Russell C. Ellwanger
Analyst · Chardan Capital Markets
Thank you, Lenore [ph]. Welcome to our Third Quarter 2013 Results Conference Call. During today's call, I will review Q3 2013 performance, discuss our activities driving 2014 business and beyond. Oren will then provide detailed financial summary for our third quarter financial results. Our revenues in the quarter were $132.6 million, within our expectations for the quarter and representing a 6% quarter-over-quarter growth. While our revenues are below those of the third quarter of 2012, in the previous year, we had, had a high level of Micron contractual revenues. Excluding Micron, there's a year-over-year mid-single-digit growth. In Q3, we had record number of new masks entering our factories Q1 to Q3 '13 as compared to the same period in 2012, so the 34% increase or over 3,000 more new mask-sets entering into the factories. As previously explained, the photomask being released to the factory is the last formal step in the design development cycle in order to start product manufacturing. Each customer design has its own set of photolithography masks used to transfer their design pattern onto the silicon substrate. The time from mask tape-in to the factory to volume manufacturing is typically 1 year, with a net volume life of 2.5 years to 3 years from the tape-in date. The 34% increase from Q1 to Q3 as compared to the previous year demonstrates effectiveness in realizing the customer projects and the sales revenue funnel. In respect to design wins, which is the first stage in bringing new customer products into our factories, typically taking approximately 2 years until reaching volume production, we realized a 6% increase year-to-date for 2013 as compared to 2012. Design wins and the number of masks entering the factory are the most important indicators to predict revenue growth during the years to come, the latter being closely tied to revenue and utilization performance 1 year from now. I'd like to move to discuss the performance and developments within our business units, wherein each one saw positive achievements during the quarter. In our CMOS Image Sensor business unit, we continued to see growth from our leading European customers for high-resolution, high frame rate, global shutter products. This is a highly competitive field, however, most of the competition is not between us and other foundry providers, but rather between our customers. There are many growth, as well as new applications for industrial cameras, such as traffic control, 3D copiers and border control that contribute to our overall market growth. The continuous move from CCD to CMOS in the industrial sensor market also contributes to the growth of this area of our business. In the x-ray market, we reported in the past on prototypes of several new sensors for medical and dental applications. Those products are currently ramping nicely to production and are expected to contribute significantly to the CIS business unit's revenue next year and beyond. Several new projects are in the pipeline and considering the very long life of x-ray sensor products in general, we expect the products to be responsible for substantial incremental revenues over the next 5 to 8 years. Our forecasted high-volume gesture control project is now in its qualification stage and moving according to plan. The gesture activities are with name-brand top-tier customers. This is expected to ramp to mass production next year. We're also making significant steps in the high-end scientific and space sensor area. In the beginning of October, we presented our technology to the CERN Institute in Switzerland and were personally congratulated by the CERN General Director for winning a $5 million contract to supply sensors to the new CERN experimental facility, known as ALICE. We expect to penetrate more into the research in space area in Europe during 2014. In addition, just last week, we announced that together with SRI International, we delivered the first radiation-hardened CMOS image sensor units to the Naval Research Laboratory for use on the Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager, known as SoloHI optical telescope. SoloHI is part of the NASA and European Space Energy, Solar Orbiter Mission. Planned for launch in 2017, the spacecraft is expected to study the sun from a closer distance than any other previous mission, and we are proud to be critically involved in this mission. Although itself not a high-revenue project, it does recognize our technology leadership and brand in a scientific grade rad-hard image sensors. In our RF and high-precision analog business unit, we continued the ramp of our industry-leading SOI technologies for Front-End Modules, which is now being supplied into Tier 1 handsets, and we continue to see record tape-out volume and design wins in this space, creating a strong funnel for continued growth. In addition to SOI, this quarter, we are sampling silicon germanium power amplifiers from our latest technology that includes an advanced through-silicon via processes that solves the problems associated with the handling of thin silicon wafers in a way that is unique in the industry and promises to offer our customers a cost [indiscernible]. This technology is expected to enter production in the first half of 2014 and will provide further growth opportunities over the next several years as we expect more power amplifier content to move from gallium arsenide to silicon technology. I just completed visits to our lead customers for the aforementioned markets. The project's roadmap alignment activity and value-based relationship are well in place to achieve our mutual business objective. In our power management business unit, we continued our ramp of our 700-volt technology for LED commercial lighting, as I have discussed previously. But we have now also added key customers in China driven by the Chinese government mandates that dictate an aggressive rollout for LED lighting over conventional Edison bulbs. In September, we announced volume production of DMB AC direct LED driver using our 700-volt bipolar CMOS-DMOS power management process. The rise of LED technology is affecting every part of the commercial lighting industry. The demand for affordability and improved quality are driving the widespread adoption of LEDs and this single technology appears likely to surpass all others in nearly every metric of quality and efficiency. According to a 2013 report from Navigant Research, worldwide unit shipments of LED lamps will grow from 68 million in 2013 to 1.28 billion annually by 2021. The markets for every other lighting technology will contract over that period. TowerJazz is at the forefront of providing