Equipment and Materials ♦ news digest
Effective stacking of III-V compound semiconductors, such as InP and GaInAsP, to create high-performance optical ICs on silicon is essential to enabling such higher integration and functionality. Wafer cleaning removes voids caused by particles during the wafer bonding process.
“It is our pleasure to have our EVG301 accepted by Tokyo Tech, which leads optical communication IC research and development,” says Yuichi Otsuka, representative director of EV Group Japan KK.
“The EVG301 is widely used in research organisations as the de facto standard for wafer cleaning for various wafer bonding processes—and it is offered as a standard component to EVG’s leading-edge, fully integrated wafer bonding systems. Tokyo Tech’s selection of the EVG301 for use in their Arai-Nishiyama Lab for advanced research in high-performance semiconductor lasers and highly integrated optical ICs reaffirms the system’s status as the tool of record in this field of research.”
Poor market slashes Aixtron quarterly profit 90%
2011 revenues of the semiconductor deposition equipment maker also declined 22% over 2010
Despite poor market conditions in the second half of 2011 Aixtron SE had revenues of € 611.0 million of revenues and a 18% EBIT margin for 2011.
Total order intake for Aixtron in 2011 was € 513.4 million, 31% down compared to 2010 (€748.3 million) with order intake dramatically slowing down in the second half of the year. The year end order backlog stood at € 141.0 million on December 31, 2011, 49% lower than at the same time in 2010 (December 31, 2010: € 274.8 million).
For the full year 2011, Aixtron recorded revenues of € 611.0 million. While representing a decrease of € 172.8 million, or 22%, compared to € 783.8 million in 2010, 2011 still turned out to be Aixtron’s second best year in terms of revenues.
Following an assessment of the market outlook for Aixtron’s specific industry and the company’s currently limited visibility, Management concluded the likelihood of a continuation of the low level market activity seen towards the end of 2011 into the first half of 2012. In view of this and the consequent likely reduction in inventory turnover, combined with the timing of new product developments in the pipeline, Management decided to make a provision against the potential risk of unsold excess inventories of approximately € 40 million, resulting in a reduced year end total inventory figure of € 184.6 million.
Although 2012 is expected to be a transitional year between two LED investment cycles with potentially lower revenues, the firm’s management anticipates that the Company will remain EBIT profitable for the
However, Aixtron was able to quickly adapt to the deteriorating business environment during the second half of the year, and consequently still delivered reasonable profit margins for the year, with a gross margin of 38% (2010: 53%) and an EBIT margin of 18% (2010: 35%). Seven percentage points of the gross margin decline as well as of the EBIT-Margin decline were attributable to the inventory provision mentioned above.
The 2011 net profit was € 79.5 million (13% of revenues), 59% down from the € 192.5 million (25% of revenues) in 2010 resulting in basic earnings per
March 2012
www.compoundsemiconductor.net 125 year.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136