[Click eStock] "Exicon, the Icon of CXL... Expected Performance Rebound This Year"

Hanyang Securities analyzed on the 26th that Exicon is expected to achieve a performance turnaround starting this year.

Lee Jun-seok, a researcher at Hanyang Securities, stated in a report on the same day, "Performance improvement is expected as demand for memory tester equipment replacement from client companies increases and new investments resume."

Exicon is a company that develops and manufactures memory and system semiconductor test equipment and was listed on KOSDAQ in 2015. Its main products include memory testers, burn-in testers, SSD testers, and SoC testers. As of last year, the sales composition was 38.3% memory testers, 51.4% SSD testers, and 10.3% SoC testers. However, last year's consolidated performance recorded sales of 31.6 billion KRW (a decrease of 61.6% year-on-year) and an operating loss of 15.9 billion KRW (turning to a deficit).

The researcher added, "Performance deteriorated due to a sharp decline in DDR5 memory tester demand caused by major clients focusing on HBM investments and delays in new equipment investment execution. Additionally, increased R&D expenses for developing next-generation test equipment also led to profitability deterioration."

However, from this year, performance rebound is expected as demand for memory tester equipment replacement from clients increases and new investments resume. In particular, the full-scale supply of the newly developed CLT (Chambered Low Frequency Memory Tester) is scheduled, which is expected to act as a key driver for performance improvement.

The newly developed CLT by Exicon is a next-generation high-efficiency test equipment that improves the space and speed limitations of existing memory testers. The researcher analyzed, "CLT is evaluated as a core facility for strengthening DRAM processes and securing quality. It can test in extreme environments ranging from -20℃ to 150℃ and supports up to 11,520 simultaneous processing channels (para), meeting the demand for large-capacity, high-performance testing."

Exicon’s clients have been conducting DDR5 tests using existing Advantest equipment but are considering replacing it with new equipment to enhance DRAM process sophistication and production efficiency. Especially, with memory semiconductor prices such as DRAM and NAND expected to rebound from the second quarter this year, the investment direction of clients is likely to expand from HBM-centered to the overall memory semiconductor sector.

The researcher stated, "Exicon passed client quality tests in the second half of last year and was selected as the final sole vendor. The replacement demand for aging existing equipment is expected to accelerate. CLT is a high-priced device costing around 4 to 5 billion KRW per unit, and once the first delivery begins in the second quarter, it will serve as a key driver for performance rebound from the second half."

Additionally, Exicon is expected to benefit from the growth of the CXL market. CXL is a next-generation interface that connects CPUs, external memory, and accelerators at high speed, characterized by enhanced scalability and efficiency based on PCIe. The researcher explained, "Due to cost and capacity limitations of HBM, large-scale expansion is difficult, so CXL usage is expanding in server, AI, and cloud environments. Especially, mass production of CXL 3.1 DRAM is expected to begin in earnest in 2026."

As CXL and HBM technologies advance, testing difficulty is also increasing. While existing DRAM testers struggle with CXL testing, there is significant technical similarity with PCIe-based server SSD testers. Exicon holds a reference for mass supplying PCIe 5.0-based SSD Gen5 testers to Samsung Electronics and is currently developing PCIe 6.0-based SSD Gen6 testers.

The researcher forecasted, "If the CXL 3.1 test equipment market expands in the future, Exicon’s technological capabilities and business experience will directly translate into benefits."