Vicor Corp (VICR) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome, everyone, to the Vicor Earnings Results for the Fourth Quarter and Year ended December 31, 2021. My name is Robin, I'd be the operator today. (Operator Instructions) I would like to advise all parties that this conference is being recorded.

美好的一天，歡迎大家關注截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的 Vicor 第四季和年度獲利結果。我叫 Robin，今天我將擔任接線員。 （操作員指示）我謹通知各方，本次會議正在錄製中。

And now I would like to hand the call over to Jim Schmidt, Chief Financial Officer. Please proceed, sir.

現在我想將電話轉交給財務長吉姆·施密特 (Jim Schmidt)。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, and good afternoon, and welcome to Vicor Corporation's earnings call for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2021.

謝謝大家，下午好，歡迎參加 Vicor 公司截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的第四季和年度財報電話會議。

I'm Jim Schmidt, Chief Financial Officer, and I am in Andover with Patrizio Vinciarelli, Chief Executive Officer; and Phil Davies, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. After the markets closed today, we issued a press release, summarizing our financial results for the 3 months and year ending December 31. This press release has been posted on the Investor Relations page of our website, www.vicorpower.com. We also filed a Form 8-K today related to the issuance of this press release. I remind listeners this conference call is being recorded and is the copyrighted property of Vicor Corporation.

我是財務長 Jim Schmidt，我和執行長 Patrizio Vinciarelli 一起在安多佛。以及全球銷售和行銷副總裁 Phil Davies。今天收盤後，我們發布了一份新聞稿，總結了截至 12 月 31 日的三個月和一年的財務業績。本新聞稿已發佈在我們網站 www.vicorpower.com 的投資者關係頁面上。我們今天也提交了與本新聞稿發布相關的 8-K 表格。我提醒聽眾，本次電話會議正在錄音，並且是 Vicor Corporation 的版權財產。

I also remind you various remarks we make during this call may constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Except for historical information contained in this call, the matters discussed on this call, including any statements regarding current and planned products, current and potential customers, potential market opportunities, expected events and announcements and our capacity expansion as well as management's expectations for sales growth, spending and profitability are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties.

我還提醒您，我們在本次電話會議中發表的各種言論可能構成根據1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》的安全港條款的前瞻性陳述。除了本次電話會議中包含的歷史資訊外，本次電話會議中討論的事項，包括有關當前和計劃產品、當前和潛在客戶、潛在市場機會、預期事件和公告以及我們的產能擴張以及管理層對銷售增長、支出和盈利能力的預期的任何聲明，均為涉及風險和不確定性的前瞻性聲明。

In light of these risks and uncertainties, we can offer no assurance that any forward-looking statement will, in fact, prove to be correct. Actual results may differ materially from those explicitly set forth in or implied by any of our remarks today. The risks and uncertainties we face are discussed in Item 1A of our 2020 Form 10-K, which we filed with the SEC on March 1, 2021. This document is available via the EDGAR system on the SEC's website. Please note the information provided during this conference call is accurate only as of today, Thursday, February 24, 2022. Vicor undertakes no obligation to update any statements, including forward-looking statements made during this call. And you should not rely upon such statements after the conclusion of this call.

鑑於這些風險和不確定性，我們不能保證任何前瞻性聲明實際上都被證明是正確的。實際結果可能與我們今天的任何言論中明確闡述或暗示的結果有重大差異。我們於 2021 年 3 月 1 日向 SEC 提交的 2020 年 10-K 表格的第 1A 項討論了我們面臨的風險和不確定性。該文件可透過 SEC 網站上的 EDGAR 系統取得。請注意，本次電話會議期間提供的資訊僅截至今天（2022 年 2 月 24 日星期四）準確。Vicor 不承擔更新任何聲明的義務，包括本次電話會議期間所做的前瞻性聲明。在本次通話結束後，您不應依賴此類聲明。

A replay of today's call will be available beginning at midnight tonight through March 11, 2022. The replay dial-in number is (888) 286-8010, followed by the passcode 63075291. This dial-in and passcode also are set forth in today's press release. In addition, a webcast replay of today's call, along with the transcript will be available shortly on the Investor Relations page of our website.

今天的電話會議將於今晚午夜開始至2022 年3 月11 日期間重播。重播撥入號碼為(888) 286-8010，密碼為63075291。此撥入號碼和密碼也在今天的電話會議中列出。新聞稿。此外，我們網站的投資者關係頁面很快就會提供今天電話會議的網路廣播重播以及文字記錄。

I'll now turn to a review of our Q4 and full year financial performance, after which Phil will review recent market developments, and Patrizio, Phil and I will take your questions. In my remarks, I will focus mostly on the sequential quarterly change for P&L and balance sheet items as well as full year-on-year changes and refer you to our press release or our upcoming Form 10-K for additional information.

現在我將回顧我們第四季和全年的財務業績，之後菲爾將回顧最近的市場發展，帕特里齊奧、菲爾和我將回答你們的問題。在我的發言中，我將主要關注損益表和資產負債表項目的連續季度變化以及全年同比變化，並請您參閱我們的新聞稿或即將發布的 10-K 表格以了解更多信息。

As stated in today's press release, Vicor recorded total revenue for the fourth quarter of $90.3 million, up 6.3% from the third quarter total of $84.9 million. Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2021, increased 21.2% to $359.4 million from $296.6 million for the prior year. Advanced products revenue rose 18.2% sequentially, while brick products revenue declined 6.2% from the third quarter. Revenues for advanced products for the year ending 2021 increased 60.1% to $170 million -- $170.2 million from $106.3 million the year before.

正如今天的新聞稿所述，Vicor 第四季總收入為 9,030 萬美元，比第三季的 8,490 萬美元總收入增長 6.3%。截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日止年度的營收從上一年的 2.966 億美元成長 21.2% 至 3.594 億美元。先進產品營收季增 18.2%，而磚塊產品營收較第三季下降 6.2%。截至 2021 年底，先進產品的營收成長了 60.1%，從上一年的 1.063 億美元增至 1.70 億美元，即 1.702 億美元。

Shipments to stocking distributors increased 4.2% sequentially and 67.4% year-over-year, with year-over-year increases for both advanced and brick products. Exports for the fourth quarter increased sequentially as a percentage of total revenue to approximately 71.7% from the prior quarter's 62.4% primarily due to increases in advanced products. On a year-over-year basis, exports increased as a percentage of total revenue to approximately 67% from the prior year's 64.4%. For Q4, advanced product share of total revenue increased to 56.9% compared to 51.2% for the third quarter, with brick product share correspondingly decreasing to 43.1% of total revenue.

向庫存分銷商的出貨量較上月成長 4.2%，較去年同期成長 67.4%，高級產品和磚塊產品的出貨量均較去年同期成長。第四季出口占總收入的比例從上一季的 62.4% 增至約 71.7%，主要是由於先進產品的成長。與去年同期相比，出口占總收入的比例從上年的 64.4% 上升至約 67%。第四季度，高級產品佔總收入的份額從第三季度的 51.2% 上升至 56.9%，磚塊產品份額相應下降至總收入的 43.1%。

Turning to Q4 gross margin. We recorded a consolidated gross profit margin of 45.2%. For the full year 2021, gross margin improved to 49.6% from 44.3% in the prior year. While margins remain under the pressure of high tariff charges, the Q4 charge did decrease by approximately 7.1% compared to Q3 to approximately $1.8 million. We continue to expect to see improvement over time in part reflecting our ongoing efforts to reduce component imports from China.

轉向第四季的毛利率。我們的綜合毛利率為45.2%。 2021 年全年毛利率從上年度的 44.3% 提高至 49.6%。雖然利潤率仍面臨高關稅費用的壓力，但第四季的費用確實比第三季下降了約 7.1%，至約 180 萬美元。我們繼續預計隨著時間的推移，情況會有所改善，部分原因是我們不斷努力減少從中國進口零件。

I'll now turn to Q4 operating expenses. Total operating expense increased 3.5% from the third quarter, driven by increased compensation, legal and business development expense. For the full year 2021, total operating expense as a percent of revenue declined to 34.1% from 38.5% in the prior year. The amounts of total equity-based compensation expense for Q4 included in cost of goods sold, SG&A and R&D was $261,000, $1.207 million and $562,000, respectively, totaling approximately $2 million. For Q4, we recorded operating income of $8.9 million, representing an operating margin of 9.9%. For the full year 2021, operating income totaled $55.6 million or 15.5% of revenue compared to $17.4 million or 5.9% of revenue in the prior year.

