Read my previous posts on EPIWORKS which is a division of II-VI
http://www.ariva.de/forum/...auf-kaufen-384565?page=1404#jumppos35120http://www.ariva.de/forum/...auf-kaufen-384565?page=1404#jumppos35121The earning calls of II-VI earlier this week was bullish on its 3-D sensing and mentioning equipment expansion that Aixtron should be benefiting from it:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/...nings-call-transcript?part=single"Regarding the 3D sensing market, we remain bullish despite the current headwinds that we expect to give way to renewed increase in demand beginning the second half of this calendar year. We believe that the fundamentals of our strategy are intact, and so we are accelerating our technology and product roadmap to enable us to expand the differentiated capability that we have established. Finally, we are also making good progress in all of our other growth markets too in order to enable II-VI to realize meaningful positions in the supply chains of increasingly large accounts.
For 3D sensing, we’ll establish a solid development and manufacturing platform, even though 3D sensing shipments were lower than forecast this quarter due to reduced customer demand. That said, we are forecasting an increase in demand for the second half as compared to the first half of the calendar year. We’ve also stepped up our development and qualification efforts for new products and additional capacity. And we continue our engagements with several 3D sensing customers to expand our market penetration and broader portfolio in line with our strategy to diversify the end markets we sell, including the automotive and industrial markets.
We believe that the demand for lasers and optics for 3D sensing will continue to be driven by several irreversible mega trends, such as visual and augmented reality, autonomous vehicles and home automation. And we believe that we will start to see managing these applications and the larger ecosystem overall in late calendar 2019.
Jim Ricchiuti
And maybe one follow-up and I will jump back in the queue. Little disappointing in terms of the initial ramp on 3D-sensing, yet you sound fairly comfortable that you’re going to see that business begin to scale in the second half. And I wonder if you could just comment a little bit more about why you feel that way, just given the concerns that some folks have about certain customers and the overall weakness in the smartphone market. Is it just broadening base of revenues that you're anticipating?
Chuck Mattera
It’s based on our engagement with customers in the marketplace and on the basis of our communications, not only about the quarter that we were just in but also -- the third quarter but also this fourth quarter, and the activities that we're gearing up to be able to meet in the second half of the year. It’s possible that we will end up on an arc that’s higher or lower than what we’re currently aiming at. But it’s substantially higher for the second half of the year in terms of our planning and in terms of our executing, and what we will have experienced through June of this year without a doubt.
Mark Miller
You were upbeat about the VCSEL market, the 3D market come back in second half. Do you anticipate any new calls or programs or have you called for any new programs in the current -- in the prior quarter?
Chuck Mattera
Mark, I wouldn’t like to be detailing any aspect of our development or qualification plans. We have a lot of activity happening in the qualifications include qualifications of manufacturing equipment, manufacturing processes, new devices, products and the like. It’s a list of all of the above. And we continue to be engaged on the front end of the development process of additional new customers, bringing in new requirements to us. And it’s a -- there’s a cycle time associated with it. So we’ve got a lot going on and in every other case, we need to prioritize focus on those things that we believe will bring the greatest, both near term and also long term shareholder value and that’s what we’re doing.
Chuck Mattera
As you know, the question about our capacity depends a lot on our utilization and our planning factors. And those planning factors includes our yield, our cycle times, the utilization of our equipment, the size of the guide, the number of devices that you can fit maximum on 150 millimeter wafer. And so we know that there is a wide variety -- and we’re really, really careful about the same. We’re sure we have underutilized capacity today, and we are planning to fully utilize that capacity. And in addition to that, we’re adding to it, as we speak in order to be ready for the -- what we believe will be the demand in the second half and into FY19 end point."