Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Alpha and Omega Semiconductor financial results for the fiscal first quarter of 2021 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone keypad. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any assistance, please press star zero for the operator. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Gary Dvorchak. Sir, the floor is yours.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Alpha and Omega Semiconductor's conference call to discuss fiscal 2021 first quarter financial results. I'm Gary Dvorchak , Investor Relations Representative for AOS. With me today are Dr. Mike Chang, our CEO; Yifan Liang, our CFO; Steven Chang, our Executive Vice President. This call is being recorded and broadcast live over the web. A replay will be available for seven days following the call via the link in the investor relations section of our website.
Our call will proceed as follows. Mike will begin with a review of business, then Steven will provide a detailed segment report. After that, Yifan will review the financial results and provide guidance. Finally, we will have the question and answer session. The earnings release was distributed over wire services today, November 5th, 2020, after the close of the market. The release is also posted on the company's website.
Our earnings release and this presentation include certain non-GAAP financial measures. We use non-GAAP measures because we believe they provide useful information about our operating performance that should be considered by investors in conjunction with the GAAP measures that we provide. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in the earnings release. We remind you that during this conference call, we will make certain forward-looking statements, including discussions of the business outlook and financial projections. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from such expectations. For a more detailed description of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our recent and subsequent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update the information provided in today's call.
Now, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Mike, to provide an overview of the business. Mike?
Thank you, Gary. Welcome everyone to today's call. We are off to a great start to fiscal year 2021. Business momentum accelerated in the September quarter, despite the ongoing global uncertainty with COVID-19. We delivered a solid revenue growth and excellent profitability. Shipments were strong across most of our product categories, particularly computing and consumer applications. Revenue was up 29% year-over-year. At the high end of the updated guidance range we issued in earlier October, better utilization and disciplined expense control drove non-GAAP growth margin of 29%. On the bottom line, we posted non-GAAP EPS of $0.55, which more than doubled year-over-year. First fiscal quarter results continue to demonstrate the competitive strength of our business strategy, technical expertise, diversified product portfolio, and expanded customer base.
While we start our business in the computing market, we have successfully diversified our business by expanding into other market segments, including consumer, communications, power supply, and industrial. Our mission is to become a leading designer, developer, and a global supplier of a broad portfolio of power semiconductors. Our technical expertise enables us to develop a broader variety of power discrete and Power IC technology platforms. This enables us to expand our product offerings and deliver complete power solutions for more target applications. Over the years, we have evolved from a component supplier to a solution provider. We have engaged more deeply with our customers, strengthened relationships, and have become their trusted strategic partner.
Our more structured design wins with a recently launched gaming system and new PC graphics card platforms, as well as our continuing high growth in home appliance applications, are some examples of how we have deepened strategic partnerships with Tier 1 OEM customers. We will continue to drive growth by winning new ODM and OEM customer engagement with an expanding pipeline of new products. Our renewed business growth was made possible by our multi-year effort to strengthen our supply chain, specifically our joint venture fab in Chongqing, which continued trend and helped in capturing the surging of demand in September quarter. Because of this, the Chongqing fab achieved positive EBITDAs for the second consecutive quarters, and we expect to approach its phase I target runway next year.
The joint venture fab provides us with flexible capacity management and the geographic diversification of our supply chain, and will support our business growth for many years to come. I am pleased with our direction and our solid execution, even though I wish it could be a little faster. I want to thank our customers, business partners, and shareholders for their support and confidence in the company. I also want to acknowledge our employees for the outstanding job and for staying focused and engaged with our customers while we navigated this challenging macro environment. We are excited about our growth trajectory, and we believe we can keep our calendar year 2021 target of $600 million of annual revenue. With a healthy pipeline of new products, new design wins, and new customers, we are focused on executing our growth strategy and building on the strong momentum we see now.
While our optimism is justified, we want to caution investors that the environment is still highly uncertain. We will be working diligently to drive growth, but are prepared to respond quickly should conditions change due to COVID-19, economy, trade tensions, or other issues. With that, now I will turn the call over to Steven for detailed segment report. Steven?
Thank you, Mike, and good afternoon. Let me start with computing. It represented 44.1% of our total revenue in the September quarter. Revenue was up 35.9% sequentially and up 44.7% year-over-year. End demand was stronger than expected, which we fulfilled with ramping supply from our JV fab. The work-from-home trend drove high demand for PC related products. Our graphics card business was exceptionally strong, driven by demand in the gaming application. We remain excited about ramping sales of high performance DrMOS and Digital Power solutions in the launch of key customers' graphics card platforms. We expect this to continue in the December quarter. Looking ahead, we expect overall computing revenue to be down mid-single digits in the next quarter as the sequential growth in the graphics card business is expected to be offset by the usual seasonal decline in PC.