我現在談談第四季的營運費用。由於薪酬、法律和業務開發費用增加，總營運費用較第三季增加 3.5%。 2021 年全年，總營運費用佔收入的百分比從前一年的 38.5% 下降至 34.1%。第四季包含在銷售成本、SG&A 和研發成本中的股權激勵費用總額分別為 261,000 美元、120.7 萬美元和 562,000 美元，總計約 200 萬美元。第四季度，我們的營業收入為 890 萬美元，營業利益率為 9.9%。 2021 年全年營業收入總計 5,560 萬美元，佔收入的 15.5%，而前一年為 1,740 萬美元，佔收入的 5.9%。

Turning to income taxes. We recorded a tax provision for Q4 of $206,000, representing an effective tax rate for the quarter of 2.3%. The tax provision for the full year 2021 was $176,000, representing an effective tax rate for the year of 0.3%. This was primarily due to a result of the income tax accounting required for stock options exercised during those periods.

轉向所得稅。我們第四季的稅收準備金為 206,000 美元，相當於該季度 2.3% 的有效稅率。 2021 年全年的稅收撥備為 176,000 美元，相當於當年的有效稅率為 0.3%。這主要是由於在這些期間行使的股票選擇權所需的所得稅會計處理的結果。

Net income for Q4 totaled $8.9 million. GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.20 based on a fully diluted share count of 45,148,000 shares. For the full year 2021, net income increased to $56.6 million, up from $17.9 million in the prior year. In 2021, fully diluted earnings per share more than tripled from the prior year, increasing to $1.26 from $0.41 in the prior year.

第四季淨利總計 890 萬美元。根據 45,148,000 股完全稀釋後的股數計算，GAAP 攤薄每股收益為 0.20 美元。 2021 年全年淨利從上一年的 1,790 萬美元增至 5,660 萬美元。 2021 年，完全稀釋每股收益比上年增長了兩倍多，從上年的 0.41 美元增加到 1.26 美元。

Before I turn to our financial position, just a brief update about COVID-19 and our workforce. As previously discussed as a designated essential manufacturer using masks and practicing social distancing from the onset of the pandemic, we have continuously operated 3 shifts at our Andover manufacturing facility. Cases and absenteeism due to COVID-19 are now negligible. Nevertheless, because much of the potential influence of the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with risks outside of our control, we cannot estimate the extent of such influence under financial or operational performance or when such influence might occur.

在談論我們的財務狀況之前，我先簡單介紹一下有關 COVID-19 和我們員工隊伍的最新情況。正如之前所討論的，作為指定必需品製造商，在大流行爆發後，我們使用口罩並保持社交距離，我們在安多弗的製造工廠連續實行 3 班倒。現在，因 COVID-19 導致的病例和缺勤情況可以忽略不計。然而，由於 COVID-19 大流行的許多潛在影響與我們無法控制的風險有關，因此我們無法估計財務或營運績效的影響程度或何時可能發生。

Turning to our cash flow and balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $227.6 million at Q4. Accounts receivable net of reserves totaled $55.1 million at quarter end, with DSOs for trade receivables basically steady at 41 days. All balances are current. Inventories net of reserves increased 6.2% sequentially to $67.3 million. Annualized turns remained unchanged at 2.9. Operating cash flow totaled $14.2 million for the quarter. Capital expenditures for Q4 totaled $16.8 million. We ended the quarter with a construction in progress balance of approximately $36 million, leaving approximately $35 million scheduled to be spent through the year, primarily for manufacturing equipment. Our factory expansion project is proceeding on schedule and on budget. And on January 27, we received certificate of occupancy.

轉向我們的現金流和資產負債表。第四季現金、現金等價物和短期投資總額為 2.276 億美元。截至季末，扣除準備金的應收帳款總額為 5,510 萬美元，應收帳款的 DSO 期限基本上穩定在 41 天。所有餘額均為當前餘額。扣除準備金後的庫存淨額成長 6.2%，達到 6,730 萬美元。年化週轉率維持在 2.9 不變。該季度營運現金流總計 1,420 萬美元。第四季的資本支出總計 1,680 萬美元。本季結束時，我們的在建工程餘額約為 3,600 萬美元，全年計畫支出約 3,500 萬美元，主要用於製造設備。我們的工廠擴建項目正在按計劃、按預算進行。 1月27日，我們收到了入住證明。

I'll now address bookings and backlog. Q4 book-to-bill came in well above 1 and with 1-year backlog increasing 17% from the immediately prior quarter and up more than twofold from the same period last year.

我現在將解決預訂和積壓問題。第四季的訂單出貨比遠高於 1，一年積壓訂單比上一季增加了 17%，比去年同期增加了兩倍多。

Turning to the first quarter of 2022. Our practice continues to be not to provide specific quarterly targets. Our focus is directed at bringing our in-house production online in the coming months so that we can fully support the customer base that is driving demand for our products. We continue to work on improvements and product level profitability. Further, we do not anticipate any meaningful increases in operating expenses, while substantial further improvements in gross margin, we'll have to await production from our new vertically integrated factory, we expect incremental revenue to drive earnings per share given the scalability of our operating model.

談到 2022 年第一季。我們的做法仍然是不提供具體的季度目標。我們的重點是在未來幾個月內將我們的內部生產上線，以便我們能夠全力支持推動我們產品需求的客戶群。我們持續致力於改善和提高產品水準的獲利能力。此外，我們預計營運費用不會出現任何有意義的增加，同時毛利率將進一步大幅提高，我們將不得不等待我們新的垂直整合工廠的生產，鑑於我們營運的可擴展性，我們預計增量收入將推動每股收益模型。

With that, Phil will provide an overview of recent market developments, and then Patrizio, Phil and I will take your questions. (Operator Instructions) Phil?

接下來，菲爾將概述最近的市場發展，然後帕特里齊奧、菲爾和我將回答大家的問題。 （操作員指示）菲爾？

Thank you, Jim. Q4 was once again characterized by strong bookings for advanced products with high-performance computing customers and with anticipated lower legacy product bookings. Orders for legacy products in regions other than China remains strong. On the advanced products front, the strong bookings growth trajectory for a high-performance computing business is expected to continue with both increased demand from major customers and new opportunities and designing activity continuing at both existing and new customers. Established OEMs and several well-known and well-funded AI start-up companies having introduced initial relatively low current AI platforms and now planning AI ASICs with currents approaching 1,000 amps and have turned to Vicor's lateral and lateral vertical power solutions.

謝謝你，吉姆。第四季的特點再次是高效能運算客戶對先進產品的強勁預訂，以及預期傳統產品預訂的減少。中國以外地區的傳統產品訂單依然強勁。在先進產品方面，隨著主要客戶需求的增加以及現有和新客戶的新機會和設計活動的持續成長，高效能運算業務的強勁預訂成長軌跡預計將持續下去。老牌 OEM 和幾家知名且資金雄厚的 AI 新創公司推出了最初相對較低電流的 AI 平台，現在規劃電流接近 1,000 安培的 AI ASIC，並轉向 Vicor 的橫向和橫向垂直電源解決方案。

Our customer portfolio in high-performance computing continues to grow, and we are already in new Generation 5 technologies in controlled silicon and components to continue our advances in power density, current density, efficiency and transient response, which is critical -- which are all critical to high-performance AI applications. Our Gen 5 point-of-load products incorporating several major performance advances will be introduced in Q3 this year to early lead customers. The demand for high-density power delivery solutions continues unabated across all of our target markets with power systems engineers turning to Vicor's modular power solutions to solve their toughest design challenges.

我們在高效能運算領域的客戶組合持續成長，並且我們已經在受控晶片和組件方面採用了新一代第五代技術，以繼續我們在功率密度、電流密度、效率和瞬態響應方面的進步，這是至關重要的——這些都是對於高效能人工智慧應用至關重要。我們的第五代負載點產品融合了多項重大效能進步，將於今年第三季向早期主要客戶推出。我們所有目標市場對高密度供電解決方案的需求持續有增無減，電源系統工程師轉向 Vicor 的模組化電源解決方案來解決最棘手的設計挑戰。

Our work in the past 3 years in the broad industrial marketplace to find new growth applications is beginning to pay off. Due to the rapid electrification and autonomy trends within both existing and emerging industrial markets, we have identified an additional $2.5 billion of available market in the next 5 years across market segments such as light electric vehicles, robotics, battery test equipment and UAVs. Our opportunity pipeline currently stands for $250 million for these new high-growth applications.

