Rubicon Technology Inc (RBCN)

[cash2go]

2011, why 6-inch

Well, demand on the 6-inch continues to be strong, and one of the reasons is this that our major LED chip manufacturers who are technologically rich and has a capital to support it are moving toward 6-inch diameter wafers because of the performance and the cost competitiveness it applies to this product.

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But as Raja said in his comments, very strong demand elsewhere and no issue with overall demand in the quarter, and don't expect any in the fourth quarter also. In the first quarter, I think we expect to see the backlighting market pick up again, plus we have all the new MOCVD reactors being installed currently in Taiwan and China and expect very strong demand going into next year as well.

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Bill Weissman

Well I think 2-inch will be stronger in Q4 as well, and then Q1 will probably see changed to that as a backlighting market picks up again. Again, as we said earlier, there is some of the large 4-inch users are focused more TV backlighting and that should start to pick up at some point in Q1.

*Bill Weissman

The reason why we signed this first 6-inch contract was more at the request of the customer, because they wanted some comfort that they'd have availability of sapphire before they'd move to production on 6-inch. And we're assuming the next one or two to get into the 6-inch market and production levels who want to do the same. So we'll be happy to entertain that.

We really avoided longer-term contracts with the smaller diameter material. Firstly, the price has been increasing.