Now turning to the consumer segment. It represented 24.2% of total revenue in the September quarter. Revenue increased 33% sequentially and was up 70.8% year-over-year. Similar to PCs, the pandemic driven stay at home effect boosted sales of gaming, TVs, and home appliances, propelling the strong growth. Gaming grew significantly as a major game console win started to ramp. Pre-production for the new gaming consoles started in the June quarter and ramped further in the September quarter. We are thrilled to have multiple sockets across several of our product lines, including Power IC and MOSFET, designed into this gaming console system. Home appliances continued to expand in the September quarter, primarily driven by sales of Intelligent Power Modules. Our co-package IGBT and MOSFET-based motor drive modules with built-in safety features offer our customers a co-package solution for ease of design and robust performance.
We have been expanding our module product offering, and we are pleased to see business ramping with a new series of IPM modules designed for room air conditioners at a Japanese customer. Looking to the December quarter, we anticipate a mid-single digit decline in the consumer segment. Growth in home appliances is likely to be offset by a seasonal decline in TV, coupled with a production ramp push out of gaming console systems caused by a shortage of other system components. Now let's discuss the power supply and industrial segment. It accounted for 16.5% of total revenue, up 5.7% sequentially and down 8.5% year-over-year. Going into the September quarter, we expected this segment to be down somewhat due to softer demand for quick chargers and DC fans. The upside surprise was due to a couple of factors. First, quick chargers were flat quarter-over-quarter, better than expected.
This year's peak season for global smartphone OEMs was delayed due to COVID. As our smartphone customers began shipping again in the September quarter, quick chargers started to come back. Second, the demand for AC/DC power supply was stronger than expected, closely tracking the surge in PC sales, which offset the decline in DC fan demand. The industrial drone application started to ramp as our high-performance MOSFETs are designed to power the drones for use in applications such as agriculture, delivery, and emergency response. Looking ahead, we expect the overall segment to be flat in the December quarter, as quick charger growth will be offset by a decline in AC/DC power supply. Let's move to the communication segment, which was 13.4% of total revenue in the quarter, up 2.4% sequentially and down 4.5% year-over-year.
This segment played out largely as expected, given the delay in the smartphone peak season. Looking ahead, our battery protection business is expected to be strong in the December quarter, tracking the peak season of our global major smartphone customers. We expect communication segment revenue to be up double- digits sequentially in the December quarter. With that, I will now turn the call over to Yifan for a discussion of our fiscal first quarter financial results and our outlook. Yifan?
Thank you, Steven. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Revenue for the December quarter was $151.6 million, up 23.8% from the prior quarter, and up 28.6% from the same quarter last year. In terms of product mix, MOSFET revenue was $119.4 million, up 19.4% sequentially, and up 18.7% year-over-year. Power IC revenue was $29.5 million, up 45.2% from the prior quarter, and up 87.3% from a year ago. Assembly service revenue was $2.7 million as compared to $2.1 million last quarter, and $1.5 million for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP gross margin for the September quarter was 29%, up from 27.5% in the prior quarter, and up from 28.3% in the same quarter last year. The increase in non-GAAP gross margin was mainly driven by favorable product mix and higher factory utilization.
Non-GAAP gross margin excluded $0.8 million of amortization of purchased IP related to Digital Power for the quarter. In addition, non-GAAP gross margin excluded $0.4 million of share-based compensation charges for the September quarter as compared to $0.3 million and $0.4 million for the prior quarter and for the same quarter last year, respectively. Non-GAAP gross margin also excluded $0.3 million of production ramp-up costs related to the JV company for the quarter, as compared to $4.4 million for the prior quarter and $6 million for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP operating expenses for the September quarter were $28.6 million, compared to $25.3 million for the prior quarter and $25.6 million for the same quarter last year. The quarter-over-quarter increase primarily related to higher R&D engineering expenses and variable compensation accruals.