過去三年來，我們在廣闊的工業市場中尋找新的成長應用的工作已開始獲得回報。由於現有和新興工業市場的快速電氣化和自動化趨勢，我們已確定未來 5 年內輕型電動車、機器人、電池測試設備和無人機等細分市場將有 25 億美元的額外可用市場。目前，我們為這些新的高成長應用程式提供了價值 2.5 億美元的機會。

Our automotive business development success in 2021 confirmed our confidence that the automotive market presents a significant growth opportunity for Vicor power modules and our place as a major future supplier of power modules to the automobile and truck industry. Our directed supplier strategy with leading OEMs has been very successful with 3 production design wins and now 10 collaboration projects with major OEMs on technology and power module-based system evaluations.

我們在 2021 年汽車業務發展的成功證實了我們的信心，即汽車市場為 Vicor 電源模組提供了巨大的成長機會，也證明了我們作為汽車和卡車行業未來主要電源模組供應商的地位。我們與領先 OEM 的直接供應商策略非常成功，贏得了 3 項生產設計，現在與主要 OEM 就基於技術和功率模組的系統評估開展了 10 個合作項目。

Our aerospace, sorry, and defense business strategy is undergoing a refocusing on 4 key growth markets. In one of these markets, satellite communications, we have made advances with new customers, and our opportunity pipeline outside of our lead customer Boeing is beginning to grow. We are excited for what lies ahead of us in 2022 and beyond, given the major dislocations occurring in numerous large end markets, as system power levels increase and electrification and autonomy drive the demand for higher performance power delivery networks. Major customers across our target markets clearly see the significant benefits of moving to higher voltages and away from discrete-based custom power system solutions and towards high-density modular power solutions from Vicor.

抱歉，我們的航空航太和國防商業策略正在重新聚焦於 4 個關鍵成長市場。在這些市場之一——衛星通訊——中，我們已經與新客戶取得了進展，而且我們在主要客戶波音公司之外的機會管道也開始成長。鑑於隨著系統功率水平的提高以及電氣化和自動化推動對更高性能電力傳輸網路的需求，許多大型終端市場發生了重大混亂，我們對 2022 年及以後的前景感到興奮。我們目標市場的主要客戶清楚地看到了轉向更高電壓、放棄基於分離式客製化電源系統解決方案、轉向 Vicor 高密度模組化電源解決方案的顯著優勢。

Key to maximizing our growth opportunity will be achieving and maintaining operational excellence across our entire company. Initiatives launched in Q2 of last year are now well underway with multiple cross-functional teams focusing on 7 pillars of continuous improvement, ranging from customer centricity to talent retention and acquisition. Our commitment to vertical integration of our manufacturing processes and expanding our American base of operations is also a key success factor to achieving operational excellence. As Jim noted earlier in his prepared remarks, our new facility is approaching completion and will be operational in Q3 of this year with a ribbon-cutting opening ceremony on April 26.

最大化成長機會的關鍵是在整個公司實現並維持卓越營運。去年第二季推出的措施目前正在順利進行，多個跨職能團隊專注於持續改善的 7 個支柱，從以客戶為中心到人才保留和獲取。我們對製造流程的垂直整合和擴大美國營運基地的承諾也是實現卓越營運的關鍵成功因素。正如吉姆早些時候在他準備好的演講中指出的那樣，我們的新工廠即將竣工，將於今年第三季度投入運營，並於 4 月 26 日舉行剪彩開幕儀式。

That concludes my remarks. And Patrizio, Jim and I will now take your questions.

我的發言到此結束。帕特里齊奧、吉姆和我現在將回答你們的問題。

Okay. Operator, we're ready for questions now.

好的。接線員，我們現在準備好回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) The first one is coming from the line of [John Dillon.]

（操作員說明）第一個來自[約翰·狄龍]。

Congratulations on the bookings, they look really good. Patrizio, I did have a question on the new factory. I was kind of -- I thought kind of that production would be starting this quarter. Can you give us a little more color on what's happening with the new factory?

恭喜您獲得預訂，它們看起來非常好。帕特里齊奧，我確實對新工廠有疑問。我有點——我以為這部作品會在本季開始製作。您能給我們更多新工廠的情況嗎？

Yes. So regarding start of production in the new wing, we're actually expecting next week to start production on a new line with the capacity of 1 panel, which is a large multi modules per minute. That's a portion of the expansion with a shorter cycle time to fruition than other portions to do more with the package technology that is key to vertical integration. So that equipment, actually, the 3 of us feel, Jim and I gave the 2 of it on Tuesday of this week. A better equipment is partly in place. There are 2 cranes were there on Tuesday, lifting additional equipment is getting installed. We have tens of millions of those equipment that is going in and it's going to start going through qualification runs later this quarter and to next quarter and some of the process steps are going to be operational in the second quarter. But to be clear, as suggested by Jim earlier, for full vertical integration, we're looking at the month of July.

是的。因此，關於新翼的生產開始，我們實際上預計下週將開始生產一條產能為 1 個面板的新生產線，即每分鐘一個大型多模組。這是擴張的一部分，與其他部分相比，實現週期時間更短，可以利用對垂直整合至關重要的封裝技術做更多事情。因此，實際上，我們三個人都覺得，吉姆和我在本週二提供了其中的兩個設備。更好的設備已部分到位。週二有 2 台起重機，正在安裝額外的起重設備。我們有數千萬台此類設備正在投入使用，並將在本季末和下個季度開始進行資格運行，其中一些流程步驟將在第二季度投入運行。但需要明確的是，正如吉姆早些時候所建議的那樣，為了實現全面的垂直整合，我們正在考慮 7 月。

Got you. So we'll still see some increase in production then for the next couple of quarters, I would imagine?

明白你了。因此，我想，在接下來的幾個季度中，我們仍會看到產量增加？

Well, in certain areas, we are looking at a significant increase in production, again, starting next week. With respect to some of the process steps involved in the chip or converted host in package technology, we're going to have access to some of the process steps starting in Q2. But again, for complete system packaging, it will be in July.

嗯，在某些地區，我們預計從下週開始產量將再次大幅增加。關於晶片或轉換主機封裝技術中涉及的一些製程步驟，我們將從第二季開始存取一些製程步驟。但同樣，對於完整的系統打包，這將是在七月。

Got you. But I mean for total revenue -- go ahead. For total revenue for Vicor, though, can we expect to see revenues starting to increase quarter after quarter? I mean, I would imagine -- I mean, I guess, really what I'm asking is the supplies chain constraints, along with the additional new factory, will we see the revenue start increasing or continued increase, I should say?

明白你了。但我的意思是，就總收入而言——繼續吧。不過，就 Vicor 的總營收而言，我們能否預期營收開始逐季成長？我的意思是，我想——我的意思是，我想，我真正要問的是供應鏈的限制，以及額外的新工廠，我應該說，我們會看到收入開始增加還是持續增加？

So let's start with Q4. So Q4 was frustrating is that while we did achieve a significant increase in throughput, particularly with respect to advanced products. I think as mentioned earlier, it was about 18% sequential from the third quarter that still fell short of expectations for a combination of reasons, some linear challenges on the component of our body side as well as significant challenges with respect to some of the package process steps that are still outsourced. Now we brought up another partner as an interim stepping stone for additional capacity and thus provided some relief within the last month. But as suggested in the prepared remarks, we're really counting the days at this point to the other part of the second quarter and for full integration at the beginning of Q3 to be in the control of testing that we need to have in order to have the lower predictability that we expect. Unfortunately, that predictability wasn't there in Q4.

讓我們從第四季開始。因此，第四季度令人沮喪的是，雖然我們確實實現了吞吐量的顯著增加，特別是在先進產品方面。我認為，正如前面提到的，由於多種原因，第三季度環比增長約 18%，但仍低於預期，我們的車身組件面臨一些線性挑戰，以及某些封裝方面的重大挑戰仍外包的流程步驟。現在，我們引入了另一個合作夥伴作為額外產能的臨時墊腳石，在上個月提供了一些緩解。但正如準備好的評論中所建議的，我們實際上正在計算此時到第二季度的其他部分的時間，並在第三季度初進行全面整合，以控制我們需要進行的測試，以便的可預測性低於我們的預期。不幸的是，第四季度不存在這種可預測性。

And just to be clear, the lower predictability isn't going to be there in this quarter. I think the access to additional capacity with respect to some of the process steps gives our operations team more flexibility with respect to getting their job done. But it's been very challenging for them, again, both because of the very tight supply chain, the challenges with respect to our source processes. And just to get a little bit of quantitating with respect to that, not just in terms of throughput but also the impact on margins. In Q4, we were confronted with out-of-blue 5x price increase on some of these process steps. So it's been a very difficult environment. And again, we are eager to get through the completion of the selection of the equipment, which is progressing well and then getting the benefit of adding a tall control of our destiny once all the equipment is ready for fabrication.

