It's 9:30 A.M. by my watch, so hello, and welcome, everyone. My name is Bernhard Schweizer, Investor Relations contact at INFICON. I have the pleasure to host this web conference. Thank you for joining the INFICON conference on its third quarter 2024 results. With us today are Oliver Wyrsch, CEO of INFICON, and Matthias Tröndle, CFO of INFICON. The management team will first present the results and then take questions. During the management's prepared remarks, online participants are kindly requested to turn their microphones and cameras off. You should have received by now a press release on the Q3 2024 results, together with the link to the accompanying visuals for this conference. All documents are available for download in the investor section of the INFICON website, www.inficon.com. As participants, you can pose questions either in writing using the chat function in MS Teams. We will read out your questions, and management will answer them during the Q&A session. Or you can add yourselves to the queue of people wishing to ask questions by clicking on the I raise my hand icon. I would also like to inform you that we record this web conference to archive the audio file later on the INFICON website. The oral statements made by INFICON during this MS Teams session may contain forward-looking statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts. These forward-looking statements are based on the current assumptions, and plans and expectations of our management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect our current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Having said all that, I would like to hand over now to Oliver Wyrsch. Oliver, please. Thank you very much, Bernhard. Welcome, everyone. I'm really happy to have you all here today. Let me jump right in. We have the usual split. I will first talk about the big picture, the different markets, and our expectations, and then I'll hand over to Matthias Tröndle, our CFO, for more details on financials, and with that, I will jump right in. Q3 2024 results. We're really happy to announce we have a steady, profitable growth after a strong 2023. Record sales in Semi & Vacuum Coating, as well as Security & Energy When we look at the specific numbers, sales growth to $172 million, that's +3% versus previous quarter, and slightly up year-on-year by +1% after a strong 2023. We have slower momentum in General Vacuum. As you remember, we had a large backlog last year that now is normalized, and at the same time, after we have a decrease, we had sequentially an improvement again. And when you look at RAC, there is a smaller quarter in Q3, but we had a stronger quarter in Q2, so for the full year, roughly flat. This is coming mainly from the Automotive and especially US and Europe. When we look at the specific sectors, Semi & Vacuum Coating, plus 27% year-on-year, plus 7% quarter on quarter, and in Security & Energy, plus 32% year-on-year and plus 2% quarter on quarter. The orders that were up in Q2 are again below 1 in book-to-bill. This is not untypical for a Q3, as the first summer months of Q3 are always a little bit slow. We'll have to then look forward into the future when the different markets will pick up and in what shape or form, specifically the semi market. I will get back to this. Regarding operating results, we have an improved operating income of $35 million, or 20.3%, compared with 19.9% in Q3 2023. This is an increase of 0.4 percentage points. Gross margin also strengthened by plus one percentage points, and this shows through the improved supply chain quality, but also in particular, the systematic cost management we are doing during this period, where the ramp, especially for semi, hasn't come yet, and the other markets are trending in part sideways, but with also some positive signals. At the same time, though, we have to be quite strategic of how we invest and how we time our investment. Operating cash flow as well, a record with $46 million. Regarding organization, we continue to invest in R&D. That's key for us, with 8% of our sales, and also continue to invest in CapEx. Especially, we are making sure that our production capacity is ready for the semiconductor ramp. We expect full-year CapEx to be around $30 million. Having said this, I move into the global markets. You see an interesting trend, in particular in Asia, going upwards, whereas Europe and North America are going more sideways, specifically in the Q3, even a bit down. We will expect positive trends there again, but it's, at the moment, a rather flat tendency in these two markets. If you then go into the specific target markets, semiconductor and vacuum coating, as the first, market, we have a very strong position. I believe some of it is driven by product innovations, the design wins, the new applications. We have a couple of really strong products out there. While the market is not so dynamic, we have been able to gain market share. We have record sales in Q3, increased in year-on-year and quarter on quarter. The key topic here is probably when the ramp will accelerate. We see some positive signs. For the year, we expect a flat/growth scenario. At this point, we are ahead, and we also believe, actually, that the fourth quarter should be solid. So the continuation of the current, but if not so much acceleration yet. Most sub-markets, we always, as you know, look at several submarkets here, are positive, but it's a mixed picture still, especially regarding this ramp. I think what is specific is that logic has a slightly positive tendency, leading Logic, but the mature edge that was very strong last year has slowed down a bit. That's mainly due to Automotive. And then there's several different tendencies of the big players in the market, as you all know, that not all point in the same