Non-GAAP operating expenses for the quarter excluded $2.5 million of share-based compensation charges and $1.1 million of legal expenses related to the government investigation. This compares to $2.4 million of share-based compensation charges and $2.6 million of legal expenses related to the investigation for the prior quarter, as well as $1.9 million of share-based compensation charges for the same quarter last year. Both GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses included $3.2 million of Digital Power team expenses for the quarter, as compared to $3 million for the prior quarter and $2.8 million for the same quarter last year. In the September quarter, we started shipment of Digital Power products. Digital Power is complementary to our Power IC operation and make it more complete and compelling. As our internal integration is now behind us, we will no longer break out Digital Power team expenses going forward.
Income tax expense for the quarter was $1 million, compared to $0.4 million for the prior quarter and $0.4 million for the same quarter last year. non-GAAP EPS attributable to AOS for the quarter was $0.55 per share as compared to $0.29 for the prior quarter and $0.26 for the same quarter last year. AOS continued to generate positive operating cash flow.
AOS, on a standalone basis, generated $12.7 million of operating cash flow in the September quarter as compared to $20.2 million of operating cash flow generated in the prior quarter, and a $4.2 million used in the operating cash flow in the same quarter last year. Operating cash flow used by the JV company in the September quarter was $2.9 million, compared to $20.1 million of cash flow provided by the JV company in the prior quarter, and $3 million of cash flow provided by the JV company in the same quarter last year. Consolidated EBITDAs for the September quarter was $27.6 million, compared to $14.9 million for the prior quarter and $14.3 million for the same quarter last year. EBITDAs attributable to AOS for the quarter was $22.2 million, as compared to $12 million for the prior quarter and $13.8 million for the same quarter last year.
EBITDAs for the JV company was $4.6 million in the September quarter as compared to $1.1 million for the prior quarter and - $2.4 million for the same quarter last year. Let's look at the balance sheet. We completed the September quarter with cash balance of $154.7 million, including $112.7 million at AOS and $42 million at the JV company. This compares to $158.5 million at the end of last quarter, which included $110.3 million at AOS and $48.2 million at the JV company. Our cash balance a year ago was $103.1 million, including $88 million at AOS and $15.1 million at the JV company. The bank borrowing balance at the end of September was $173.8 million, including $30.6 million at AOS and $143.1 million at the JV company. During the quarter, AOS and the JV company repaid $2.1 million and $4 million of existing loans, respectively.
Net trade receivables were $26.3 million at the end of the September quarter, as compared to $13.3 million at the end of the prior quarter, and $39.3 million for the same quarter last year. Days sales outstanding for the September quarter and for the prior quarter were both 18 days. Net inventory was $137.7 million at the quarter end, up from $135.5 million last quarter, and up from $118.6 million in the prior year. Average days in inventory were 113 days for the quarter, compared to 127 days in the prior quarter. Net property plant and equipment was $421.6 million, up from $412.3 million last quarter, and up from $404 million last year. Capital expenditures were $11.3 million for the quarter, including $7.9 million at AOS and $3.4 million at the JV company. With that, now I would like to discuss the guidance for the next quarter.
We expect the revenue to be approximately $153 million ±$3 million. GAAP gross margin to be 28% ±1%. We anticipate non-GAAP gross margin to be 29% ±1%. Note that non-GAAP gross margin excludes $0.8 million amortization of acquired IP, $0.4 million of estimated share-based compensation charges, and $0.4 million of estimated production and runoff costs relating to the JV company. GAAP operating expenses to be in the range of $32.6 million ±$1 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $28.6 million ±$1 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses exclude $2.5 million of estimated share-based compensation charges and $1.5 million of estimated legal expenses relating to the government investigation. Income tax expense to be approximately $0.8 million-$1.2 million. Loss attributable to non-controlling interests to be approximately $1.4 million.
On a non-GAAP basis, excluding estimated production runoff costs relating to the JV company, this item is expected to be approximately $1 million. As part of our normal practice, we're not obligated to update this information. With that, we will open the call for questions. Operator, please start the Q&A session.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then the number 1 on your telephone keypads. To withdraw your question, press the pound key. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of David Williams.
Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on the solid quarter and the guide.
Thank you.
If we look out and think about the revenue stream, obviously, it sounds like you're targeting $600 million this year, very nice run rate. Can you talk maybe a little bit about where you're seeing the demand coming from in terms of design wins and new products versus just backfilling demand that you previously couldn't just with lack of capacity?
Sure. Let me take that. We're definitely excited to see the growth this year. This year definitely started off a bit unpredictable and uncertain. We are pleased to see the results in the past couple of quarters. In terms of the traction that we're getting in the market, the current growth that we've seen in the past has further grown, especially in the PC area. We continue to expand our board content. As we talked about, we've also broken into the graphics card business with the major launch that happened this quarter. Additionally, our home appliance business also continues to expand. We've started with our IGBT business, our discrete business, and we've expanded with our module business, and we're starting to see the results of especially the module business this September quarter going into the December quarter.