需要明確的是，本季不會出現較低的可預測性。我認為在某些流程步驟中獲得額外的能力可以讓我們的營運團隊在完成工作方面具有更大的靈活性。但這對他們來說再次充滿挑戰，既因為供應鏈非常緊張，也因為我們的來源流程面臨挑戰。只是為了對此進行一些量化，不僅包括吞吐量，還包括對利潤的影響。在第四季度，我們的某些流程步驟的價格突然上漲了 5 倍。所以這是一個非常困難的環境。再次，我們渴望完成設備的選擇，目前進展順利，一旦所有設備準備好製造，我們將獲得對我們命運的高度控制的好處。

Got you. So from all that, can I -- can we get any kind of feel for -- I mean, you did about -- you did a little over $90 million in revenue this -- in the fourth quarter. Will we see a step up in the first quarter and second quarter?

明白你了。因此，從這一切中，我能否——我們能得到某種感覺——我的意思是，你在第四季度的收入略高於 9000 萬美元。我們會在第一季和第二季看到進步嗎？

So I internally show given that in Q4, we fell short of our target, even though earlier in the quarter, we thought we were going to make a higher step up particularly in advanced product revenues. We believe that until we are in control of our destiny to provide guidance with respect to the level of improvement sequentially in revenues would set up for surprises, one way or the other. And so we're just going to stick to keeping it a TBD. Needless to say, we got a lot of backlog, we got a lot of customers looking for more allocation on key products. And you can be sure that our reversions team is working extremely hard to bring it all about even before we get into the lower control of test that we need to have.

因此，我在內部表明，在第四季度，我們沒有達到我們的目標，儘管在本季度早些時候，我們認為我們將取得更高的進步，特別是在先進產品收入方面。我們相信，在我們掌控自己的命運之前，就收入的連續改善水平提供指導，無論如何都會帶來驚喜。因此，我們將堅持將其保留為待定。不用說，我們有很多積壓，我們有很多客戶尋求在關鍵產品上進行更多分配。您可以確信，即使在我們進入我們需要的較低測試控制之前，我們的版本團隊也正在非常努力地實現這一切。

Got you. I completely understand that. But we're pretty far into Q1 already.

明白你了。我完全理解這一點。但我們已經進入第一季了。

Yes. We're not -- as I said earlier in the call, this is Jim here. We're just not going to offer specific guidance. I think what we've included really need to have control over our own destiny, and we're -- you could call it months, you could call it weeks away from having that visibility and having that sense of control.

是的。我們不是——正如我之前在電話中所說的，我是吉姆。我們只是不會提供具體的指導。我認為我們所包含的內容確實需要控制我們自己的命運，而我們——你可以稱之為幾個月，你可以稱之為幾週後才能獲得那種可見性和那種控制感。

Yes. And is not that function, right? We are getting in greater control of our destiny. And going back to the component availability issues, particularly on the semiconductor front, we made progress. We got bigger allocation. But that landscape is still full of mines. As an example, late last year, we got notified random life on certain components and then the vendor did an honor last time buy. So we are dealing with a lot complexities supply chain that make predictability harder aside from the lack of vertical integration in the manufacturing process.

是的。不是這個功能吧？我們正在更好地掌控自己的命運。回到組件可用性問題，特別是在半導體方面，我們取得了進展。我們得到了更大的分配。但那片土地上仍然佈滿了地雷。舉個例子，去年年底，我們收到了某些組件隨機壽命的通知，然後供應商在上次購買時很榮幸。因此，我們正在處理許多複雜的供應鏈，除了製造過程中缺乏垂直整合之外，這些供應鏈也使得可預測性變得更加困難。

The next question is coming from the line of [Quinn Bolton.]

下一個問題來自[奎因·博爾頓]。

Just wanted to sort of follow up on John's line of questioning. And I guess my key question is you mentioned some component constraints and then obviously some limitations on your outsourced electroplating step. Was the entirety of the miss really due to the outsourced manufacturing step? Or is it shared with component challenges still? Because it sounds like you'll bring that manufacturing step online or vertically integrate it beginning July, but I'm trying to get a sense how much risk is there still on component availability issues? It sounds like you're making progress. So maybe that wasn't a bottleneck.

只是想跟進約翰的提問。我想我的關鍵問題是您提到了一些組件限制，然後顯然是您的外包電鍍步驟的一些限制。整個失誤真的是因為外包製造步驟造成的嗎？或仍然與組件挑戰共享？因為聽起來您將從 7 月開始將製造步驟在線或垂直集成，但我試圖了解組件可用性問題仍然存在多大風險？聽起來你正在取得進步。所以也許這不是瓶頸。

So Quinn, there was progress and the wafer outs have been increasing. But I think as we've discussed in the past, there is latency between wafer outs and components in tape or real ready for assembly. And by the way, there are too, we've taken the initiative of investing in additional facility in Rhode Island to provide virtual integration with respect to the back end. So it's a combination of factors.

Quinn 取得了進展，晶圓產量一直在增加。但我認為正如我們過去討論的那樣，晶圓輸出和磁帶中的組件或真正準備組裝的組件之間存在延遲。順便說一句，我們也主動在羅德島投資了額外的設施，以提供後端的虛擬整合。所以這是多種因素的結合。

The component of all the issues were not as significant, but were still present. And they, as you heard me say in the past, get compounded by in effect adequate capacity in the outsourced packaging process steps because if as we say pits or particular jobs can be started on time due to any one component not being available, the opportunity to make that up if you get constraints in the packaging process steps is impaired by those constraints.

所有問題的組成部分並不那麼重要，但仍然存在。正如您過去聽到我說的那樣，它們實際上由於外包包裝流程步驟中足夠的能力而變得更加複雜，因為如果正如我們所說，由於任何一個組件不可用而可以按時開始坑或特定工作，那麼機會如果您在包裝過程中受到限制，則彌補這一點會受到這些限制的影響。

So these low interdependencies, and we still got some work to the level of predictability we expect we're going to have once the latency associated with a substantial step-up in wafer outs runs these cars, which is taking place this quarter. And we get at least a good traction of the packaging process steps under our belt.

因此，這些低相互依賴性，我們仍然需要做一些工作來達到可預測性的水平，我們預計一旦與晶圓輸出大幅增加相關的延遲運行這些汽車，我們將會出現這種情況，這將在本季度發生。我們至少對包裝流程步驟有充分的了解。

Understood. And Patrizio, you had mentioned that the reason for the gross margin pressure, it sounds like primarily in Q4 was sort of a 5x increase in some process steps. And am I right to think that those are the outsourced process steps, where you've had to bring on a second supplier, but perhaps more importantly, those are the process steps that you will bring in-house beginning July with vertical integration?

明白了。 Patrizio，您曾提到毛利率壓力的原因，聽起來主要是在第四季度，某些流程步驟增加了 5 倍。我是否正確地認為這些是外包流程步驟，您必須引入第二個供應商，但也許更重要的是，這些是您將從 7 月開始透過垂直整合引入內部的流程步驟？

You're correct. So fundamentally, we had to do what we were forced to do in order to take care of our customers. And the priority was to get the capacity that was essential to have without regard to the cost issue for the short term, knowing that that's before too long going to be behind us in our rearview mirror. So the priority is to get as much capacity as we can and not worry about the short-term impact on margin.

你是對的。因此從根本上來說，為了照顧我們的客戶，我們必須做我們被迫做的事情。當務之急是獲得必要的能力，而不考慮短期的成本問題，因為我們知道這很快就會在我們的後視鏡中成為過去。因此，我們的首要任務是獲得盡可能多的產能，而不用擔心對利潤率的短期影響。

Understood. And it was my last question, sorry for asking a third, but I think it's important. Do you feel like any of your customers have been -- that you've left them short to such a point where they may look to try to find alternative sources to Vicor? Or do you think some of the steps you've taken paying the higher prices for the process steps that you're satisfying their critical demands? And obviously, as you ramp Andover, you'll be able to supply more of their demand?

