Amtech Systems, Inc.

Please stand by. Good day. Welcome to the Amtech Systems first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Please note that this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to Erica Mannion of Sapphire Investor Relations.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Amtech Systems fiscal first quarter 2001 conference call. With me today on the call are Michael Wang, Chief Executive Officer, and Lisa Gibbs, Chief Financial Officer. After close of market today, Amtech released its financial results for the fiscal first quarter 2021. The earnings release is posted on the company's website at www.amtechsystems.com in the investor section. During today's call, management will make forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are based on information available as of this date, and the company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance, and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are changes in the technologies used by customers and competitors, changing volatility in the demand for products, the effect of changing worldwide political and economic conditions, including trade sanctions. The Effect of Overall Market Conditions, Including the Equity and Credit Markets and Market Acceptance Risk, Capital Allocation Plans, and the Worldwide COVID-19 Pandemic. Other risk factors are detailed in the company's SEC filings, including its Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Now I will turn the call over to Michael Wang, Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Erica. AMTECH delivers strong results in the first quarter with revenue of $18 million coming in at a high end of our expectations, driving a return to overall profitability and cash flow generation. Activity within the semi-markets continue at a strong pace, most notably with our customers in the Asia-Pacific region who are continuing to make capacity investments. Within this market, advanced packaging applications remain a primary driver of demand. Current market forecasts indicate a strong outlook for the broader semi-industry in 2021, and we have seen this translate to older activity in our products. At this point, demand is approaching capacity at our Shanghai facility, and we are exploring options to add incremental manufacturing capacity as needed. While this market is performing very well for Amtech, it is worth noting that this only comprises a portion of demand within our overall semi-segment. for the other two core product lines within the segment. Principally, our custom high-intent furnaces, which are used for a variety of thermal processing applications, and the horizontal diffusion furnace, or power chip applications, dialogue with customers tended to increase along with clothing activity. For these markets, we are seeing an increase in activity in both the Asia Pacific and North American regions as global economies adjust to operating within the ongoing pandemic and move forward with capital investment plans. Within the power semi-market, our customers are moving forward with their capacity expansion plans, including the continued transition from 200 millimeter to 300 millimeter process lines. In the first quarter, we shipped the follow-on order for a cluster 300 millimeter horizontal fusion furnace system and are now in the process of bringing that system online. In addition, we are starting to see supply chain shortages for automotive semiconductors translate to an increase in quoting activity. While many of these projects are multi-year initiatives that were already in the planning phase late last year, the timeline of some of these have begun to accelerate. However, these products often carry a multi-quarter lead time, and thus we would not see meaningful revenue contribution until the second half of calendar 2021. We are very pleased with the performance of our seven segments so far this year. following a year of strong growth in advanced semi-packaging applications in 2020, we are seeing demand continue into 2021 with the layering of incremental high temp furnace and power semi-orders helping to drive the upside. Moving on to our soap and carbide and LED segment, we continue to maintain healthy dialogue with our customers as they execute on their capacity expansion plans in the coming years. As we discussed on prior calls, to date, device manufacturers have been able to grow device output and service near-term demand by breaking bottlenecks and improving yields throughout their manufacturing process, limiting the need for investments in wafering capacity where Amtech participates. While this has caused our near-term results to remain flat versus growing in line with the overall device output, this dynamic is only temporary. with the planned FAB expansion initiatives currently underway to address the burgeoning electric vehicle industrial and communication demand forecast in years ahead, SIC wafer manufacturers will be required to make significant investments in their wafer capacity to meet growing demands. Translating this to demand for Amtech, as the lead times for our products are often shorter than those of the device manufacturing equipment, We would expect to see an uptipping demand once new production volume and weight print capacity is brought online to service the needs of new device manufacturing facilities. Given our market-leading position in consumables, roadmap for new equipment platforms, and recently completed capacity expansion investments for our SIC manufacturing operations, we are well-positioned to capture this opportunity when it emerges. We continue to remain as excited as ever about the mid- to long-term opportunities in front We believe our leadership in the market segments with exposure to several secular tailwinds creates a significant opportunity to drive increased profitability and shareholder value as demand accelerates and we realize the operating leverage built into our current business model. And now I turn the call over to Lisa to review our first quarter financial results. Lisa?