Smartphones overall has been a bit of a rocky start, just like in many of the markets. We saw a push out of the peak season and spreading into the next couple of quarters. Our position there is still strong, and we have a good placement at the key global smartphone makers. Layering on top of that, we've also opened the market for gaming for AOS and going on to one of the gaming consoles that's launching this quarter. We're pretty happy to see the growth of our existing applications as well as some of the new growth areas that we just recently expanded into.
Great. Just thinking about the new digital controller and that Digital Power solution, how much did that contribute to the quarter? As you think about this year, what do you think that contribution could be? What are the expected ramps or targets for the year?
Sure. Our Digital Power, as part of our multi-phase initiative, the early revenue came in graphics card and going into a high-end card where our SPS is already starting to ramp in the September quarter. This is more at a smaller ramp compared to the other graphics card ramp that we're doing right now. This is going into a very high-end card for that vendor. We see some small business this quarter. It'll ramp a little more going into the December quarter. Our heart is still set out to go after the core server and telecom market. With that, we're still expecting that to be a little further out, more like in 2021, 2022 type of timeframe for that business.
In the meanwhile, we expect this graphics card business to gradually increase over time as they roll out their production and hopefully, seeing our part also proliferate into more models within that graphics card maker.
Okay. One more, if you don't mind. You talked even a little bit about the factory loadings and that helping the gross margin a bit. Can you maybe give us a little bit of color around what your utilization rates are looking like, particularly in the JV, and then maybe where your capacity stands there? You talked about getting to that run rate in the next year. Can you maybe qualify that in terms of when you expect that and just in terms of gross margin, maybe that contribution that you expect to see just from all of these moving pieces that are really moving in the right direction here, if you combine those together. Just any color you could provide would be helpful.
Okay, sure, David. In terms of gross margin, yes, September quarter's gross margin increased by 150 basis points compared to the June quarter. That was primarily due to the combination of better product mix and higher factory utilization. Product mix and factory utilization, I would say half and half, maybe slightly higher on the factory utilization side. Product mix definitely improved. Example, you can see as a Power IC product line, we grew like 45% quarter-over-quarter and 87% year-over-year. That Power IC product line carries a higher product margin for us. In terms of factory utilization, our own factories, like in Oregon fab and the Shanghai backend facilities pretty much operate at a full scale right now. We can squeeze out here and there some. The JV company continued its ramp during the September quarter, contributed to our.
Revenue growth. Right now, it's not fully ramped up to its phase I run rate yet. As Mike mentioned, we're targeting next year, the September quarter, we can fully ramp up in that place. As that's said, to me, it's actually a better outcome for us. At $130 million in quarterly revenue level, our JV company, they still have some room to support us for further growth. I view that as actually a positive factor. The JV company also, during the September quarter, improved its performance. You can see from the production ramp-up cost in the June quarter, I remember it was $6.6 million also, and now in the September quarter, it's $0.3 million also. We're further ramping up in this joint venture 12-inch fab.
Thank you very much. Certainly appreciate it, and the best of luck on the quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Craig Ellis from B. Riley FBR.
Yep, thanks for taking the question, and congratulations on the real strong execution, team. Great to see the strong revenues and margins and earnings in the quarter. I'll start with that as a follow-up to David's question. Yifan, thanks for the color on utilization and mix and the significant increase in gross margin in fiscal Q1, but in fiscal Q2, you're guiding revenues a little bit higher, but it looks like the gross margin midpoint is lower. What accounts for the lower gross margin on higher volume?
We guided actually about the flattish gross margin for the December quarter. The slightly increase in revenue, that would not change whole lot of things. Right now the factories utilizations, our own factories are running at a pretty full level. Product mix is about the same, so similar product margin profile. I would think in this December quarter, we are expecting similar gross margin at this point.
Okay, got it. Moving on to some of the product trends and some of the seasonal dynamics in the business. Great to see the execution on the gaming system program and all the design wins there and the gaming card Digital Power strength. How should investors think about the seasonal dynamics of those types of applications? Are they seasonally stronger in your fiscal Q1 and Q2 and then weaker in Q3 and Q4? What's the seasonal profile of those two businesses?
