FREMONT, Calif., Jan. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment, today announced financial results for its second quarter of fiscal 2021 ended November 30, 2020.

Fiscal Second Quarter Financial Results:

• Net sales were $1.7 million, compared to $6.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
• GAAP net loss was $2.0 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $251,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
• Non-GAAP net loss was $1.7 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, which excludes the impact of stock-based compensation, compared to non-GAAP net income of $456,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
• Backlog as of November 30, 2020 was $1.1 million.

Fiscal First Six Months Financial Results:

• Net sales were $3.7 million, compared to $12.4 million in the first six months of fiscal 2020.
• GAAP net loss was $1.9 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, compared to a GAAP net loss of $162,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, in the first six months of fiscal 2020.
• Non-GAAP net loss was $3.7 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, which excludes the impact of stock-based compensation and non-cash net gain of $2.2 million and a tax benefit of $215,000 related to the closure of Aehr’s Japan subsidiary during the first quarter. This compared to non-GAAP net income of $242,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, in the first six months of fiscal 2020.
  

An explanation of the use of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of Aehr’s non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the accompanying tables.

Fiscal First Six Months COVID-19 Related Business Impacts:

• Bookings and Revenue Negatively Impacted by COVID-19 – Bookings and revenues during the first six months of fiscal 2021 were negatively impacted due to several customer-specific production ramp delays and push outs due to COVID-19 related impacts. Aehr continues to be optimistic about generating significant bookings and revenue increases in the second half of the 2021 fiscal year compared to the first half.
  
  
• New Customer Evaluations and Orders Experienced Delays – While Aehr continues to engage in ongoing discussions with a large number of potential new customers, these discussions have been slowed by travel-related restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related precautions taken by several new potential customers worldwide, including policies for limited on-site engineers, which have delayed evaluations and initial orders for Aehr’s systems and consumable products in the first six months of fiscal 2021.

• Temporary Cost Reductions Implemented in Response to Delays in Expected Orders and Revenue – During the first quarter of fiscal 2021, Aehr implemented temporary expense reductions across Aehr including executive staff pay reductions due to customer order push outs and delays in production ramps. These changes resulted in total cost savings of over $550,000 in the second quarter of fiscal 2021.
  

Fiscal Second Quarter and Recent Business Highlights:

• Received $4.3 million initial order from a new customer that is a supplier of sensors to a major mobile device manufacturer for a FOX-XP™ production test and burn-in system, a set of DiePak Carriers^®, and a FOX Automated DiePak loader / unloader for a new high-volume application for production test and burn-in of mobile sensors. Aehr was selected due to the unique technical capabilities and cost effectiveness of its solution critical to this application, which will require 100% test, burn-in, traceability and validation of the devices.
• Received a design win and an initial order for multiple DiePak Carriers for test and burn-in of next generation sensor modules for mobile devices, expanding deployment of its test solutions to additional devices with this large multinational customer. The customer will use these Aehr proprietary DiePaks for production qualification, test, and burn-in of these devices prior to volume production orders for additional DiePaks forecasted for later in Aehr’s current fiscal year.
• Since the beginning of fiscal third quarter, Aehr has received multiple follow-on orders and is seeing an increase in bookings forecasts for its proprietary WaferPak^TM and DiePak consumables across multiple market segments including silicon photonics, silicon carbide, mobile sensors, and flash memory for Aehr’s installed base of FOX multi-wafer and singulated die/module test systems. These orders reflect capacity and consumable needs for previously announced new design wins as well as recent new design wins from customers for devices in these key market segments.
  

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented:

“As we anticipated last quarter, our revenue and bookings for the first half of our fiscal year were impacted by the continued challenging global business environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic and several customer specific production ramp delays and push outs of forecasted orders. These customers continue to indicate they believe the push outs are temporary and that they will require additional system capacity and consumables this fiscal year, and we continue to be optimistic about the second half of the year for significant bookings and revenue increases over the first half.

“At the start of the third quarter, we were excited to receive a new design win for a new high-volume application for production test and burn-in of mobile sensors, which began with an initial $4.3 million order from this new customer that is a supplier of sensors to a major mobile device manufacturer. This initial test cell is expected to ship during the current fiscal third quarter and we expect follow-on capacity orders from this customer later in the current fiscal year for additional test system capacity, DiePak Carriers and our DiePak auto loader solution for handling.

“Since the beginning of this fiscal third quarter, we have also seen an increase in bookings and forecasts for additional WaferPaks and DiePaks consumables for our installed base of systems, reflecting customer capacity and consumable needs for our previously announced new design wins. We are forecasting additional DiePaks and WaferPaks orders during the second half of the 2021 fiscal year from our installed base for applications in silicon photonics, silicon carbide, mobile sensors, and flash memory market segments.

“As we’ve noted before, Aehr’s proprietary test and burn-in solutions include customized WaferPaks and DiePaks that are needed not only for new systems orders but also for each new device design or new device added to production test. As we increase our installed base of FOX systems with current and new customers, particularly with our FOX-NP^TM and FOX-XP multi wafer and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems, we expect our consumables business will continue to grow in absolute value and as a percentage of our total sales. Over the long term, we expect to see a steady rate of more than 50 percent of our total annual revenue to come from these consumables.