Of course, we actually talking to a lot of customers, and this is an area I think I need to have a breakthrough. Micro dispensing with the capability of a precision, control of expense and motion is really needed in this industry, right? So, we are quite excited.
Operator: The next question is coming from Charles Shi of Needham & Company. Please go ahead.
Charles Shi : I have a couple of questions. First, I want to get a little bit more color on how the business of the wedge bonding equipment has been trending. I think that you probably have talked about potential moderation for a while, but it does seem like it’s — the softness is a little bit — I mean, above — I mean, beyond what you have expected in the past. So, my question is how much weaker would you be expecting in terms of the wedge bonding equipment business? And the Ball Bonding side does look like there are some signs of recovery, the largest OSAT is increasing CapEx this year based on what they said last night. How much with Ball Bonding equipment strength offset the wedge bonding equipment witnesses you have? And any color would be great between the puts and takes of your two largest product categories.
Lester Wong: So, hi, Charles, we do see, as Fusen mentioned in his remarks, that’s what I said. We do see weakness in wedge bonding, particularly driven by automotive. So, I think it has been trending down for 1 or 2 quarters, but we think for Q2, it’s going to be a more significant downward. But hopefully, it will recover near the latter part of the fiscal year.
Fusen Chen : So, Charles, actually, you mentioned the weakness not only a power semi it’s also industry. So, the customer with auto exposures, I think they not only push out some of wedge bonder. So, pushout also include Ball Bonder in that particular company because of — auto also have a Ball Bonder associated with that, right? So, I would say — I won’t say all the pushout actually are all wedge bonder for this quarter.
Charles Shi: Got it. So, what’s the — I know directionally, you do expect a Ball Bonding business. I mean other than what you said about — yes, there are pushout from the auto industrial sector on the Ball Bonders. But in general, what kind of expectation that the profile of the ramp of the Ball Bonder revenue throughout this year. It does sound like based on your commentary about the unit growth you were expecting probably more gradual and modest increase of the Ball Bonding revenue for the first three quarters of this fiscal year, maybe a little bit of uptick in September. Is that the right way to think about it?
Lester Wong: So, I think, as Fusen said, Q2 Ball Bonder is also a little bit weaker than we expected, right? But we think actually Q3 will definitely start seeing recovery from conversations we’ve had with our customers as well as seeing what I mentioned earlier about utilization rate increasing particularly in China. So, we think Q3 will definitely pick up for Ball Bonder and definitely Q4 would be much stronger. So, I wouldn’t say the first 3 quarters will be weak for Ball Bonder, I would say, Q3 and Q4 for Ball Bonder I think — we think the recovery would start in Q3 and then really pick up pace latter part of Q3 into Q4.
Charles Shi: Got it. Maybe I want to ask one last question. So, you didn’t provide a new update on Project W. Just want to check with the management team. Do you still expect the high-volume production to be in 2025? And what should be to maximize I’m not asking for the timing of the next milestone, but what exactly should be the next milestone?
Fusen Chen : So, Charles, I think for Project W, the next milestone, I think, as Fusen mentioned, we’ve shipped 1 system machining more capacity for the customer. I think the next milestone probably would be the qualification of the initial pre-mass production tools, which have been shipped. As far as — whether we believe mass production will kick in, in 2025. A lot of that has to do with the customer, right? And the readiness of the entire supply chain for Project W. So, we still see — I mean, for ’24, ’25 preproduction tools going in, and we’re getting ready for the ramp, which could be the latter part of ’25, ’26. But again, a big part of it depends on the customers’ readiness.
Operator: [Operator Instructions]. The next question is coming from Craig Ellis of B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.
Craig Ellis : Thanks for taking my question, and good evening, guys. So, I wanted to just go back to some of the earlier comments and try and stitch together what we’re saying about fiscal ’24. So Fusen, I think early on, you said that you think $800 million in revenues is possible. And it seems like with your traction in the spend at $25 million to $30 million, that’s going to drive about 60% of the incremental year-on-year growth. So, does that mean that the balance of the growth is from Ball Bonders or wedge bonders? Or do we have something hitting with advanced display and TCB this year?
Fusen Chen : So, actually, I make a comment. I think ’25, we expect expense probably have a really momentum because this year ’24, we have a lot of engagement with the same customer, right? So earliest, I think traction is going to be ’25, which are $25 million to $30 million is what we’re looking for. And what I mentioned in the second half, I think in addition to the Ball Bonder recovery, actually, even a recovery compared to the peak, we even not 40% of the peak volume yet. So, gain Ball Bonder will have a lot of long way to go. So, in addition to the Ball Bonder recovery in the second half, I think we also expect many things we have a VFO, we expect displayed, right? And we have other areas to grow, as I mentioned in my script, so I hope I…
Craig Ellis: Okay. That helps. And then I wanted to dig into another comment. You mentioned that it’s possible that you’ll see some auto battery shipment acceleration later this year for I believe it was wedge. And I wanted to get a sense for what you thought the magnitude of that would be and how the linearity played out in the back half of the year?
Lester Wong: Yes. So, Craig, I think the magnitude is not huge, but it is significant. This is the first big buy we’ve had from the customer for quite a while. I think as well as far as linearity is concerned, I think we believe that it will be — there’ll be some in this quarter, but mostly it will be in the second half of the year.
Craig Ellis: Yes. And then lastly, if I could sneak in one more. Certainly, some encouraging signs in China memory. The question is for Korean memory and U.S. memory companies. What’s your expectation for when we get back to 80% plus utilization rates that can benefit the business in those geographies with those customers? Thank you.