Sure. Both of these businesses are great new business for us. We're pretty excited about that. They also have different types of, I guess, lifetimes or product life cycles. The graphics card, typically, a new platform is released every two years, and this is another new refresh year for the main two guys. The gaming systems, the life cycle is typically around seven years. For the game system, throughout that seven years, they also come up with new refreshed models, whether it's cost down or some other combination of what they want to offer. There's usually kind of new builds going on each year. It's continuously sold throughout that seven-year period. Seasonality is probably a little difficult to read into, especially at the beginning of the quarter. Even for us, it's a little bit unpredictable because we're still right at launch.
As far as we see, reception has been good but the production side also is a little bit unpredictable as well too. Right now, what we see is that December quarter is still pretty strong. Going into the calendar, I guess Q1 calendar for next year, it's a little hard to tell still. We're still just tracking our production to match our customers' production. Generally, there is a surge in production overall in the first few quarters, and then there tends to be some kind of inventory correction once our customer sees the reception and then adjusts their production. Right at this moment, it's a little too early to tell.
Okay, that's really helpful. I appreciate it, Stephen. Moving on, just looking at the broader supply landscape, it seems like there was just very good manufacturing execution between the Oregon fab and the JV fab in the quarter. Seems like you're getting that again in the outlook. Can you confirm if you're able to meet all orders and given some of the things that we've seen with regards to supply constraint, Yifan, can you talk about your comfort that there aren't double ordering issues out there that would be overinflating activity versus end demand?
Sure. Our backlog has been healthy and steady throughout the quarter, which reflected in our guidance for the December quarter. Right now, the overall market supply is tight. At least in our field, I would not rule out some double orders. Internally, we looked at our backlogs and orders, and also we triangulated with our design wins and at each customer so that we are monitoring how much we ship to each customer. The overall, we think our December quarter's guidance is achievable, and it's off a pretty high base from the September quarter. We're happy to see December quarter continue to increase, not dropping.
Yeah, indeed. Nice to see the strength there. The next question, maybe for Mike, perhaps, or maybe for you, Yifan, if I look ahead a couple of quarters and think about the seasonally stronger period of the year, which typically occurs in the June and September quarter, given the exit velocity of the business out of calendar 2021 here of $153 million, which is very strong, it would seem if you saw something like seasonal growth in the June and September quarter, that potentially the revenue profile of the business could move well up into the $165 million-$175 million range, which I believe would really be a level where either, A, you'd have to increase external supply or accelerate the ramp of phase II of the JV fab.
Can you just talk about how you're thinking about moving into fab phase II versus external supply, given that the demand is so strong and your design wins are performing so well?
Okay. This is Mike.
Sure.
Okay. Yifan, why don't you go first, then I will accommodate.
Okay, yeah. I'll take it first. Mike, then you can add in. Overall, the next year, as Mike mentioned, we're targeting $600 million for the calendar year 2021 annual revenue. That's our goal. In terms of each quarter, right now, the COVID has kind of altered the typical seasonality this year. We'll see. Maybe some fluctuations between quarters. It's hard to tell at this point. Overall, as Steven mentioned, we do have some company-specific growth areas and those growth points. We are pretty excited about next year's opportunities. In terms of supply side, yes, we are continuing to ramp JV fab. On the other hand, yes, we are planning for the next phase, looking at our business growth and opportunities. It is on our agenda right now to consider another year out. We will see.
The overall market and the business development right now, the momentum is relatively strong. Mike, you want to add in some?
Thank you, Yifan. I think you talked pretty much about the business idea. Of course, even though right now looks good there, the macroeconomy, nobody can predict that, so we have to prepare for that. Talk about supply side on the Chongqing. I have to be honest with you. Whatever capacity is in there was prepared or planned a few years ago. At that time, of course, you don't have the clear crystal ball, so you just whatever you can. David asked a question, what's your loading rate? Okay. I'll say right now it's pretty tight, not because of all equipment we use out, mainly because of some efficiency there. We got a minor adjustment there because of the mix to respond to the current demand. There'd be some room to fulfill our first phase in next year.
Of course, from there, we're going to looking for the phase II, which definitely will follow- up there. I wonder whether this answer your question or not?
Yeah, I think it does, Mike. I think one of your points is there's some debottlenecking and efficiency gains you can get to squeeze some extra capacity out of phase I.
Come on in. You've got some time to do that. Yeah.
Yeah. Move around a little bit to just open up the entire area. Thank you.
Got it. Guys, thanks so much. I'll hop back in the queue.
