iST Feb 2020 Revenue Report

iST(TWSE:3289) today (March 10, 2020) announced its net revenues on a consolidated basis, the revenues of February 2020 were approximately NTD$ 255 million, which increased 15.83% of MoM and sharply increased 76.19% compared to the same period last year, NTD$ 145 million.

iST said, the revenues of February was going up instead of down despite of the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease resulted from the orders for verification of 5G products, advanced packaging and advanced manufacturing processes.

iST further said, along with Moore’s law, the advanced manufacturing processes have been continuing to develop from 10 nm, 7 nm to 5 nm. The related big foundries also expect to enter mass production for 5 nm in the second quarter, which in turn brings the strong demand for early verification.

Another reason that has driven iST’s revenues of February is the aspire to realize the high-speed computing capability of 5G components through the novel packaging technologies, and this desire is hoping to achieve in 5nm mass production.

iST observed, although the MWC (Mobile World Congress), scheduled to take place in Spain on 24-27 February has been cancelled over coronavirus concerns, many mobile communication manufacturers still launched 5G new smart phones online according to their original schedules. For example, China’s brand including Huawei, iQOO, a sub-brand of vivo, the emerging brand Realme and Japan’s brand Sony and Korea’s LG all released new 5G models online at the end of February, and a China’s brand Oppo has also launched its global presentation online in the beginning of March. This wave of releases all focus on 5G new models, thus, 5G is expected to be commercialized in this year.

Meanwhile, the bid for 5G network for Taiwan’s telecom industry has been completed and the 5G service is expected to open as soon as July this year. Despite the deferred delivery of mobile phones due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the launches of new model have never been delayed. Therefore, the quality and reliability verification for 5G-related products are getting more important through the entire scope of semiconductor supply chain, including IC design houses, fabs and assembly plants, which will have the opportunity to drive more 5G verification and analysis demands in the future.

In the second half of this year, a highlight of 5G new model will be released by another famous brand in the United States, so the relevant supply chain is working on the research and development verification in full swing. The overall improvement including upgrading the features of 5G networks to higher speed, higher frequency bands, larger connections, lower latency and higher network reliability, which all makes product design much more difficult.

In addition to improving IC performance from the design stage, good product failure analysis and reliability verification are needed more than ever to help achieve the goal of 5G. iST expects accordingly this will drive its future operating performance and the visibility on current orders is expected through the end of second quarter.

About Integrated Service Technology

Founded in 1994, iST began its business from IC circuit debugging and modification and gradually expanded its scope of operations, including Failure Analysis, Reliability Verification, Material Analysis, Automotive Electronic Verification Platforms and Signal Integrity Testing Services. iST has offered full-scope verification and analysis services to the IC engineering industry, its customers cover the whole spectrum of the electronics industry from IC design to end products.

In response to iST’s mission of providing integrated solutions to customers, iST not only focuses on its core laboratory services but also enters the mass production services of wafer backend process. http://www.istgroup.com