direction. But we all believe 2025 will be an improvement. What is important here is that we, especially in the years that are a bit slower, continue to invest in innovation. We work very closely with the large accounts together on the next innovations. A lot of prototyping out there, a lot of new products being tested and implemented, and I think here, as I mentioned before, we've been able to make extra wins, even in this difficult environment, and that's why we can show strong numbers. I would highlight, in particular, the new mass spec product line, APEX, for memory, for harsh processes in Logic, that is strong, and also the UL product line, the leak detector, with new software for more sensitivity and easier use, reduced total cost of ownership, that are really quite exciting and our customers are excited about. If I then move to the next target market, Automotive, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning. Strong position, also here, number one, we had a strong Q2 and a bit slower Q3. It is not untypical for some parts of this market to be a bit slower in summer. Overall, though, we expect a flat development this year after a 30%, an almost 30% growth in 2023. So we're stabilizing on this high level, and I believe we are gaining market share as well, because some markets really have slowed down. If you look at the EV battery market, due to the automotive market overall, has been slower. Consumer battery has been more resilient. And then, of course, RAC has its own developments with specific regulations driven through new refrigerants that are required and implemented, and then also smart manufacturing applications. In particular here, I would like to outline the smart manufacturing product for leak detection in automotive, the ELT. That has been very strong, and I believe we have made market gains as the market is decreasing, and we are actually developing really well. And then also the handheld, the Stratus product lines, to just name two, that I believe have created growth. When we then go to General Vacuum, it's a slower year. If you remember last year, we have grown nearly 30%. A lot of this was a big backlog that then was reduced during the course of last year. It's normalized now. Nonetheless, it is not very dynamic yet. While we did have a quarter on quarter increase of 6% across all regions, many of our larger private label distribution partners still don't see so much positive dynamic this year. The general macro environment isn't very strong for it, so we are optimistic for the future for sure, but at this moment, this is a little bit of a slower development than maybe we would have hoped for. I think the general macro environment is also something that we're watching closely here to see what happens next. One more important point here is that a big driver was also solar, and solar goes through a consolidation phase as well this year. It will come back, no doubt. This is the key technology for the energy transition, and that will happen in the course of next year, most likely. With that, I go to the last target market, Security & Energy. Very strong position, good growth, driven through product innovation here at the hub site, that drives this forward. We had a number of large orders, specifically from US DoD, but also across NATO, and the pipeline is strong as well, so we work through the backlog. This is always a little bit a different cycle than the other markets, and it helps us a lot in these times to be independent of a bit more sluggish other sub-markets that we have. So we continue to execute also here, and a sales record quarterly with an increase of plus 33%. With that, I come to the expectations of 2024 and beyond. We're optimistic for the upcoming quarters. Specifically in selected markets, we see good dynamic, positive growth. Most notably, you can see it in the overall semi and vacuum segment. There is global uncertainties, and most specifically, the timing of the semiconductor ramp or the acceleration of it, is not exactly clear regarding timing and extent. We would expect this to start in 2025. We see first signals from our customers when we work together on planning. However, also they see these uncertainties, so this timing, this might shift back and forth a little bit. So in spite of a lot of positive signals, we would still think there is a high likelihood that we have another one or two quarters that is more sideways movement overall. Therefore, also because we don't see this acceleration yet, we have updated our guidance on sales to $660 million-$670 million for 2024, and an operating income that is unchanged of around 20%. Few more highlights just on the products that you also see the specific pictures. We update this on all our channels, but maybe two or three things I would like to highlight here. You see in the upper left corner, the Transpector APEX that I mentioned earlier, that we launched as a family two years ago and continuously add different variants. This is really for the latest, most complex nodes, and also specifically for applications in memory, and has made very good traction. It's one of our drivers, specifically now in this a little bit slower times in the industry. Then the ELT Max, right next to it. This is the smart manufacturing leak detector for automotive that we launched yesterday, well, last year in several variants. Now also have expanded and upgraded further applications, and has shown very positive development in the market. And on the upper right side, the Smart Spray as one of the upgrades and expansions to our semiconductor leak detection portfolio, which has the customers quite excited, actually, and has also seen very positive dynamic. More is available on our website, but this just for now, this much. Stay in touch with us. Here are a couple of updates, as always, from our social media channels. I think one thing I would like to highlight here is the Lam Research Supplier Excellence Award for Innovation, very, very proud of. This was many years of working together with Lam as an innovation partner, a great partnership where much more is to come in future. So we are very excited about this, among other things. With this, I would like to close my section of today's prepared notes and hand over to Matthias Tröndle, our CFO, for more details on the financials. Thank you, Oliver. