Aixtron purpose of this thread

There has recently been speculation in financial circles that Aixtron could lose both Wolfspeed as a customer in the business with systems for the production of silicon carbide (SiC) components because batch production is allegedly not suitable for 200mm wafers. The speculation is allegedly based on public statements made by the former CTO of Wolfspeed a few months ago.

The former CTO of Wolfspeed is John Palmer who passed away in November 2022. The new and current CTO is Elif Balkas who was appointed in Jan. 2023.

That raises the question of the accuracy of that rumer.

It is generally known that Aixtron did not win the majority of the  6"/150mm SiC epi tool business in CREE/Wolfspeed based on the G5 WW C reactor design.  The single wafer tool reactors by LPE, Nuflare, etc. and mostly LPE have that business.  Nuflare is also know to have had relatively small production capability.

That changed when Wolfspeed goes 8"/200m by starting to create the massive Mohawk fab.  The new Mohawk plant being constructed and ramped needs 8" epi wafer supplies.  Wolfspeed selected Aixtron new G10-SiC for its 200mm/8" capability in March 2022.  Initially, the Aixtron's G10-SiC went to  Wolfspeed's epi wafer facilities in Duram also known as building 10.  At the same time, Wolfspeed started  constructing the John Palmer (JP) material fab in NC that will do both 8" crystal growth and epi wafers.

The JP and Mohawk plants plants are on 8" SiC only.  In the mean time, most of Wolfspeed's current SiC businesses are 6" SiC. Why didn't Aixtron win Wolfspeed's 6" SiC business? And is it possibel that Aixtron's G10-SiC will penetrate Wolfspeed's 6"?

According to Felix, Aixtron's G10-SiC has now closed the 6" performance gap. Notice that the emphasis is on the 150mm. G10-SiC is now also competive at 6" against the incumbent 6" epi tools.

From the Q3-23 CC:
For the G10-SiC, our new tool for the Silicon Carbide material system which we have
launched last year, we receive a continuous strong flow of orders. From all our
existing high volume customers, we have received repeat orders in the past quarters,
and we have strengthened our competitive position by making further progress in
terms of uniformity performance. We are now achieving uniformities on par with –
and in some cases even better than – single-wafer tools. In 200mm we had reached
this already earlier. For the 150mm wafer size, we have fully closed the uniformity
gap in the past quarter. Based on this, we can now fully focus on the advantages of
our planetary reactor on productivity and cost. The batch offers inherent advantages
in these two dimensions, and we continue to win new accounts for our technology.
This will turn into revenue in the quarters to come.

www.yolegroup.com/strategy-insights/...the-microled-industry/

The center of gravity of the microLED industry is moving toward Taiwan, with the AUO / PlayNitride / Ennostar ecosystem becoming the new de-facto microLED champion. Other players in Taiwan (Innolux / Foxconn) and in China could take advantage of the vacuum created after Apple’s project implosion.

It would, of course, be foolish to discount China. The number of microLED patents filed over the last three years by companies such as BOE, TCL-CSOT, and Vistar is absolutely staggering (More details in the coming MicroLED 2024 Intellectual Property Landscape report). China shares a common ground with Taiwan in the sense that microLED would level the playing field compared to OLED, where it is playing catch up with Korea. BOE recently spent $300M to acquire LED makers HC-Semitek, with all the proceeds of the transaction going toward building a 150 mm microLED fab. Vistar, an offshoot of OLED maker Visionox, has started on the construction of a $413M TFT microLED fab, with the first $150M phase scheduled to ramp at the end of 2024. Although the schedule is a bit aggressive, in Yole Group’s opinion, it shows the determination of Chinese players.

Manager

WoooooooW

Great find CWL1
That is indeed a very large customer and hopefully they will place very large orders with Aixtron.

Please keep up your excellent research!!!

Best regards
 baggo-mh

Thanks for always good research from some users of the Wallstreet Online forum. We were called congenial research team.

They read here but have no Ariva acount to comment.

Greetings
 baggo-mh

minimale Auswirkungen auf die Produktionskapazitäten berichten Foxconn und TSMC - Laut Markus Koch.

Gruß
baggo-mh

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You are voicing a lot of concerns.

"However, we need a catalyst for the stock to really recover."

There are 2 catalyst imho that could help the stock to recover:
1.) Norrowing the guidance range with the publication of the Q1 results
2.) Announcement of another Top5 SiC customer win (Infineon or STMicro)  

Like you I am in it for the long run.

Greetings
 baggo-mh

Taiwanischer Chiphersteller TSMC nimmt Produktion nach Erdbeben wieder auf

https://de.marketscreener.com/kurs/aktie/TAIWAN-SEMICONDUCTO…

Ganz im Gegensatz zu dem was N-TV gerade immer noch verbreitet.

Gruß
 baggo-mh