明白了。這是我的最後一個問題，很抱歉問了第三個問題，但我認為這很重要。您是否覺得您的任何客戶都已經——您讓他們陷入了這樣的境地：他們可能會試圖尋找 Vicor 的替代來源？或者您認為您為滿足他們的關鍵需求而付出更高價格的流程步驟所採取的某些步驟？顯然，隨著安多弗的發展，您將能夠滿足他們更多的需求？

So Quinn, this is Phil. So I think with the major customers that we have, we're obviously in very, very close communication with them almost daily, planning shipments to them and to their contract manufacturers with a very integrate set of eyes on that task as it were. So they are very, very aware with the steps that we're taking. And we're not surprising them at all. There's no surprises in terms of what we're doing, that we're very intricately involved in their planning and supporting them. But to the future, what we're seeing is that in the AI market, particularly high-performance computing, the demand profiles, they are significantly increasing over the next year to 3 years.

奎因，這是菲爾。因此，我認為對於我們擁有的主要客戶，我們顯然幾乎每天都與他們保持非常非常密切的溝通，計劃向他們及其合約製造商發貨，並以非常全面的眼光看待這項任務。所以他們非常非常了解我們正在採取的步驟。我們對他們一點也不感到驚訝。我們正在做的事情並不奇怪，我們非常複雜地參與了他們的規劃和支援。但展望未來，我們看到的是，在人工智慧市場，特別是高效能運算，需求概況在未來一年到三年內將顯著增加。

What we're seeing is a big shift in the market of the hyperscale is actually buying in solutions that would embed in racks that they already have and then having a very much higher compute density within the power profile that they have for their data centers, which is pretty much fixed. So the demand is going significantly up with a lot of our end customers to service that need. And so, yes, I think that a number of these customers are going to be looking for second sources, but Vicor, I can assure you, is going to play a big role in servicing that demand still. We've got close partnerships with these companies developed over many years. They need our solutions. They need our performance. So I'm confident that we will stay with them, stay on track to meet our commitments that we do make. And then as Patrizio mentioned, ramp-up in the second half of this year with a step-up in delivery and be able to meet the demand that we are planning with them for next year and beyond. So I'm very confident in that, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks.

我們看到的是超大規模市場的一個重大轉變實際上是購買嵌入到他們已有的機架中的解決方案，然後在他們的數據中心的功率配置中擁有更高的計算密度，這幾乎是固定的。因此，我們的許多最終客戶的需求正在顯著增加，以滿足這一需求。因此，是的，我認為其中許多客戶將尋找第二來源，但我可以向您保證，Vicor 仍將在滿足這一需求方面發揮重要作用。多年來，我們與這些公司建立了密切的合作關係。他們需要我們的解決方案。他們需要我們的表現。因此，我相信我們將與他們一起，繼續履行我們所做的承諾。然後，正如 Patrizio 所提到的，今年下半年將加快交貨速度，並能夠滿足我們與他們一起計劃的明年及以後的需求。所以我對此非常有信心，正如我在準備好的演講中提到的那樣。

The next question is coming from the line of [James Liberman.]

下一個問題來自[詹姆斯·利伯曼]。

So it was a pleasure listening into the progress you're making. Could you make some comments on the developments regarding licensing and also and how the AC-DC converter market opportunities open up to you? And what kind of color you could give to us in your participation in that area?

因此，很高興聽到您所取得的進展。您能否對許可方面的發展以及交流-直流轉換器市場機會如何向您開放發表一些評論？您在該領域的參與能為我們帶來什麼樣的色彩？

So we're having discussions with multiplicity of licensees or potential licensees. And as discussed in the past, these are developments with a relatively long gestation period. So we don't have anything to say today. And when we are -- we'll go public with it. But the less is the opportunity in a variety of end markets for our brand portfolio and technology are very substantial. And I think, as discussed in the past, it's the reason of this fact that they're going to make a significant contribution to the margins to the bottom line and to a significant degree also to revenue as a whole. But I think we need to be passionate with respect to making the right engagements on these fronts. And making most of the opportunity with respect to picking the right partners in each of the key end markets.

因此，我們正在與多個被授權人或潛在被授權人進行討論。正如過去所討論的，這些都是醞釀期相對較長的發展。所以我們今天沒什麼好說的。當我們這樣做時，我們會將其公開。但少的是在各種終端市場上我們的品牌組合和技術的機會是非常可觀的。我認為，正如過去所討論的那樣，這就是他們將為利潤率做出重大貢獻的原因，並且在很大程度上也對整體收入做出了重大貢獻。但我認為我們需要充滿熱情，在這些方面做出正確的努力。並充分利用機會在每個關鍵終端市場中選擇合適的合作夥伴。

Got it. That makes sense, absolutely. And can you comment on the AC-DC opportunities for you down the road?

知道了。這絕對有道理。您能否評論一下您未來的 AC-DC 機會？

We have very significant opportunities as we speak. I think that beyond the customers that we referenced in the past, installations that are beginning now, we have a broader market opportunity for high-density liquid cool AC-DC products that we are pursuing, and this is to in effect, enable solutions with very, very high density in racks and other systems, which more and more require liquid cool content at a cost point that makes them generally attractive, while providing us with a strong margin opportunity. So those are derivative products that are currently in advanced development that represent in effect, low hanging fruits as a follow-on to the effort that has already been completed. They use the same building blocks that have been proven to perform to the level of power density efficiency and ease of thermal management that we've demonstrated with our lead customers.

正如我們所說，我們有非常重要的機會。我認為，除了我們過去提到的客戶以及現在開始的安裝之外，我們所追求的高密度液冷 AC-DC 產品還有更廣闊的市場機會，這實際上是為了實現以下解決方案：機架和其他系統的密度非常非常高，越來越需要液體冷卻內容，其成本點使其普遍具有吸引力，同時為我們提供了強大的利潤機會。因此，這些衍生產品目前正處於高級開發階段，它們實際上代表了容易實現的成果，作為已完成工作的後續成果。它們使用相同的建置模組，這些模組已被證明能夠達到我們向主要客戶展示的功率密度效率等級和易於熱管理的水平。

The next question is coming from the line of [John Dillon.]

下一個問題來自[約翰·狄龍]。

Patrizio, on your vertical power delivery system, I'm just wondering how comprehensive your patent protection is? And specifically, I was wondering if someone delivers power from underneath like you do, is that either a licensing or product sale from Vicor? Is your patent protection good enough that you can protect anyone from doing underneath? Or is it just your whole solution that's patented?

Patrizio，關於您的垂直電力傳輸系統，我只是想知道您的專利保護有多全面？具體來說，我想知道是否有人像您一樣從底層提供電力，這是 Vicor 的許可還是產品銷售？您的專利保護是否足夠好，可以保護任何人免受地下行為？或者只是您的整個解決方案獲得了專利？

So for obvious reasons, I'm not going to give you a very detailed answer to your question. Suffice it to say that the innovation that we brought about with our VPD initiative is effectively protected by multiplicity of balance. Some become a public domain, other ones are not yet. But as you know, we take with your care ensuring that our innovation intellectual property are effectively protected. And I think it's fair to assume that anybody is taking chances with respect to following our tracks on VPD technology, and as you might have heard me say in the past, is stepping on a mine field, and that's not an advisable course of action.

因此，出於顯而易見的原因，我不會為您的問題提供非常詳細的答案。可以說，我們透過 VPD 計畫帶來的創新得到了多重平衡的有效保護。有些已經成為公共領域，有些還沒有。但如您所知，我們會悉心照顧，確保我們的創新智慧財產權得到有效保護。我認為，可以公平地假設，任何人都在冒險追隨我們在 VPD 技術上的踪跡，正如您過去可能聽我說過的那樣，這是踩在雷區，這不是一個可取的行動方針。

Right. Got you. And then, Phil, I was in Vegas and I saw these LED signs and I thought of Vicor. I'm just wondering how big of a market that is compared to the data center? And if you could rate like point a load in the data center, high-performance computing and then maybe front-end products and then LED lighting, can you give me a sense of how they relate to each other, the size of each of them?

正確的。明白你了。然後，Phil，我在維加斯，看到這些 LED 標誌，我想到了 Vicor。我只是想知道與資料中心相比，這個市場有多大？如果您可以對資料中心的負載點、高效能運算、前端產品以及 LED 照明進行評級，您能否讓我了解它們之間的關係以及各自的規模？

Yes. I think it's safe to say that the whole data center opportunity for AC-DC and even DC point of load is massive compared to the LED market. I mean the LED market, display market, particularly, which are the big high-performance displays is a very good market for us on the broad industrial front. We're involved with one big installation there in Vegas. And there may be others to follow. They're talking about London and other places for those types of entertainment domes. So I think we'll be participating that. That will be part of our broad industrial portfolio. But I estimate the -- maybe the available market there to be in the range of about maybe $100 million, $150 million, somewhere around there.

