, this segment is very strong. It will grow, and we are very confident about it.

那麼，毫無疑問，讓我們回去吧。前端占我們業務的 50%。這是一個非常強勁的成長，有幾個細分市場將會成長得非常快。當然，我們會享受它們。因此，具體而言，我們討論了異質整合、扇出以及 DRAM 向高頻寬記憶體的過渡，當然，這些是即將發生的 3 個強勁趨勢——將會非常明顯。在22 年佔據主導地位，我也相信在23 年。所以毫無疑問，這個細分市場非常強大。它會成長，我們對此非常有信心。

I think we've grown very fast in the front-end. We -- this is 20% of our business, we see continued growth there. We had a nice backlog for the first and second quarter for this segment. And similarly, the compound semi, which is about 15%, so those 3 segments are definitely very strong. And then there are the others that we didn't talk about, like the CMOS, image sensors, an area that we dominate that is around the double-digits of our business. This business is definitely going to be there, and I'm expecting that it will be in a similar range in this year's way. And if you take 130 customers, so we are very confident that this is going to be a very -- it's going to be a good growth year.

我認為我們在前端的發展非常快。我們—這是我們業務的 20%，我們看到那裡持續成長。我們在第一季和第二季該細分市場的積壓情況良好。同樣，複合半成品的比例約為 15%，因此這 3 個細分市場絕對非常強大。還有其他一些我們沒有談論的領域，例如 CMOS、影像感測器，這是我們佔據主導地位的領域，其業務規模約為兩位數。這項業務肯定會存在，我預計今年的業務量也會保持在類似的範圍內。如果你有 130 位客戶，那麼我們非常有信心，這將會是一個非常好的成長年。

Our next question is from Udi Levin from Achords.

我們的下一個問題來自 Achords 的 Udi Levin。

I just wanted to understand that if the margin of the research and the selling is supposed to be -- and still, I see that it's, kind of, lower than the other year? And I wanted to ask about the future if you see this continue.

我只是想知道，如果研究和銷售的利潤應該是——而且我仍然認為它比前一年要低？我想問一下，如果你看到這種情況繼續下去，未來會怎麼樣。

Udi can across unclear, if you can please repeat the question.

Udi 可能不清楚，如果可以請重複問題。

Rafi, did you hear me? Do you hear me?

拉菲，你聽到我說話了嗎？你聽到我說話了嗎？

Now, we hear you.

現在，我們聽到你的聲音。

I don't understand your question.

我不明白你的問題。

Okay. I just wanted to ask about the margin of the research and development costs and the selling engine general administration cost, if I saw that the margins go lower. And I wanted to know if in 2022, it will continue the same margin as it was 2021?

好的。我只是想問研發成本和銷售引擎一般管理成本的利潤率，如果看到利潤率下降的話。我想知道 2022 年是否會繼續保持與 2021 年相同的利潤率？

Okay. Actually, we did say in previous calls, it will be that we plan to increase R&D and sales and marketing, the company is growing and in order to support the growth, we needed to invest more in R&D and in sales channels. So what you have seen in fourth quarter, and you will continue to see in the first quarter is somewhat an increase in this level of spending. As I said to Jamie, after this, you will see more like a flattish R&D and sales and marketing for the rest of the year.

好的。實際上，我們在之前的電話會議中確實說過，我們計劃增加研發和銷售和行銷，公司正在成長，為了支持成長，我們需要在研發和銷售管道上進行更多投資。因此，您在第四季度看到的，並將在第一季繼續看到的，是這一支出水平有所增加。正如我對傑米所說，在此之後，你會看到今年剩餘時間的研發、銷售和行銷將更加平淡。

(Operator Instructions) So we have a question, no we do not -- we do have a question from Alan Lars.

（操作員說明）所以我們有一個問題，不，我們沒有——我們確實有來自艾倫·拉爾斯的問題。

You stocked every quarter also about the introduction of new products that are supposed to be in the coming quarters. Could you please provide some details about it? What kind of products are planned to be introduced? To what areas? And what's the prospect of they're selling in the coming year or 2?

您每季還會庫存一些有關未來幾季推出的新產品的庫存。能否提供一些相關細節？計劃推出什麼樣的產品？去哪些地區？他們在未來一兩年的銷售前景如何？

Okay. I can maybe, you know, we talk about new products. Actually, it's like -- we call it like ongoing. Almost every order we get, there are some special development, some special feature. And many times, we develop product and feature, while we get the order. So there are many, many other -- many, I would say, new product that we launch all the time. We don't announce on any or of them. Only when we go to a new platform or something really major system, we usually make announcement, this is in general.

好的。我也許可以，你知道，我們討論新產品。事實上，這就像是——我們稱之為持續的。幾乎我們收到的每個訂單都有一些特殊的開發、一些特殊的功能。很多時候，我們在收到訂單的同時開發產品和功能。因此，我們一直在推出很多很多其他新產品。我們不會對其中任何一個進行宣布。只有當我們進入一個新平台或一些真正主要的系統時，我們通常才會發佈公告，這是一般情況。

So we always said that in 2022, we plan to launch innovation product -- innovative product, we mean definitely, it will be some new platform, more features on the Eagle and the new platforms. So we have a lot of new, I would say, the innovative product will be launched next year. And by time, we will definitely we'll talk about it, I will explain what the purpose of this product and what we expect from that product.

