CVD Equipment Corporation
Making Electrification of Everything a Reality

CVD Equipment Corporation

Emmanuel Lakios, CEO, CVD Equipment CorporationEmmanuel Lakios, CEO
In the past, electric cars were considered a discretionary and niche product. They were expensive, had limited range, and were only suitable for city driving. In recent years, however, electric cars have evolved at an unprecedented rate. State-of-the-art battery technology, charging capability, and new designs and innovations are redefining how we think about electric vehicles.

Over 30 million electric cars are projected to be produced by 2030. However, the dream of everything electric can only be realized with companies such as CVD Equipment Corporation (CVDE). Established 40 years ago, CVDE designs and manufactures turnkey chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems to a wide range of industries, including microelectronics. Today, they are supporting the revolution of the “Electrification of Everything” by designing and manufacturing next generation CVD capital process equipment to make powering electric vehicles (EVs) more efficient and affordable to operate.

CVD Equipment Corporation is ramping-up manufacturing capacity to meet the growing needs of the High Power electronics industry. Our vertical integration has positioned us as a leading USA manufacturer of high-quality SiC PVT Systems. We will continue to focus on the technology for SiC High Power devices and expand our product roadmap to serve the needs of our customers through 2023 and beyond, further facilitating the industry’s growth and electrification of the future

In the fast-modernizing ecosystems of the future, the silicon-based power semiconductors that became the backbone of circuitry, may soon lose their relevance. With battery charging and conversion alternatives such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) which allows for higher power density and increased efficiency compared to its silicon predecessor, their integration in semiconductor devices such as MOSFETs and transistors are paving the way for contemporary automotive and industrial applications.

Physical Vapor Transport (PVT) is the leading manufacturing method used to grow silicon carbide (SiC) boules which are subsequently processed into epi-ready wafers. CVD Equipment manufactures high-performance PVT systems exclusively engineered to support the production of superior quality SiC boules for high yield SiC wafers. It enables the growth of 150 mm diameter monocrystalline boules with the ability to process 200 mm for the upcoming market demand. With CVDE’s dedication to solve customers’ most complex challenges, their expertise in equipment design, and their high touch customer service, CVDE is positioned as a key player to meet the demand for PVT systems, with a product portfolio that includes standard configurations and customized solutions.

“CVD Equipment Corporation is ramping-up manufacturing capacity to meet the growing needs of the High Power electronics industry. Our vertical integration has positioned us as a leading USA manufacturer of high-quality SiC PVT Systems. We will continue to focus on the technology for SiC High Power devices and expand our product roadmap to serve the needs of our customers through 2023 and beyond, further facilitating the industry’s growth and electrification of the future.” Said Emmanuel Lakios, President and CEO of CVD Equipment Corporation.

The Company’s four decades of industry experience enables CVDE to create technologies that surpass industry standards. For instance, it has a portfolio of exceptional process controls that can maintain pressure within +/- 1% of set point and temperature within +/- half a degree at temperatures well in excess of 2000 degrees Celsius during long deposition runs, which is instrumental for producing high-quality, low defect SiC boules.

For equipment manufacturers, the availability of raw materials and OEM components is one of today’s greatest challenges. The disruption in supply chain is due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical instabilities abroad. CVDE has taken decisive steps to overcome this obstacle. By vertically integrating its operations and partnering with suppliers that can steadily provide high-quality, reliable materials, and secure availability for items that require long lead times to meet the demands of its growing customer base.

CVDE has invested in its manufacturing facility in New York, where it fabricates many of the components for their chemical vapor deposition systems. The 135,000 square foot manufacturing facility enables CVDE to accelerate time to market and be more responsive to customer needs. CVDE has strong capabilities in computational modeling, which reduces the iterations of prototypes and reduces time to market. This vertical integration strategy and CVDE’s commitment to operational excellence has allowed them to reduce costs without sacrificing quality, become self-reliant, and decrease its dependency on third-party suppliers.

CVDE serves a wide range of customers including government laboratories, universities and scientific institutes, defense contractors, as well as commercial entities, supporting process equipment needs from advanced R&D through high volume production systems. In 2022 CVDE launched its PVT system with an emphasis on performance, quality, and time to market.

A further area where CVDE serves the EV industry is with the enhancement of battery anode materials. In 2022 the company launched its powder coat process system. The PowderCoat 1104TM, a chemical vapor deposition and infiltration system was developed to deposit both continuous coatings (e.g. Si, C, oxides, metal) as well as nanowires on particles’ surfaces with superior uniformity and cost effectiveness. Their powder coating systems are designed for high-volume manufacturing. Particle size can vary from sub-micron to hundreds of microns, and the coating thickness and nanowires can be a few nanometers to tens of microns.

“Today’s technology trend is to enhance the electrical performance of the existing carbon powder with the addition of silicon (Si), in the form of a coating or nanowires to supercharge the graphite anode. With the capacity to store up to 10 times more energy than graphite alone, infusing energy-dense silicon nanowires into the anodes of EV battery grade graphite can make the silicon accessible to the lithium ions, which eliminates the issues of silicon expansion and stability. Enabling the potential to achieve longer driving range at reduced cost.” said Emmanuel Lakios, President and CEO of CVD Equipment Corporation.