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our conference call for the third quarter. As usual, I will cover the financials for Q3, and also quickly comment the guidance we gave. So first, let me start with the highlights for Q3. Orders ended lower than second quarter, with the book-to-bill below one. Our sales did grow by 1.3% versus last year, and by 3.1% compared to the previous quarter. But gross margin improved, and reached 47.4%, and we achieved an improved operating income margin of 20.3% in the third quarter. From a balance sheet point of view, CapEx reached $5.5 million, little bit lower than last year and slightly higher than in Q1. Cash flow reached a new record level, and net cash made a big jump in the third quarter, and our equity ratio closed with a strong 65%. Now let me go a little bit more into the details. As you have seen in our press release, and as Oliver commented, we achieved sales of $172.2 million. This represents an increase of 1.3% against Q3 last year, and an increase of 3.1% against the previous quarter. Oliver did already comment the end market developments. We can say that we had two new quarterly records in two markets. Let me say it like this, in the Security & Energy market, we had a plus of 31%, and in the Semi & Vacuum Coating market. We expanded by 27% compared to Q3 last year, respectively 7% compared to Q2 for semi. In the other two markets, we saw a decline in Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and automotive sales decreased by 11%, and in the General Vacuum market, sales dropped by 29%, mainly coming from weaker sales in Asia and in Americas. However, compared to previous quarter, Q2 sales in the General Vacuum market improved by a further 6%. Compared to previous quarter, Q2, total sales did increase in all markets except refrigeration and air conditioning. Looking at the regional sales distribution, on the right-hand side, Asia gained almost 16%, while the other two regions had a decline of approximately 8%. The gross profit margin reached 47.4% and increased by 104 basis points compared to last year, Q3, and ended also higher by 30 basis points than compared to the previous quarter two. Favorable mix, slightly higher volume, as well as lower broker cost and an improved supply chain, have been the main drivers for that. Let's move on to the operating costs. In total, the total operational costs did increase by 3.7% compared to a year ago, while SG&A developed more or less flat with $32.8 million. Our R&D spend reached $13.9 million, which is an increase of 13.1%. As a percent of sales, R&D expense increased to 8.1% in the third quarter. Additional headcounts, project material costs to support our development efforts, did mainly drive for this increase. Coming to the profitability, for the third quarter, we achieved operating profit of $34.9 million, or 20.3% after $33.7 million or 19.9% in Q3 last year, an increase of 0.4 percentage points and above the 20% mark for the fourth time in a row. Compared to previous quarter, as I said already, the result did increase by 3.7% in absolute numbers with a slightly higher profit margin. The tax expense for the third quarter was at $7.1 million, which represents a tax rate of 21.2%, which compares to 20.9% in last year, slightly high. As a result, the net profit did develop stable and reached $26.3 million, or 15.3%. Now let's move to the balance sheet. Our net cash reached $51.5 million, which is about $7 million higher than end of last year, and compared to Q3 last year, the net cash made a big jump with a plus of $29 million. The turns for inventory ended at 2.3, and the DSO ratio improved further to 48.7 days, and with that, the first time for many years, actually below the 50 days level. Our working capital closed at $221 million, or 32.1% of sales, and with that, ended about $4 million lower than end of last year. The reduction is mainly due to good collections, a lower DSO, with a decrease in accounts receivables. Our cash flow, which you can see here on the bottom right, reached a strong record high of $45.9 million and an increase by $8.3 million, versus Q3, respectively $7 million versus end of 2023. The balance sheet shows, as I already mentioned, a solid structure with a 64.7% equity ratio. Those were my comment on Q3 results. Quickly on the outlook, Oliver already commented the assessment for the end markets and the expectations. There were mixed signals and to the extent of, to the extent and the timing of the next semi cycle, and also certain risks in the macro environment and global environment, but we are optimistic. We updated and narrowed the guidance and expect revenues of $660-$670 million for the full year 2024, with a midpoint of $665 million and an operating margin of around 20%. With that, I would like to close the presentation. The next event is our Technology Day, actually on November 14, and then we'll see you again in March next year for our Q4 and full year results. So we are now ready to take your questions. Thank you, gentlemen. We have a first question coming from Jörn Iffert. Jörn, please. Thanks for taking my questions. Hi, Oliver. Hi, Matthias. Can you hear me? Just to double-check this. Yes. Yep. Great. If you allow me three quick questions. The first one