所以我們總是說，在 2022 年，我們計劃推出創新產品——創新產品，我們的意思是肯定的，這將是一些新平台，Eagle 和新平台上的更多功能。所以我們有很多新的，我想說，創新的產品將在明年推出。到時候，我們肯定會討論它，我會解釋這個產品的目的以及我們對該產品的期望。

I had a follow-up, and it's related to the R&D intensity, we have seen in 2021, a quite significant decline in the R&D intensity, because of the increase in sales, quite robust increase in sales, while R&D was quite flat, which is speaking about the operating leverage. But to what extent this is something which is sustainable or is it a need to go to somehow higher levels of R&D intensity in order to support future growth or future prospects of new innovations?

我有一個跟踪，和研發強度有關，我們看到2021年，研發強度有一個相當大的下降，因為銷售額的增長，銷售額增長相當強勁，而研發卻相當平淡，這正在談論經營槓桿。但這在多大程度上是可持續的，或者是否需要以某種方式提高研發強度以支持未來的成長或新創新的未來前景？

But let me just give you something about your statement. Definitely, R&D the last year should support the sales and most of the R&D efforts were to support the sales. But while we support the sale, many of the support are what we call long-term product, long-term development that we already plan to launch in some time. So I couldn't say that all the efforts just go to support the ongoing without thinking about the long-term.

但讓我簡單介紹一下您的陳述。當然，去年的研發應該要支持銷售，而且大部分研發工作都是為了支持銷售。但是，雖然我們支持銷售，但許多支援是我們所說的長期產品、長期開發，我們已經計劃在一段時間內推出。所以我不能說所有的努力只是為了支持正在進行的而不考慮長遠。

Now developing a new platform, usually, this is the project that takes a few years, okay? In our world, the accuracy, the demand, application, it takes time always to come with totally new product or new platform. So this is what we call we have a dedicated team that's working only on the long-term. But altogether, we definitely have a new product. And even while we put a lot of efforts in 2021, we came with the fourth generation of the Eagle. We came to many feature of site inspection side, edge section and back inspection and many different sensors, a lot of things that we don't make any (inaudible) for every one of them. But definitely, customers are very aware about our capability and what type of product we provided during this year.

現在開發一個新平台，通常來說，這是一個需要幾年時間的項目，好嗎？在我們的世界中，準確性、需求、應用總是需要時間來推出全新的產品或新平台。這就是我們所說的，我們有一個專注於長期工作的團隊。但總的來說，我們肯定有一個新產品。儘管我們在 2021 年付出了很多努力，但我們還是推出了第四代 Eagle。我們了解了現場檢查側面、邊緣部分和背面檢查的許多功能以及許多不同的感應器，很多東西我們沒有為每一個都製作任何（聽不清楚）。但毫無疑問，客戶非常了解我們的能力以及我們今年提供的產品類型。

Just to complete (inaudible) the answer. As we said, we -- indeed, R&D spending last year was somewhat lower than what we wanted, because it took us some time to hire people with a big race after talented engineers. So it took us some time to hire the people that we wanted and to increase the level of expenses, which are absolutely mandatory for our continued growth. And I think that during the fourth quarter and in the first quarter, we have managed to improve this. We have added more people to the R&D team and sales and marketing as well. And as a result, what you will see in 2022 is a higher level of R&D expenses.

只是為了完成（聽不清楚）答案。正如我們所說，我們——事實上，去年的研發支出比我們想要的要低一些，因為我們花了一些時間來僱用那些在才華橫溢的工程師之後進行激烈競爭的人。因此，我們花了一些時間來僱用我們想要的人員並增加開支水平，這對我們的持續成長絕對是強制性的。我認為在第四季度和第一季度，我們已經設法改進了這一點。我們在研發團隊以及銷售和行銷團隊中增加了更多人員。因此，2022 年你將會看到更高水準的研發費用。

Okay. Thanks. That would end our Q&A session. Before I hand back to Rafi, I just want to remind everybody that in the coming hours, this call, the recording will be uploaded to Camtek's Investor Relations website.

好的。謝謝。我們的問答環節就結束了。在我把話說給拉菲之前，我只想提醒大家，在接下來的幾個小時內，這次電話會議的錄音將會上傳到 Camtek 的投資人關係網站。

And with that, I would now like to hand over to Rafi for his closing statements. Rafi, Please go ahead.

現在我想請拉菲作總結陳詞。拉菲，請繼續。

Okay. I would like to thank all of you for your continued interest in our business. Again, I would like to thank all our employees and my management team for the tremendous performance, and we look forward to continuing it. To all investors, I thank your long-term support. I look forward to talking with you again next quarter. Thank you very much, and good-bye.

好的。我要感謝大家對我們業務的持續關注。我要再次感謝我們所有的員工和我的管理團隊的出色表現，我們期待繼續下去。感謝各位投資者長期以來的支持。我期待下個季度再次與您交談。非常感謝，再見。