power solutions for driving LED. In response to the strong customer pull for 700-volt technology, we have launched development on a next-generation process that will offer both the smallest die size, as well as an unprecedented level of integration for our customers in this market. This quarter, we taped out an initial mask-set that includes input from a lead customer, and we'll be rolling out design kits by the end of this year. We expect strong design activity from many customers in 2014 on this new offering. In our 0.18-micron BCD platform, this quarter we won the outsourcing of a major product line from a Tier 1 U.S. customer that has the potential to become our largest power customer over the next 2 to 3 years. We demonstrated here a 30% reduction in Rdson, whereby a lower Rdson translates to lower die size and lower cost for our customers and plan to productize this in design kits for our customers at the end of this year. In our CMOS business unit, we shipped our first high-voltage CMOS prototypes integrated with advanced high-voltage ESD devices for a leading manufacturer of LCD drivers. Products based on our new reduced mask, 5-volt low VT technology for the mobile market have been successfully introduced and accepted by end customers and we are preparing a ramp-up of this technology. We have started the development of more derivatives of our low-VT portfolio for analog applications targeted for the growing mobile market. We have also released a low-power, mass-reduced 0.18-micron, 1.8-volt-only platform for the flat panel display market, including optimized ESD solutions. We are widening our offering for the booming Internet of Things, machine-to-machine markets, with enhanced solutions for low-power, energy harvesting RF applications, and new non-volatile memory solutions for sensor controllers. Looking forward, we intend to continue developing our new technologies, expanding our portfolio for the high-voltage CMOS, Internet of Things, machine-to-machine and automotive markets, as well as the existing markets we are serving. Looking at a few specific regions, geographic regions that is. From Korea, we received the first production order for a MEMS Controller IC, which is expected to ramp strongly in 2014. Korea is a major center of smartphone supply, and we see a bright future from this domestic company as they have a series of sensor ICs for mobile phone utilizing TowerJazz's processes, such as an accelerometer, proximity illumination sensor IC, along with a MEMS Controller IC. We taped out an auto-focused IC from a company with over 30% market share of that market. We received strong backup -- strong feedback on functionality, ESD and temperature characteristics. They are running at high volume production and these positive results bring us a foothold for demand transfer to TowerJazz in the very near future. Wireless charging is the next rising star in the mobile industry, and the top smartphone company, Samsung, announced that magnetic resonance wireless charging technology will be integrated into their handsets in 2014. We have 2 customers targeting this application, one is running prototype and the other succeeded in obtaining magnetic resonance type samples with an efficiency of 80% or more based on a 0.18-micron BCD platform. According to Korea Electronic News, this was the first market release for a magnetic resonance wireless charging technology. In China, we held a TowerJazz Global Symposium with more than 100 attendees, many of them executives representing 43 Chinese semiconductor companies. We received positive feedback, a reflection of our successful penetration in the growing Chinese semiconductor market. During the symposium, we held an MoU signing ceremony with Shanghai ICC, launching a partnership level to expand our business opportunities in China. Shanghai ICC is a nonprofit group formed by the Chinese government to help grow China's emerging IC companies. Shanghai ICC has a large technical team and EDA licenses available to support this effort. Through the collaboration, more and more Chinese IC companies will have the opportunity to use TowerJazz specialty technologies and professional foundry services. In Israel, we held a special TowerJazz Global Symposium for a forum of Israeli senior executives and enjoyed an attendance from 61 companies. This high attendance rate represents the interest and appreciation of Israeli executives in our effort to become the foundry of choice for Israeli companies' analog solutions. In terms of other developments in the quarter, we continued to execute with a key customer to build full flow infrared sensors for commercial market, which includes co-investment from the customer in Specialty Equipment. This activity is in full swing, both with the purchase of the initial equipment, as well as with the development of the technology. We are nicely poised with our customer to take advantage of what Max International forecasted to be an end market in excess of $5 billion by 2015. During the quarter, we were proud to receive recognition from our long-term customer ON Semiconductor, an innovator in energy-efficient electronics as its top foundry supplier. The criteria behind this award included both manufacturing excellence and customer service parameters. This latest recognition comes closely on the heels of 4 other recently announced awards for TowerJazz from leading customers at an industry analysis firm. Our team works hard to attentively listen to our customers' needs in order to deliver the best possible technology platforms and provide enablement capability. We truly appreciate the validation from ON Semiconductor and our confidence in our ability to provide excellent manufacturing service to meet the needs of their next-generation products. Looking at India. In mid-September, it was widely reported by the international press that the Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewari, announced the cabinet decision of initial approval for plans to setup 2 semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Our consortium did receive a formal government letter entitled In Principle Approval, upon which an updated submission was prepared and delivered to the government. So in short summary. In looking at Q4, we guide a range of $133 million to $143 million, representing quarter-over-quarter growth, nicely above the foundry market trend. This is based upon continued progress in the third quarter from both a business perspective, as well as strategic perspective and a very nice outlook going into 2014 based upon the increased momentum year-to-date of mask sets entering into the factory. With that, I would like to hand the call over to our CFO, Oren Shirazi. Oren?