is, with all the product innovations you are having in semiconductor end markets, how do you see yourselves positioned for the CapEx split between lithography, deposition, and etch? Does it matter for you, with innovations coming up or not really? Would be the first question, please. So maybe, you, I need to ask a little bit for clarification. So you're asking if the product portfolio is ready for the innovations in these three different semi processes? Is that correct? Yeah, and I mean, with all the innovations you have shown, do you care about if litho, etch, or deposition is growing fast or less fast? So is it you have the same exposure to all three sub-technologies at the end of the day? Yes, let's take the example of the APEX mass spec. This is a product family. It has variants for different applications. These are often minor though, because that is maybe sometimes a little bit the plumbing different, the configuration of the sensor a little bit different. But with that, they adapt to all these different applications. They are used in all of those, and also the other semi processes. So we are definitely ready for the next ramp. As I mentioned before already, we typically try to work with our customers on one or two technology steps in the future. So what is coming in the next ramp is definitely already ready from our side, product-wise. Okay. The next question would be, please, on China. Can you clarify what China was growing for you in Q3 in semi, if this was the main contributor? And given all the news flow from Lam Research, ASML, and others, China is very likely down next year on semi CapEx. But you also have exposure to the chip producers in China. So how do you see the pull forward demand risk for INFICON in China and having an early view in two thousand and twenty-five? Yeah, I mean, it remains difficult to understand exactly where the China economy will go specifically, right? There is, I think, different big trends, and then the government policy that you need to try to understand, to understand where it is going. For us, the key sectors are, of course, focus sectors for China and the government. So there is a slightly different dynamic there. It's much better because there's specific investments and push, namely, of course, the semiconductor sector, but also battery, solar, and so on. So what we have seen in Q3 is not only China, it is beyond China, it's also in Asia. I mean, you know, Taiwan has also a good dynamic, actually, also Korea has one, and then Japan as well. And then there's Southeast Asia, which is a little bit more spread out, and it's a bit more back end. But then there's also, specifically, North America was dynamic and a little bit in Europe. So this is, it's a bit widespread. You could be excited about it, honestly, for semiconductor, and this it is a record quarter, but we just don't see this acceleration yet overall. Now, back to your question regarding China for next year. We get quite positive signals, actually, from our customers in China. We've just been there about a month ago and talked to customers. Look, not everybody is ramping up fast, but many have actually quite aggressive plans, and I'm talking here, chip makers and also tool makers. But there is some that struggle as well, right? Maybe where the market position and the financing isn't that strong, but there's plenty of them that are quite bullish about next year. What truly will materialize, we'll have to see. We have been a couple of times a bit surprised in how China develops, and specifically how the semiconductor industry in China develops. But I would look at it optimistic at this point from what I have, even though it's mixed, yeah. And on China, sorry to follow up here before I go to the very quick last question. How big is China of your total semi sales right now? And how is the split between the OEMs and the chip producers for the quarter, roughly? Yeah, I can only give you this roughly. We also don't report this in specific, but China remains to be around the quarter. It has upward trends at times, but this year, you know, there's a bit of a shift between GenVac to Semi, and that you see across all regions and also in China. So when you look at the split, our split is typically around 50/50. I think currently, chip makers are a little bit ahead of OEMs, interestingly, and that is in China, and that is also globally. Okay, thanks. The last question, if you allow me, a very quick one, and then I go back in the queue. The book-to-bill, early Q4, is this narrowing now one again? Is this what, what you're seeing already? Is this your expectations also, or is it still a gap between orders and sales, even October, if I may ask? Yeah, so as if you go through the year, right, so we had a slow Q1, then we had a strong Q2, and then a slow Q3. Q3 is typically seasonal, that it is also a bit slower. But yeah, Q4, it could be above again, and then you probably around one. If you assume that, currently, we are nearly one book-to-bill. So I cannot exactly say how Q4 developed. So that's what I a little bit talked about in the expectations. We believe it's still a couple of quarters where this acceleration doesn't fully materialize. Specifically, one to two, I think, it's gonna be a bit mixed. And the same you see when you look at our customers' statements, right? Some are really quite optimistic, and we see that, too, this dynamic, and some are a little bit more, wait and see and flat for a bit, right? We will all agree at this point that next year, though, there should be an acceleration. I hope that helps. Yeah. You with this question. Thank you very much. I go back in the queue. Thanks. Thanks, Jörn. Yeah... Thank you for your questions, Jörn. The next question comes from George Samuel Brown. