Aehr Test Systems F3Q10 (Quarter End 2/28/10) Earnings Call Transcript

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Aehr Test Systems (AEHR)

F3Q10 Earnings Call

March 31, 2010 5:00 pm ET

Executives

Lasse Glassen – Financial Relations Board

Rhea J. Posedel – Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer

Gary L. Larson – Chief Financial Officer & Vice President Finance

Analysts

[Jeffrey Scott – Scott Asset Management]

John Evans – Edmunds White Partners

[Joy Muckergee] – Unidentified

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to the Aehr Test Systems third quarter fiscal 2010 earnings conference call. During today’s presentation, all parties will be in a listen only mode. Following the presentation the conference will be opened for questions. (Operator Instructions) Now, I’d like to turn the conference over to Mr. Lasse Glassen of the Financial Relations Board.

Lasse Glassen

Thanks for joining us to discuss Aehr Test Systems’ results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010. By now you should have all received a copy of today’s press release. If not, you can call my office at area code 213-486-6546 and we’ll get you a copy right away. With us today from Aehr Test are Rhea Posedel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Gary Larson, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

Management will review its operating performance for the quarter before opening the call to your questions. Now, I’d like to turn the call over to Gary Larson.

Gary L. Larson

Before we begin, I’d like to make a few comments about forward-looking statements. Please be advised that during the course of our discussion today we may make forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties relating to projections regarding industry growth and customer demand for Aehr Test product as well as projections regarding Aehr Test’s future financial performance.

Actual results may differ materially from projected results and should not be considered as an indication of future performance. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, world economic conditions, the timing of the recovery of the semiconductor equipment market, acceptance by customer of Aehr Test’s technologies, acceptance by customers of the systems shipped upon receipt of a purchase order, the ability of new products to meet customer needs or performance described, the company’s development, manufacture and marketing of a commercially successful wafer level test and burn in system and the potential emergency of alternative technologies, each of which could adversely affect demand for Aehr Test’s products in calendar year 2010.

We refer you to our most recent 10K and 10Q reports and other reports from time-to-time filed with the US Securities & Exchange Commission for a more detailed description of the risks facing our business and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from projected results. The company disclaims any obligation to update our information contained in any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this conference call.

Now, I’d like to introduce our chairman and CEO Rhea Posedel.

Rhea J. Posedel

Welcome to our conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010. Before I start, I just wanted to mention that in case the quality of the call is bad, I’m calling from Texas, I’m down here visiting on some potential customers I hope. I’m pleased to report that pro forma revenue for the third quarter was $2.5 million, up 49% on a sequential quarter basis. On a GAAP basis, our revenue for the third quarter was $5.2 million with a net profit of $1.5 million.

The GAAP numbers includes the sale of the remainder of our Spansion US Bankruptcy claim primarily related to the cancelation of wafer pack orders that were mostly built. I would like to point out that our $2.5 million in revenues do not include the acceptance of the FOX-15 system we shipped to Micronas in our second quarter. Even though the system is running production wafers, the customer has not completed the formal acceptance process. We are now planning to receive customer acceptance and recognize revenue for the FOX-15 during our fiscal fourth quarter.

There are several highlights from this past quarter that I’d like to bring to your attention. We are most excited about winning a production order for ABTS burn-in system from a major Japanese integrated device manufacturer. This customer ordered a specially configured ABTS optimized for burn-in and testing of their high end micro controllers. In addition, the ABTS will be designed to include a burn-in board automation which integrates in to their factory automation.

The first order was for a single system, however, we hope to receive follow on production orders starting in our next fiscal year. This is an important order for Aehr Test for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a major accomplishment to win a production burn-in system order in a country where large IC manufacturers generally buy from local suppliers. In addition, we believe this order further validates the performance capabilities of the ABTS platform and is evidence that it can be a cost effective production tool for packaged part burn-in test of logic devices.

Another highlight was the announcement today of a MAX-4i burn-in system to a second major Japanese integrated device manufacturer for burn-in of logic devices with individual temperature control per device. If our first installation goes successfully we think we could receive follow on production orders in a few quarters. This is another major account win for us and lays the foundation for growing our business over the next few quarters.

Also during the third quarter, we shipped over $1 million in FOX-1 system upgrades to Spansion. We believe these FOX-1 shipments are significant because they indicated that Spansion is investing in our FOX-1 solution for full wafer test in a single touch down for their Austin fab. We are hopeful that we will receive additional wafer pack orders as their business expands over the next few quarters.

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