是的。我認為可以肯定地說，與 LED 市場相比，整個資料中心的 AC-DC 甚至 DC 負載點機會是巨大的。我指的是 LED 市場，尤其是顯示器市場，大型高性能顯示器對於我們廣泛的工業領域來說是一個非常好的市場。我們參與了維加斯的一項大型裝置。可能還會有其他人效法。他們正在談論倫敦和其他地方的此類娛樂圓頂。所以我想我們會參與其中。這將成為我們廣泛的工業產品組合的一部分。但我估計那裡的可用市場可能在 1 億至 1.5 億美元左右。

Got you. I figured it'd be limited, but it was interesting. Looking forward to the progress next quarter.

明白你了。我認為它會受到限制，但很有趣。期待下個季度的進展。

Yes. So let me make an additional comment regarding that. The opportunity there, even though incrementally, is relatively small relative to AI and data centers. It's an opportunity that leverages the same building blocks that we develop for AI and data center. So we have a big unicorn in the center space, AI with liquid cool PSU on the one hand. And remarkably, the same modules that provide the key functionality within that solution are deployed exactly the same model in the lighting -- on lighting application of 10 megawatts. So it's a different scale in terms of our power requirements, different kinds of environment. But the synergy of our modular power system methodology and IP is such that, in fact, we can incrementally pursue this diverse market opportunity, reusing the same building blocks, and that's very unique to our environment.

是的。因此，讓我對此發表補充評論。相對於人工智慧和資料中心來說，那裡的機會雖然是增量的，但相對較小。這是一個利用我們為人工智慧和資料中心開發的相同建置模組的機會。所以我們在中心空間有一個大獨角獸，一方面是人工智慧和液冷電源。值得注意的是，在該解決方案中提供關鍵功能的相同模組在照明中部署了完全相同的模型 - 在 10 兆瓦的照明應用中。因此，就我們的電力需求和不同的環境而言，它的規模是不同的。但事實上，我們的模組化電源系統方法和 IP 的協同作用使得我們可以逐步追求這個多樣化的市場機會，重複使用相同的構建塊，這對於我們的環境來說是非常獨特的。

Yes. It sounds like you can scale to different markets very easily with very little engineering, and that's a real benefit for a lot of people out there, people outside the data center. Am I hearing that? Yes. Great Okay. And that sounds great.

是的。聽起來您只需很少的工程就可以輕鬆擴展到不同的市場，這對於資料中心之外的許多人來說是真正的好處。我聽到了嗎？是的。太好了 好吧。聽起來很棒。

Yes.

是的。

The next question is coming from the line of [Jon Tanwanteng.]

下一個問題來自[Jon Tanwanteng]。

I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more color regarding the bottlenecks at your outsourced plating partner. It had been COVID in prior quarters, is there something new going on now? And what is happening to, I guess, improve the throughput there as we go through the next couple of quarters before you ramp up your vertical integration?

我想知道您是否可以就您的外包電鍍合作夥伴的瓶頸問題向我們提供更多資訊。前幾季都是新冠疫情，現在有新狀況嗎？我想，在您加強垂直整合之前，在接下來的幾個季度中，會發生什麼情況來提高吞吐量？

Yes. So I'm not sure I can give you a lot more color on that other than to say that it's been very frustrating in many respects. And again, as I said earlier, we're literally counting today slab to be in control of our destiny. So we've been able to get incremental capacity a month after month and quarter after quarter, but not to the scale that would have been necessary in order to expand the volume of advanced products as would have been necessary to fully support the demand from customers. So we are not hopeful that anything dramatic in terms of incremental improvements with outsourcing can be made up in the few months last to the turn on of a fully integrated capacity of our own.

是的。因此，除了說這在很多方面都非常令人沮喪之外，我不確定我能否為您提供更多資訊。再說一次，正如我之前所說，我們實際上指望今天的平板能夠控制我們的命運。因此，我們能夠逐月、逐季增加產能，但達不到擴大先進產品數量所需的規模，而這是充分支持客戶需求所必需的。因此，我們不希望在我們自己完全整合的能力啟動之前的幾個月內能夠在外包方面取得任何顯著的進展。

We have brought on a second partner. But frankly, there are limitations with both of these partners with respect to what they can do and the degree which we can predictably rely on that effort. So it's got its ups and downs from week to week, and it really makes our life very complicated in this remaining time frame between essentially the middle of Q1 and the end of Q2. Even though, as I mentioned earlier, as some of the equipment gets turned down, the number of process steps for which we've been relying on these outsources will be going down, and that gives our operational team more latitude, more flexibility with respect to getting that drop down.

我們引進了第二個合作夥伴。但坦白說，這兩個合作夥伴的能力以及我們可以預見的依賴這種努力的程度都存在局限性。因此，它每週都會有起有落，在第一季中期和第二季末之間的剩餘時間內，這確實讓我們的生活變得非常複雜。儘管如此，正如我之前提到的，隨著一些設備被拒絕，我們一直依賴這些外包的流程步驟數量將會減少，這給了我們的營運團隊更多的自由度和靈活性使該下降。

Got it. And then you mentioned a surprise price increase at one of your outsourced partners. But are you seeing other general inflationary pressures, first of all? And second, are you able to pass those on in any way shape or form through pricing? I know you said you didn't want to pass on this big surprise one. But just in other terms, in other places, everyone's raising prices. I'm wondering if you're able to get some of the same tailwind behind you in terms of pricing?

知道了。然後您提到您的一家外包合作夥伴的價格意外上漲。但首先您是否還看到其他普遍通膨壓力？其次，您是否能夠透過定價以任何方式傳遞這些訊息？我知道你說過你不想傳遞這個巨大的驚喜。但換句話說，在其他地方，每個人都在提高價格。我想知道您是否能夠在定價方面獲得一些相同的推動力？

So I'll address the first part of your question regarding the food chain upstream of us and Phil will take the second part regarding our customers. So with respect to process steps, we had -- we were jilted by a 5x out of the blue. There was a big impact in many ways. That's the very theme example of the kind of challenge that we've been seeing over the last year. I think they are more down to earth maintain examples that become routine, particularly in the semiconductor area with increases of the order of 15%, 20%, 25%. Not at the level of the same case I was referencing earlier. These pressures are going to stay with us for the foreseeable future when this phase in the industry comes to an end is still a TBD. I've heard expectations that things could begin to turn around. As we all know, some of that industry has got basis followed by bus as more fabs come online very forecast that could happen as early as the end of this year. But then again, geographical events could get in the way of that.

因此，我將解決您關於我們上游食物鏈的問題的第一部分，菲爾將回答關於我們客戶的第二部分。因此，就流程步驟而言，我們突然被 5 倍的人拋棄了。在很多方面都產生了很大的影響。這就是我們去年看到的那種挑戰的主題例子。我認為他們更腳踏實地地維護已成為常規的範例，特別是在半導體領域，增幅約為 15%、20%、25%。不是我之前提到的同一案例的水平。在可預見的未來，當產業的這一階段即將結束時，這些壓力仍將伴隨著我們。我聽說事情可能會開始好轉。眾所周知，隨著越來越多的晶圓廠上線，一些行業已經有了基礎，預計最快可能在今年年底發生。但話又說回來，地理事件可能會阻礙這一點。

So Phil, on...

所以菲爾，關於...

Yes. On the pricing front, Jon, we -- actually, pretty much every year, we take a look at our legacy products, our advanced products and strategically price increase certain families and through different channels and things like that. So we just recently completed one that will help us certainly with any increases in cost of components from our side. That was wide-ranging right across legacy and advanced ranging from 5%, 15%, somewhere in that range. And we've even done some price increases with some of our very big customers in the last couple of years as well. And they understand that. They understand the challenges, and they want us to obviously be a good supplier to them, and they understand that helping us with our profitability is important for the long haul. So they've been very collaborative partners with us as well. So yes, we've been doing that.

是的。在定價方面，喬恩，實際上，我們幾乎每年都會審視我們的傳統產品、先進產品，並透過不同的管道和類似的方式策略性地提高某些系列的價格。因此，我們最近剛完成了一項工作，這肯定會幫助我們解決組件成本增加的問題。這個比例在傳統和先進領域範圍很廣，從 5% 到 15%，都在這個範圍內。在過去的幾年裡，我們甚至對一些非常大的客戶進行了一些漲價。他們明白這一點。他們了解所面臨的挑戰，他們希望我們顯然成為他們的優秀供應商，他們也明白幫助我們提高獲利能力對於長期發展非常重要。所以他們也是我們非常合作的夥伴。所以是的，我們一直在做這件事。

The next question is coming from the line of [Richard Shannon.]