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two, if I may. Yeah. Just firstly, how much visibility do you have on twenty twenty-five with regards to each of your end markets? And maybe again, specifically in semiconductors, how much visibility do you have on the ramp across Logic and memory end markets in twenty twenty-five? And then I have a follow-up. All right, thanks, George. Yeah, I mentioned a little bit already now with Jörn on this ramp. Yeah, so I mean, that is the one key thing we all talk about in the industry, suppliers, customers, partners, and we're trying to find out when that is. Specifically for us, it's important that we are ready for it. That is not so much the product, as mentioned earlier, the product is there. The capacity and the right capacity for the right product line at the right time is a bit the tricky bit, and we are basically ready now because we don't want to be late, right? So do you see also, technically we are would be able to run at a much higher sales at this point, and we will be as soon the ramp comp. Now, when does the ramp come? I think somewhere middle 2025 is still the consensus, roughly. There is different scenarios discussed. Overall, I think leading edge, if you now go a little bit through the sub-markets, leading edge is actually not gone down so much last year and has good development this year. I think there is always important to look at the specific companies. They have their individual struggles at times, and or some are really very strong. We work with all of them, we try to support all of them. So there is probably a further uptick expected, but I don't know when the acceleration truly comes there. That is really difficult to say. In terms of memory, we have actually seen good dynamic. Also, Q3 has profited from memory. So there we have seen some improvement. That's the one obviously that dropped the most last year, and we saw it in this respective product lines that are serving these customers. But there is a gradual improvement, but again, not really the jump forward, right? As you can also see in our customers' numbers. I think the mature edge is the one that is rather going down a bit slower this year after last year being quite resilient and growing. Obviously, that's automotive driven to some parts, and then there is also some energy transition factors in there, right, such as solar that are not helping currently. For me, what I see when we look at automotive, that also drives our battery segment, should pick up again next year. It's a bit hard to say. It's depending on policy, depending on geopolitics, even to some degree, of where the focus shifts and how much intensity there is for energy transition and sustainability, and willingness. So I think next year will be an improvement and the same on the solar as well. But currently, it's still in a consolidation phase. Obviously, a large part of this is in China, but it is a strategic sector, so this will come back and it will also be supported by the Chinese government, and obviously, also in other places around the globe. So maybe that overall, for GenVac, outside of solar, or maybe there's one or two high-tech sectors in there that have their own dynamics, such as space and so on. But to look at macro is a good guide for that. We are typically able to grow a little bit more than macroeconomic data, but currently it is, it's not very dynamic, right? In each region, I think, there's positive signals, specifically in U.S. and China, that maybe support some optimism, but there's still lots of question marks. So maybe to give an early outlook for 2025, more specific, we cannot do that yet. We normally do that in our full year presentations in March. I hope, George, this helps you a bit to give you some color on the different markets. Yeah, yeah, that was super helpful. Thank you so much. Just a second question, if I can. I know, I know you have a fairly big customer in lithography for your sensors. They obviously, you know, just cut their EUV shipment forecast by around 20 units for next year. How should we think about sizing the magnitude of this cut for INFICON in 2025? I assume it's very, very small, but any details would be helpful. Thanks, guys. Yeah. Yeah, look, this we have discussed a few times around the customer structure, and I'm glad that you bring it up because it's important to stress that INFICON, versus ten years ago, has really been able to diversify quite a bit in terms of customers. So this is one of our large customers, but it, he's, they are among quite a number of others, and each one of those have their own dynamics. They go up and down. If you look at leading-edge chip makers as an example, or you look at the mature edge, the automotive or the ICAPS in general, there is quite some individual dynamics there. For us also, this partner in Dutch is a great partner. We work together and develop already-... The next generation again, which really has a very optimistic outlook in general, but on short term, they're slowing down a little bit. We have been through the planning, seeing this already, so for us, we adjusted to this, but it is not a large impact on our general business. It is certainly good to see if they accelerate again, and it will also show how the semiconductor industry accelerates. But at this point, I think they're going a little slower than expected, maybe earlier. Perfect. Thank you so much, guys. Certainly. Thanks, George. The next questions come from Nejc Lipovec. Morning, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my question. Maybe on the first point, I mean, we see China ordered a lot of tools in the past two, three years, especially in the lithography. Is there some risk that next year, your semiconductor sales might even fall? Assuming that the fabs are not yet equipped, they're still being built, and you might