MINNEAPOLIS – CyberOptics reported sales of $12.4 million for the third quarter, down 26% year-over-year.

Net loss was $353,000 for the period ended Sept. 30, compared to earnings of $1.1 million in the third quarter of 2018.

“This year’s third quarter was a difficult period for CyberOptics, as we continued facing the headwinds of weak conditions in the surface mount technology and semiconductor capital equipment markets, as well as the uncertainty of trade relations with China,” said Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, president and CEO. “Weighing on our performance were sharp declines in sales of legacy inspection systems and OEM sensors. However, our family of semiconductor sensors posted higher sales in the third quarter of 2019 on both a year-over-year and quarterly sequential basis.

“During the third quarter of 2019, we received an order of $1.3 million for 3-D SQ3000 CMM automated optical inspection systems for use in the production of micro-LED technology-based displays, an emerging market that represents a promising growth opportunity for CyberOptics. Shipments of this order will occur through the second quarter of 2020. And given that our MRS-based NanoResolution sensor has been well received in the markets for semiconductor wafer-level and advanced packaging inspection and metrology, we are adding sales and field engineering resources to pursue opportunities for this important new product. We believe inspection and metrology for semiconductor wafer-level and advanced packaging applications represent promising long-term growth opportunities.”

Sales of sensors and inspection and metrology systems based on 3-D MRS technology declined 30% year-over-year to $4.5 million in the third quarter. These MRS-based products, combined with semiconductor sensors, accounted for 66% of total revenue, up from 59% in the prior year period. Sales of legacy sensors and systems, excluding MX600 memory module inspection systems, fell 47% year-over-year.

Sales of semiconductor sensors increased 6% year-over-year in the quarter to $3.7 million and increased 18% on a sequential basis. Sales of these sensors are forecasted to post more than 10% year-over-year sales growth in the fourth quarter.

In the third quarter, sales of inspection and metrology systems declined 29% year-over-year to $5.5 million. Sales of 3-D MRS-enabled SQ3000 inspection systems fell 24% year-over-year to $3.3 million. However, sales of 3-D MRS-enabled SQ3000 inspection systems increased 14% year-over-year for the first nine months of 2019, and 3-D MRS-enabled SQ3000 sales growth is forecasted to exceed 20% for all of 2019.

Sales of 3-D and 2-D sensors fell 41% year-over-year in the third quarter to $3.2 million, with sales of 3-D MRS-enabled sensors down 30% year-over-year. Due to ongoing market weakness, 3-D and 2-D sensor sales are forecasted to decline in the fourth quarter, both sequentially and on a year-over-year basis.

CyberOptics ended the third quarter with an order backlog of $14.4 million, up from $13 million at the end of the second quarter.

The company expects sales of $13.5 million to $15 million for the fourth quarter.

• Prev
• Next