Two different powder coat process technologies are offered by their company, one is a Fluidized Bed CVD process with a vertical reaction chamber and the other is a horizontal rotating barrel configuration. The tumbling process can coat particles from a few grams to a hundred kilograms to support highvolume EV battery electrode manufacturing.

CVDE also prides itself in building comprehensive and innovative solutions at its New York facility. They supply the hazardous gas storage, and delivery, process reactor, and exhaust treatment subsystems as a complete integrated solution.

  • Today’s technology trend is to enhance the electrical performance of the existing carbon powder with the addition of silicon (Si), in the form of a coating or nanowires to supercharge the graphite anode. With the capacity to store up to 10 times more energy than graphite alone, infusing energy-dense silicon nanowires into the anodes of EV battery grade graphite can make the silicon accessible to the lithium ions, which eliminates the issues of silicon expansion and stability. Enabling the potential to achieve longer driving range at reduced cost

CVDE owes its success to its customers, employees, and stakeholders. Their success is derived from creating a vision, articulating the vision, passionately owning the vision, and relentlessly driving the vision to completion. With the company’s vast experience in equipment process development, CVDE has evolved into an industry leading capital equipment manufacturer, building a world of difference in the standard and custom chemical vapor deposition system offerings.

Looking into the future, two things are certain. One, that the dream of the “Electrification of Everything” is inevitable. Two, CVD Equipment Corporation will play an integral role in realizing this dream.

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Top 20 Semiconductor Tech Companies - 2022

Company
CVD Equipment Corporation

Management
Emmanuel Lakios, CEO

Description
CVD designs, develops, and manufactures a broad range of chemical vapor deposition, gas control, and other state-of-the-art equipment and process solutions.

CVD Equipment Corporation News

CVD Equipment Corporation Reports First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y: CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ: CVV), today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024.
Manny Lakios, President and CEO of CVD Equipment Corporation, commented, “First quarter 2024 revenue was $4.9 million, down significantly versus the prior year period, as our business continues to experience fluctuations in revenue given the nature of the emerging growth end markets we serve. While we are disappointed with our first quarter performance, we’ll stay the course on strategic efforts to achieve profitability, carefully managing our costs and cash flow while simultaneously focusing on growth and return on investment.”
Mr. Lakios added, “As we mentioned in our year-end press release, we started off the year with several key order wins during the first quarter. These included a strategic order for our PVT200™ system from a new customer, marking an important milestone as we seek to gain traction for SiC crystal boule growth, as well as a multi-system order for our SiC CVD coating reactors. The PVT200™ customer plans to evaluate our equipment for potential additional orders. This improved order performance resulted in an increase in backlog from $18.4 million at year-end to $27.1 million at March 31, 2024. We are encouraged by these orders, as we continue to fund both research and development and sales and marketing activities, including direct engagement with multiple potential customers, highly focused on penetrating key market opportunities.”
First Quarter 2024 Financial Performance
• Revenue of $4.9 million, down $3.8 million or 43.4% year over year primarily due to lower system revenues.
• Gross profit margin percentage was 17.5% due to lower gross profit margins on certain contracts in progress at our CVD Equipment segment partially offset by higher gross profit margins by our SDC segment.
• Operating loss of $1.6 million.
• Net loss of $1.5 million or $0.22 basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $40,000 or $0.01 per basic and diluted share for the prior year first quarter.
• Cash and cash equivalents of $11.9 million as of March 31, 2024 as compared to $14.0 million as of December 31, 2023.
First Quarter 2024 Operational Performance
• Orders for the first quarter were $13.6 million primarily driven by demand in the aerospace sector and in our SDC segment for gas delivery equipment.
• As mentioned above we received these important orders in the quarter:
• An order for our new PVT200™ system used to grow silicon carbide crystals for the manufacture of 200 mm wafers. This represents our second customer for our PVT equipment that the customer will evaluate for potential additional orders.
• A multisystem order from an industrial customer for approximately $10 million that will be used for depositing a silicon carbide protective coating on OEM components, with systems scheduled to ship in 2025.
• During the first quarter, we implemented a plan to reduce our operating costs to be consistent with current customer demand. This resulted in a reduction in our work force in early January 2024. We continue to evaluate the demand for our products and opportunities to reduce our operating costs.
The success of our PVT150™ and PVT200™ marketing efforts is dependent on the performance of our equipment in the field, overall market conditions, our customers’ ability to qualify their end product with their customers and our customers’ ability to obtain the funding necessary to purchase our equipment.
Management Conference Call and Webcast
The Company will hold a conference call to discuss its results today at 5:00 pm (Eastern Time). To participate in the live conference call, please dial toll free (877) 407-2991 or international (201) 389-0925. A telephone replay will be available for 7 days. To access the replay, dial (877) 660-6853 or international (201) 612-7415. The replay passcode is 13746228.
A live and archived webcast of the call will also be available on the company's website at www.cvdequipment.com/events. The archived webcast will be available at the same location approximately two hours following the end of the live event.