see actually next year slightly lower. So maybe that's my first question. Yeah. Yeah, Nejc, yes, the risk is there. I mentioned earlier there is uncertainties, but there is equally also an opportunity for good growth. And as I mentioned before, when we talk to the customers, they're quite bullish, really. I mean, it's still the plan is still that China can increase the local sourcing of chips, and there is still a long way to go, how far they can go with this. At the same time, it's not easy to build up semiconductor fabs or also semiconductor OEM companies, so they have their struggles, but we see really great progress. I have to say, we are impressed, and we work with these partners together. They make good progress. So I would be cautiously optimistic, really, for China, even though, yeah, a lot of uncertainties, specifically also trade war-related topics, right? We have also an election upcoming. There's a few things that I cannot. I'm not. I'm the wrong person to tell you what truly is gonna happen. I think a lot of people have question marks, and we just need to think in scenarios there. But what I find important is that we're very entrenched with these customers, too, as well. We work there together on plan longer term. Specifically also, this capacity requests they have continuously now, the ones that are really bullish. So I think we're very strong position in the market, and whatever will happen to the market, I think INFICON is in a very good position. That I'm convinced, and that I can tell you we are sure about that. Okay, and maybe when we look at your automotive air conditioning a nd refrigeration end market, I mean, can this even get worse, considering that you mentioned overcapacity a bit in the past, and you're saying there is continuous weakness? I mean, is there any sign of stabilization, or how should we think about this end market going forward? Yeah, I think we went through rock bottom there. The timing, though, is difficult to say, right? That is about the EV adoption, specifically also in the West, and that's a bit hard to predict. But we have certainty, we can say that it is gonna come back. Now, when and how, that is a bit the difficulty. Hey, we're working hard currently with these guys to develop new products. You've seen, especially the ELT Max product line, we've made several launches last year. It's very strong. So you could probably not perform this well without being able to make developments in the market share as we do currently, because the market is definitely lower than last year. And so if you look at the full year, year to date, we're roughly flat to last year, and last year, we grew nearly 30% in this market. So I'm really quite optimistic there. But regarding the timing, yeah, next year should really show an improvement. That is our expectation. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Absolutely. Thanks, Nejc. I don't see any further questions at this moment of time. I just would like to remind you, if you want to ask a question, just click on the I Raise My Hand icon, on top. Yes, here's Jörn. Jörn is back with another question. Thank you. A quick question on the follow-up on the auto one with, l eak detection for battery testing. How do you see exactly your market share developing here? You lose some market share? No, no, we're gaining. Otherwise, you wouldn't be that resilient in a shrinking market. But you need to also distinguish the segments. I mean, automotive has a couple of subsegments, right? It's not only battery, it's traditional auto as well, and then there's when you look at traditional auto, you can look at certain things that will stay, such as airbag testing, light leak detection, all of this versus maybe motor block and tank. So that is one area, but the other is consumer batteries as well, which has been more resilient than automotive batteries. So that would be smartphones, laptops, small button batteries up to bigger ones. This has been anyway stronger, but I think on the automotive, we have been able to gain market share. The competition really is now much more local in China. We've seen others from the West losing a bit the foothold. We are number one globally anyway in that area. But the fight is really there, and that's why, among other things, we opened up the Guangzhou Application Development Center, where we make these fast iterations, these fast adaptations, straight with the key customers that we have there. Okay. This has proven to be quite successful. We're thinking about duplicating this, and have already started to further invest in this. Okay, thanks. And the second follow-up, please, I mean, given that you are sitting on the tables with your customers to discuss platforms and technology, I'm sure you have some visibility. Can you tell us what is roughly the wallet share increase you are seeing for High Bandwidth Memory and Gate-All-Around, versus the previous legacy technology, which was mainly used, as these technology are progressing and accounting for a higher share now of customer spending? Or is this not really where you have exact visibility on? Yeah, that's a hard thing to say, especially globally. I think one good indicator that we also look at is the numbers that TSMC reports. Of course, that's their own perspective, but they have such a large share in foundry. If you just talk now about Logic, of course, mainly, then on memory, there's a couple of winners there and a couple that are a little bit looser. So for a cycle, I guess, or for a little bit. So if you look at the ones that drive this, the share is really increasing quite a bit. But I've been repeatedly saying that while AI is a driver, it's also been a little bit overhyped last year, I feel. It's for me, as a computer scientist by education, not something that happened last