At this time, I would like to remind everyone, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypads. Your next question comes from the line of Jeremy Kwan from Stifel Nicolaus.
Yes, good afternoon. Let me add my congratulations on the strong results and outlook and, hitting that $150 million quarterly revenue ahead of plan. I had a question on the, maybe Stephen, in terms of the end markets. I don't think I caught the consumer guidance. Do you guys have formal expectations for that side of the business?
Yes, consumer was very strong for us in the Q3, and, sorry, in the September quarter. Due to a lot of things tied to the stay at home, TV was up seasonally. The new gaming console, the pre-production was going on, as well as the continued growth in home appliances. Looking to Q4, we're expecting a slight drop in the outlook, mainly because of some seasonality is coming back into play. The TV market typically starts to drop in the December quarter, because most of the holiday shipments have been already done in the September quarter. We do expect to see continued growth in home appliances. Again, we're a pretty small part of the overall market, and this is an area that we've been growing, especially with our IPM modules, going into home appliances like refrigerators and washing machines.
We also mentioned in the script that gaming is expected to see a little bit of a push-out because of our customer. They're having some production supply issues. We expect that to resume in the following quarter. Overall, we're predicting a slight drop going into the December quarter.
Great. Thank you. It does sound like the communication segment is what's kind of driving the better than seasonal outlook for December, especially off the strong September. Can you walk us through again, what's giving you the confidence behind that? Is it just the delay in the smartphone ramp that's continuing into December, or is there something else going on there that is boosting this business?
Yes. You got it. By far, the biggest news there is the smartphone side. Normally, we would see a big jump up in the September quarter because there's a few phone makers doing launches at that time. This year, we've seen some push-outs, some small push-outs of launches, even though they still happened. Therefore, our December quarter is expected to be the peak for us with regards to the sell-in for battery protection FETs. The guidance for the December quarter is a strong calendar Q4 for communications led because of the battery PCM that's going to be peaked in that quarter.
Got it. Thank you. I guess turning to the JV, maybe if I can try to get at this another way. Originally, the plan was, the JV at phase I was going to help you hit $150 million, and you guys are already there now. Can you give us what the new revenue level would suggest to us, like if the JV's at full phase I for the combined company?
Sure. Right now, our quarterly revenue is at $150 million level. At this point, the JV 12-inch fab is not fully ramped, but ramped quite a bit already. The thing is, there are a couple of factors here, elements here. One is, in the September quarter, JV continued to ramp, supported a portion of our revenue growth. On the other hand, our product mix improved in the last couple of quarters. Now the revenue per wafer actually increased some. In that way, our own Oregon fab and then also foundries actually supported more revenue for us. That's the dynamic in there. Actually, as I said, actually, I view this as a better outcome for us. That means, the JV company can still support our further growth.
In terms of how high it can support, I would expect another $10 million and also, and then that's doable from there. That's the current estimate.
Great. That's very helpful. Thank you. Can you give us any indication of the timing that you might start the phase II and maybe the different options you have in terms of the magnitude of that? I understand the shell has been built out already, so a lot of the CapEx is already spent. Yeah, can you give what type of plans you might have in terms of adding incremental capacity for phase II?
Sure. Right now, actually, we are planning for the next phase. Whether or not it's another full phase or some incremental expansion, we'll see. As Mike just mentioned, that phase I, that clean room and equipment, and there are still some rooms to adjust and to resolve some bottleneck areas, so that can give us more output. Also, that phase I clean room is still not as crowded as our Oregon fab clean room. By incrementally install some equipment that can also help lift up some capacity. Overall, yeah, we'll do more planning. We'll see the adjust in terms of next phase of the JV expansion.
Great. Thank you.
Yes.
Mike.
Yes.
This planning, we are not in a hurry because, as we report, in next year, we should still be comfortable. We will take time to plan it, because this planning phase is very crucial. If you plan aggressively, you're going to wind up lose money. If you plan not enough there, you're going to miss the opportunity. We do want to spend time, effort to really carefully come out in our best calculation, whatever, to do that. At this moment, we're still in the planning stage, and it's not firm yet. I mean, the detail yet. Thank you.
Great. Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate that color. That's all I had for now. Thank you.
Thank you.
Once again, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypads at this time. Again, that is star one for any further questions. I show no further questions at this time. I would now turn the call back to management for any closing remarks.
This concludes our earnings call today. Thank you for your interest in AOS, and we look forward to talking to you again. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our pleasure. Bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. We thank you for your participation. You may now all disconnect.