下一個問題來自[理查德·香農]。

Jim, maybe a quick 2-parter for you. Do you have any 10% customers for 2021? And can you quote the lead times that you had exiting the fourth quarter or at least compare them to what it was the quarter before?

吉姆，也許適合你的快速二人組。 2021 年您還有 10% 的客戶嗎？您能否引用第四季度結束時的交貨時間，或至少與上一季的交貨時間進行比較？

The lead time that we're quoting is still consistent with what we had said previously. I think 32 weeks -- 20 weeks like -- advanced products in 26, I think, on the brick products. Yes. So it's still lengthy, but it is the case that with the brick products, we generally have a bit more ability to deal with turns business and capture turns business.

我們引用的交貨時間仍然與我們之前所說的一致。我認為 32 週——大約 20 週——26 週內的高級產品，我認為是磚塊產品。是的。所以還是很長，但事實是，有了磚頭產品，我們一般有更多的能力來處理回合業務和捕獲回合業務。

Subject to component availability.

視組件可用性而定。

Subject to component availability, but without generally the outsourced constraint that we've talked about. And I think that it's probably -- I don't know that it's the case that we have a routinely 10% customer to that question. Are you talking about in terms of revenue or...

取決於組件的可用性，但通常沒有我們討論過的外包限制。我認為這很可能——我不知道我們通常有 10% 的客戶會問這個問題。你說的是收入還是...

Yes.

是的。

Yes. We have distributors that are 10% customers, and we have some...

是的。我們的經銷商佔 10% 的客戶，我們還有一些…

And a couple of large OEMs.

還有一些大型原始設備製造商。

A couple of large OEMs, yes.

是的，有幾個大型原始設備製造商。

Okay. Fair enough. And let me ask a follow-up question here on the automotive space. Phil, I think you said you mentioned you have 3 design wins. I think that's one more than last quarter here, along with 10 collaborations. I can't remember how many you had before on that one. Maybe you can give us a sense of dynamics there? And maybe if you can touch on applications within the automotive architecture that you're focused on where you're having success?

好的。很公平。讓我問一個關於汽車領域的後續問題。 Phil，我想你說過你提到你贏得了 3 項設計勝利。我認為這比上季度多了 1 次，還有 10 次合作。我不記得你之前有過多少次了。也許你能讓我們感受到那裡的動態？也許您可以談談您所關注的汽車架構中正在取得成功的應用程式？

Yes. So the collaborations have increased by 4% to 5% in the quarter, Q4. 2021 was outstanding in terms of building the pipeline. It's over $1 billion now. So significant opportunity. It's about converting now those opportunities into design wins, starter production dates, and we're working really hard to do that over the next couple of quarters. In terms of where we're playing, we play in the charging 800, 400-volt onboard charging systems. We have a significant power density over competing sort of discrete-based solutions, several box solutions, almost 10x, smaller, much, much higher efficiency. So we're getting a lot of interest there and collaborative interest in developing some early prototype systems for evaluation. And then we're playing in the classic 800-volt down to 48 to 12 and then 400-volt down to 48 to 12, working with several lead OEMs on battery delete projects, either the 12-volt battery or even the 48-volt battery, getting rid of it, which saves cost and weight and increases range. So yes, it's right across that charging and down conversion. I would call it in several large OEMs around the world.

是的。因此，第四季的合作增加了 4% 到 5%。 2021 年在管道建設方面表現出色。現在已經超過10億美元了。如此重要的機會。現在的重點是將這些機會轉化為設計勝利、啟動生產日期，我們將在接下來的幾季努力做到這一點。就我們所玩的地方而言，我們在充電800、400伏車載充電系統中發揮作用。我們擁有顯著的功率密度，優於競爭的基於分立式的解決方案、多種盒式解決方案，幾乎是 10 倍，更小，效率更高。因此，我們對開發一些用於評估的早期原型系統產生了極大的興趣和合作興趣。然後我們將經典的 800 伏特降至 48 至 12，然後將 400 伏特降至 48 至 12，與幾家主要 OEM 合作開展電池刪除項目，無論是 12 伏特電池還是 48 伏特電池電池，擺脫它，從而節省成本和重量並增加續航里程。所以是的，它正好跨越充電和降壓轉換。我會在世界各地的幾家大型原始設備製造商中稱呼它。

The next question is coming from the line of [Alan Hicks.]

下一個問題來自[艾倫·希克斯]。

In the area of high performance and supercomputing, I know this can be very large orders, like $10 million up and upwards. Is that -- have you been able to deliver on some of those big orders? Or is that the reason your backlog has risen so dramatically?

在高效能和超級運算領域，我知道這可能是非常大的訂單，例如 1000 萬美元以上。那是——你們能夠交付其中一些大訂單嗎？或者這就是您的積壓訂單急劇增加的原因嗎？

So we've had a steady ramp through the different quarters of last year. We've -- as Patrizio mentioned, we've increased delivery on some of our larger power modules, what we call NBMs to 48 to 12, 12- to 48-volt bridging applications. Those have steadily increased -- but we certainly have to go to the next level of ramp, as we've talked about, we're going to need our new factory to come online. Patrizio talked about some of the early equipment that's going to help us do some of that. But in terms of getting fully integrated, that's what we really need to ramp up production in the second half of this year. But we are increasing -- we have been increasing shipments to our lead customers there quarter-on-quarter.

因此，我們在去年的不同季度都有穩定的成長。正如 Patrizio 所提到的，我們已經增加了一些較大功率模組（我們稱之為 NBM）的交付，以支援 48 至 12、12 至 48 伏特橋接應用。這些已經穩定增加——但我們當然必須進入下一個階段，正如我們所說，我們將需要我們的新工廠上線。帕特里齊奧談到了一些早期的設備，它們將幫助我們做到這一點。但就完全整合而言，這才是我們今年下半年真正需要提高產量的。但我們正在增加——我們一直在逐季度增加對那裡主要客戶的發貨量。

So take as an example, Q4, right? It fell short of our target and expectation. But when it comes to advanced products, it was still 18% ahead of the prior quarter. And even for the prior quarter, was unfortunately also a disappointment. Debt too was double-digit sequential increase in advanced product shipments relative to the quarter before. And the same comment would apply to debt. So it has been compounded at 15% to 20% per quarter sequentially. To get it to higher rates, we can't be relying on unpredictable support from partners with capacity, which is really not -- wasn't designed to support our specific needs. It was really architected to support general marketing. So it's not really in every respect the right infrastructure for our unique package technology needs.

舉個例子，Q4，對嗎？它沒有達到我們的目標和期望。但在先進產品方面，仍比上一季領先 18%。不幸的是，即使是上一季度，也令人失望。與上一季相比，先進產品出貨量的債務也出現了兩位數的環比增長。同樣的評論也適用於債務。因此，它連續每季複利 15% 至 20%。為了獲得更高的利率，我們不能依賴有能力的合作夥伴提供的不可預測的支持，這實際上不是為了支持我們的特定需求而設計的。它的設計確實是為了支援一般行銷。因此，它並不是各方面都適合我們獨特的封裝技術需求的基礎設施。

So in the supercomputing area, is it across the board? Or is it more -- can you say some of these very large orders from supercomputing around the backlog? Or is that data center across the board?

那麼在超級運算領域，是一刀切嗎？或者更多——你能說一些來自超級計算的非常大的訂單圍繞著積壓的訂單嗎？或者該資料中心是全面的嗎？

Yes. It ranges from, as I mentioned, hyperscaler integration of 48-volt AI systems that they purchase to 48 to 12 in new server blade with new CPU products to AI accelerated cards to AI pads and server blade systems. So it is right across the board. And even into sort of the more government military type of supercomputers, we're ramping our business there as well. So we've got a very good footprint in the high-performance compute industry, and it is across many customers now and many different types of applications.

是的。正如我所提到的，其範圍包括他們購買的48 伏AI 系統的超大規模集成，到具有新CPU 產品的新刀片伺服器中的48 到12 個，再到AI 加速卡、AI 板和刀片伺服器系統。所以這是全面的。即使是政府軍事類型的超級計算機，我們也在擴大我們的業務。因此，我們在高效能運算產業擁有非常好的足跡，現在已經涵蓋了許多客戶和許多不同類型的應用程式。

Okay. Then could you just comment on -- you mentioned fifth generation technology coming out in the third quarter. Is that -- what opportunity is that going to provide for you beyond what you have now?