year. It's more of a continuous thing. I also been following NVIDIA for a long time. Of course, there's been a couple of leaps forward, but this is a gradual thing, so I don't think this is a big jump. Of course, there is more intensity about HBM now and more complex memory structures, which help us. That's also why memory has been actually quite interesting, even in the most recent quarter for us, business-wise, and it continues to be. There's more sophisticated sensorization discussions than ever before happening right now for the next generation, so we are optimistic. To give you a share, I don't think I can give you something that is tangible enough, honestly. Certainly, it's increasing. Yeah. Okay. And the last question, if I may, as I think there is no other in the queue right now, customers want to reduce complexity. You see that your neighbor is offering more modules, for example, helping the customers reduce complexity. What, what can you do as an INFICON, helping the customers reduce complexity? I think we're doing this continuously, actually, right? When we once maybe been a sensor hardware supplier, but now really growing into data analytics with a very sophisticated software package that creates a digital twin of all factory. We run 60 factories. I've just been in Japan at a customer, automotive, that for 6 years runs the entire fab, fully automated with overhead transport system and including the reticle management with our software. What they could do, they could reduce their WIP by 30% and increase their output. I think we're doing a lot in terms of improving productivity of semiconductor fabs, and that's the discussions that we're having. We have them at a very good level at the customer, where we can strategically work together on doing that. So I think the evolution or the leap forward has happened already for INFICON. I think it's now about executing and truly go after all these opportunities there. Still, there is a little bit discussion to be done for our positioning, that truly everybody understands what we can do, and that we can do it from small sensors and small data gathering through that, aggregating all this, and then bring a factory to the next level in a smart manufacturing way, increasing yield and productivity. But we're working on this constantly, and you also hear how we are changing our storylines and how we try to create more awareness around that and trying to position us in this very strong new environment. I think there is tremendous opportunity around this. So we're not in the habit of making large announcements, but we certainly have very tangible plans for the next five to ten years, how we dramatically grow our business through that. You see it now through some innovation wins in difficult times, but there is constantly more going on. The discussions I have are really extremely positive, even though it's currently a little bit of a, let's say, a boring time, right? We're all a bit waiting for this acceleration. But when I visit customers, we don't talk about this quarter or next quarter, or even not too much about the next ramp, unless it's about production capacity planning. But mostly, we talk about the next five years and beyond that, "Hey, what can we truly do when we tackle on big challenges?" And big challenges are labor shortages. How are you gonna build all these fabs with current labor requirements? You can't. It's impossible. You have also a generation that phases out of the workforce, so you even have a negative trend, in a sense, on the workforce. We can help with that. We can increase productivity to degree that you can work or run a fab with much less headcounts. I think we have big stories there. We can very well compare with our friends across the river here with our story. I think it's a really big story, and but for the next five, ten years, I see plenty of things to go after, and we're really truly excited about that, I have to say, and so are our customers. Thank you. Sure. Thank you, Jörn. I see that Nejc is rejoining our discussion, too. Yes. Thank you very much for taking my question again. Maybe as a follow-up on that, I mean, it seems that you're winning market share. Could you maybe provide more details in which segment? Is it more with OEMs? Is it more end manufacturers, and also, with which technology? Is it gas analysis? I mean, a bit more understanding on that end would be very helpful to also understand next year and the year after. Yeah. Nejc, that's a pretty big question. I think it's a very good one, of course. So I can give you a little bit color, but I will not be able to go through the different product lines one by one. So, I mean, one big push is certainly the advanced sensors, measure things that currently aren't measured, control the process, and not check only for air leaks. Control the process means the endpoint measurement, for instance. So, there is, we just have really good new solutions that currently are going into HVM or that some of they are in early stages, and I feel that they are getting very positive feedback out in the market. And for some of those, there isn't really an alternative or very trivial ones or simple ones. So that is not, It's not even so difficult competition in that sense, right? So it's basically opening up new application, being more sophisticated when the technology node just demands much more process control. So process control certainly is one, and that is with OEM, and it is with chip makers. The sophisticated sensors always go directly to the chip makers. I think we talked about this situation earlier, that they, of course, know the recipe best, and they also know best what they want to measure to optimize it or improve yield or whatever it may be. And then we have automotive. I think we have a strong number one