news digest ♦ Equipment and Materials
remain strong and mutually beneficial,” Parvez continued. “We are pleased to have signed a 2012 contract with our foremost large-diameter substrate customer. The use of large diameter sapphire substrates is expected to grow significantly in coming years as LED chip manufacturers continue to look for ways to drive greater efficiency throughout the supply chain. As the most experienced and reliable supplier of large-diameter sapphire substrates, Rubicon is well positioned to benefit from this trend. ”
“We are moving steadily forward on the initiatives that will further extend our cost leadership,” continued Parvez. “We are increasing our vertical integration by deploying our internally developed raw material processing capability, which we expect will decrease our raw material costs by at least 20 percent when fully implemented. We are relocating much of our slicing and polishing capacity in Illinois to our new facility in Malaysia which will be our primary finishing location as the market improves and will provide state-of-the-art capability in a low- cost environment.”
The Company ended the fourth quarter with $55.0 million in cash and short-term investments and no debt.
First Quarter 2012 Guidance
Commenting on the outlook for the first quarter of 2012, Parvez said, “We are seeing signs of improvement in the LED market in the first quarter. Orders for two-inch through four-inch cores have begun to recover somewhat but, given that it is early in the recovery, prices remain low. Our LED customers have substantial inventory of 6 inch polished wafers, and we expect few orders from that market segment in the quarter. In the Silicon on Sapphire (SoS) market, demand for large-diameter wafers continues to grow, but this is a smaller market. As a result, we expect that total revenue for the first quarter of 2012 will be between $8 and $12 million. At this level of revenue, and with further reduced utilisation in our fabrication and polishing operations this quarter, we anticipate a loss of between $0.10 and $0.14 per share in the first quarter. I believe that as pricing and utilisation improve we will gradually move back to our targeted gross margin of over 40 percent.”
“We expect capacity utilisation among the LED chip 130
www.compoundsemiconductor.net March 2012
makers to continue to improve throughout the first half of this year,” Parvez added.
“Looking beyond the first half of 2012, the outlook for sapphire substrates is for very strong growth, as LEDs gain momentum in the general lighting market, where LED penetration presently is only in the single digits, and as LED penetration into the auto market continues and the backlighting market strengthens. Rubicon continues to be the market leader in terms of capability and cost, and we are well positioned for the market rebound,” he concluded.
Oxford Instruments plasma tools impress Lancaster University
The Lancaster Quantum Technology Centre (LQTC) will use the tools for nano-patterning of antimonides and nitrides for mid-infrared light sources and detectors. They will also be used for solar cells and quantum dot memories development
As part of its strategy for the development of physical sciences, the PlasmaPro NGP80 and PlasmaPro System100 ICP Etch systems were chosen for their flexibility; they will enable many applications that the multi-user LQTC wishes to run in its cleanrooms.
Oxford Instruments PlasmaPro System100 ICP Etch tool
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