好的。那麼您能否評論一下—您提到了第三季推出的第五代技術。那是——除了你現在所擁有的東西之外，這將為你提供什麼機會？

So we are very, very excited about that because it will raise the bar significantly relative to the key figures are met of our existing point-of-view solution for AI and the center type applications. In one measure, which is effective switching frequency and the trans response time, it's a threefold step-up in performance. It's a significant step up in terms of condensity, power density and scalability as well as cost effectiveness. So our fifth-generation control system has been under development for some time. We recently gathered a key component of this nature action point-of-load solution.

因此，我們對此感到非常非常興奮，因為相對於我們現有的人工智慧和中心型應用程式觀點解決方案所滿足的關鍵數據，它將顯著提高標準。在一項衡量標準中，即有效開關頻率和傳輸響應時間，它的性能提高了三倍。這在密度、功率密度、可擴展性以及成本效益方面都是一個重大進步。所以我們的第五代控制系統已經開發了一段時間了。我們最近收集了這種自然行動負載點解決方案的關鍵組件。

At the wafer level, it looked great. We're waiting within about 10 days, getting parts in type of real that we can deploy on some of the platforms of the 5G platforms being ready to accept these devices. We will be characterizing this national action solutions slowly starting in 2 or 3 weeks. And we have a complement of 5G controllers, some that are stepping out in the next 2 weeks, some other ones that are a few weeks behind them, but -- and display in a complementary way in different applications, some of them support solutions for automotive. As an example, with our 5G technology, we got full by direction of control of the power system.

在晶圓級，它看起來很棒。我們將在大約 10 天內等待，獲取真實的部件，我們可以將其部署在已準備好接受這些設備的 5G 平台的某些平台上。我們將在兩到三週內慢慢開始描述這個國家行動解決方案的特徵。我們有一系列 5G 控制器，其中一些將在未來兩週內推出，另一些則晚幾週推出，但是——並且在不同的應用中以互補的方式展示，其中一些支持以下解決方案：汽車。舉個例子，透過我們的5G技術，我們完全可以控制電力系統。

But fundamentally, no incremental cost, no incremental component count. And that's a key feature for some of the automotive solutions that Phil was referencing earlier. All this is accomplished in a fraction of the silicon area. So we're achieving essentially a 2x increase in the control system density. And with that, even that the cost of silicon is first order dependent on area, towards reduction in cost, subject to what is happening with respect to cost trends when it comes to wafers, right, which is under the current environment, adding higher. But negating that impact, the impact of shortages within the industry and price pressures within the industry as we get to our 5G system, we're going to have a major cost reduction and a significant density improvement, owing to the further innovation is built within our national action control activation.

但從根本上來說，不會增加成本，也不會增加元件數量。這是菲爾之前提到的一些汽車解決方案的關鍵功能。這一切都是在一小部分矽面積內完成的。因此，我們基本上將控制系統密度提高了 2 倍。即便如此，即使矽的成本首先取決於面積，但成本的降低取決於晶圓成本趨勢的變化，在當前環境下，成本趨勢會增加。但是，當我們進入 5G 系統時，消除這種影響、行業內短缺的影響以及行業內的價格壓力，由於內部建立了進一步的創新，我們將大幅降低成本並顯著提高密度。我們的國家行動控制啟用設定.

So the new factory would be able to handle this new technology?

那麼新工廠能夠處理這項新技術嗎？

The new factory can handle the technology?

新工廠能處理這項技術嗎？

Oh yes. Yes. So this is -- so the same packaging technology that we developed with our 4G solutions, a case of without any novelty in terms of packaging technology as we deploy the next generation of silicon. And this is sort of plug and play, right? So the component that I was referencing earlier, which has been characterized at the wafer level is about to be characterized in actual national action platforms, that's an opportunity to raise the bar on performance and cost effectiveness stepping apart from some of the new controllers that are becoming available as the year progresses. And again, some of these is for data center and AI, other innovation related to automotive-type applications.

哦是的。是的。這就是我們用 4G 解決方案開發的相同封裝技術，當我們部署下一代晶片時，封裝技術沒有任何新穎性。這有點即插即用，對嗎？因此，我之前提到的組件，已經在晶圓級進行了表徵，即將在實際的國家行動平台中進行表徵，這是一個提高性能和成本效益標準的機會，與一些新控制器不同，這些控制器是隨著時間的推移而變得可用。同樣，其中一些是針對資料中心和人工智慧，以及與汽車類應用相關的其他創新。

So that's part of the reason you expect gross margins to improve substantially after you get the factory up and clean?

那麼，這就是您預計工廠清理乾淨後毛利率將大幅增加的部分原因嗎？

Yes. So again, we are frustrated and disappointed with what we had to do in Q4. It was certainly not respected without that. But it has to be that way in order to get the increase in advanced product volumes that we managed to realize in the fourth quarter. But I would fully expect that with this kind of a hiccup, the trend with respect to margins remains very positive, and we should see a significant improvement this quarter and the quarter after that. And again, once we get in total control our destiny, and we leverage the economies and the scale of a new facility with $1 billion yearly revenue capability, the fundamental working of the business model when it comes to improving margins and improving bottom line, I think they are going to be unleashed.

是的。因此，我們再次對第四季必須做的事情感到沮喪和失望。如果沒有這一點，它肯定不會受到尊重。但必須如此才能實現我們在第四季度實現的先進產品銷售的成長。但我完全預計，在出現這種問題的情況下，利潤率的趨勢仍然非常積極，我們應該會看到本季和之後的季度出現顯著改善。再說一次，一旦我們完全掌控了自己的命運，並且我們利用年收入能力達 10 億美元的新工廠的經濟和規模，以及商業模式在提高利潤率和改善利潤方面的基本運作，我認為他們將被釋放。

And I think with that, we should take maybe just one more question, please, operator?

我認為，我們應該再問一個問題，好嗎？

All right. The next question is coming from the line of [Jon Tanwanteng.]

好的。下一個問題來自[Jon Tanwanteng]。

I was just wondering when the factory -- the new facility does come online? How quickly can you catch up on the backlog that I can think maybe you just been the revenue been leaving on the table because of the supply chain and capacity issues? Is it going to be a matter of quarters? Or will it take some time to ramp up that capacity to something we can quickly catch up on that?

我只是想知道工廠——新設施什麼時候上線？您能多快趕上積壓的訂單，我認為也許您只是因為供應鏈和產能問題而將收入留在桌面上？這會是季度的問題嗎？或者是否需要一些時間才能將容量提高到我們可以快速趕上的程度？

Well, so the step functions don't happen in the real world when it comes to these capabilities. We're going to be walking before we run. But the new factory, as you heard me say in the past, is the capacity for over $1 billion per year worth of revenues, essentially all advanced products, and obviously, that level of capacity would enable us to catch up with the backlog relatively quickly. But I think we're not yet at the point where we can make a statement as to the rate of progress. I think it is fair to say that as I suggested earlier, to the extent in spite of all of the challenges, the upcycle of course, the versions team has had to run through over the last several quarters, they have been able to deliver, if we look at the glass half full, again, 15% to 20% sequential advanced product unit growth. I think that number comes to third quarter should begin to take a significant step up.

嗯，所以當涉及到這些功能時，階梯函數不會在現實世界中發生。在我們跑步之前，我們會先走。但正如你過去聽我說過的那樣，新工廠的產能每年超過 10 億美元，基本上都是先進產品，顯然，這種產能水平將使我們能夠相對較快地趕上積壓訂單。但我認為我們還沒有到可以就進展速度發表聲明的地步。我認為可以公平地說，正如我之前所建議的，儘管存在所有挑戰，當然還有升級週期，但版本團隊在過去幾個季度中必須完成，他們已經能夠交付，如果我們再看看玻璃杯半滿的情況，先進產品單位的環比成長將達到15% 至20%。我認為第三季的數字應該開始顯著上升。

Thanks very much. So operator, I think we are ready to conclude the call.

非常感謝。接線員，我想我們已經準備好結束通話了。

All right. Thank you. In that case, everyone, thank you very much for joining this conference call, and have a nice day.

好的。謝謝。那麼，非常感謝大家參加這次電話會議，祝大家有個愉快的一天。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Bye-bye.

再見。