position, but we really pushed forward, and the competition shifted there. This, this competition is much smaller, but it's quite agile, and it's in China, so that's why we take the fight there, and we took the fight there, and I think we have really positive momentum now. In spite of trade war difficulties and all the other things, in the end, it's still about the right solution and total cost of ownership, which is better, so that will be two examples to mention. Maybe a third one is really the software portfolio. Look, we, we're continuously building this up. We have a pretty big data analytics and AI team by now. We doubling down on this vision that I just mentioned earlier about smart manufacturing. We made an acquisition also earlier this year around cycle time. We continuously look also on inorganic growth there, while we also have a very strong R&D team, and there we definitely have a very strong position. Well, there are competitors that tell me openly. They say, "Wherever we go, you are already." Yeah, it's because we sold a lot of software the last twenty years with software, and then gradually went up the value chain to create digital twins of tools or entire fabs. The example that I mentioned earlier from a customer I just visited last week. Yeah, I hope this gives you a bit of color, but I have one better for you, Nejc, and I think you are signed up for it. Come to the Technology Day in November. We'll tell you more about these visions, which I find really quite exciting. So more to come in that sense. Maybe let me just add to this question about the market share, right? So you cannot assume there is a button on the laptop, right, and you press F5, and you get your market share calculation. It's really difficult, even if you take a look to the, let's say, global or total markets, right? It's hard to assess, at the end of the day, what's really your market share. Not all information is public, and there's a lot of, as Oliver explained, a lot of individual examples with customers, with projects, with technologies, where we get, of course, some feeling, right, and feedback from customers, but it's really hard to assess, and if you go even more down, right, into subsegments, then it's getting even more difficult. So it's not something there is a database, and you access, and you pay for it, and then you know where you are. It's a lot of different data elements and data sources you use to basically come to a conclusion. Where are you? Did you gain? Did you lose? What's the competitive competitor doing? Yeah, that's just to explain a little bit. It's not like in the balance sheet, I have a huge advantage in that one, right? So there's debit and credit, and I push the button, I know the numbers with two digits. It's a little bit different on the marketing side. Okay, and my final question, if I may, I mean, you used to have lower gross margin. You had this chip broker cost and some supply chain issues. I mean, I'm assuming that this is now largely gone. You don't have this problem anymore. And in terms of maybe other headwinds, tailwinds on your margin, maybe more on the operating margin, maybe just a brief overview, yeah. Yeah, look, I mean, maybe Matthias can then give more specific numbers. I think one main factor, what is important now to know is we are now ready for the ramp. Because we wanted to be ready, because we all thought it's happening now. So the cost structure that we're currently running, which I think we are also improved year-on-year, nicely, it is, however, built for a much bigger business, and it is gonna come, but the timing of it is only the question, right? So that is maybe one key thing to think about when you think about the current state. It's a bit of this in-between state. So- How much is the much bigger business? I mean, what would this be in terms of revenue? I don't know what the semiconductor ramp can do to a business, 10-20% overall? I don't know. It depends, right? I think you guys got good numbers there as well. But some product lines, it's 30% more, right? Where we have the capacity ready because we had this growth. And if you look at 3-4 years, I think two key product lines of our top two sensors, they're times five and times four, the capacity versus 3 years ago. So that's not happening everywhere, right? But so it's and that's a mixed message, but we're not gonna go and risk banging our head like during the COVID supply chain crisis, right? Where we so struggled to ship and also get product, and we all remember these times 2 years ago. So we wanna go and really be an enabler of the next ramp when it happens. And that is in the model, right? So at the same time, when I say strategic cost management, this is not just a word or a bullet on a slide. This is something systematic that is important to me, and we started to strengthen in the last two years. So we wanna spend the money where it should be spent, and where we shouldn't be spending it, we aren't. So that is just a little bit of a change of course, also. And I can say this today, but it will materialize over time, obviously. Okay, thank you very much. With hopefully an even prettier opening for you to look at. All right. Thank you, Nejc. Ladies and gentlemen, any further questions from the audience? As there are no further questions, I would like to turn back to management for their closing remarks and farewell then. Yeah. Thank you very much, everybody, for the interest. I see it, it's a big crowd that joins us for this quarterly earnings releases. It's good to see. Great questions, good discussion, good inputs. We're looking forward to see many of you at the Technology Day in November, and then, of course, for a full year earnings release next year in March. And with that, thank you very much. Have a wonderful day. Thank you very much.