INTEST CORP

OVERVIEW AND STRATEGY

inTEST Corporation was incorporated in New Jersey in 1981 and reincorporated in Delaware in April 1997. The consolidated entity is comprised of inTEST Corporation and our wholly-owned subsidiaries. In this Report, "we," "us," "our," and the "Company" refer to inTEST Corporation and our consolidated subsidiaries.

We are a global supplier of innovative test and process technology solutions for use in manufacturing and testing across a wide range of markets including automotive, defense/aerospace, industrial, life sciences, security and semiconductors (“semi”). We have three operating segments which are also our reportable segments and reporting units: Electronic Test, Environmental Technologies and Process Technologies.

In early 2021, we launched our 5-Point Strategy, our new corporate vision and our mission statement. Our vision is to be the supplier of choice for innovative test and process technology solutions. Our mission is to leverage our deep industry knowledge and expertise to develop and deliver high quality, innovative customer solutions and superior support for complex global challenges. We are committed to becoming recognized as a leader in our markets for design and manufacturing capabilities that help solve our customers’ most complex challenges in their manufacturing and quality processes. Our products provide highly engineered, high quality and cost-effective test and process technology solutions which are delivered with a customer focus that are intended to drive a high level of customer satisfaction. Our strategy is to consistently develop unique and differentiated solutions through innovative new product development and acquisitions. We expect to expand our portfolio of products, services, and support to drive increased value to our customers to drive revenue and earnings growth. We believe by executing on our 5-Point Strategy, as described more fully below, that we can grow our annual revenue to between $200 million to $250 million by 2025, while maintaining our strong margin profile. We expect to do this through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Our 5-Point Strategy is as follows:

Global and Market Expansion. We believe our serviceable addressable market (“SAM”) is currently in excess of $2.0 billion and that we can provide significant and sustainable long-term growth by expanding our SAM and building a larger installed product base. To capture this opportunity, we intend to make investments to drive further penetration in our existing markets. These investments may include initiatives to increase revenue both by leveraging our customer relationships to provide a broader array of our current portfolio of products to our existing customer base as well as by expanding our customer base within these markets. In addition, we intend to increase our global footprint and coverage to better serve new and existing customers. Finally, our strategy in this area includes targeting expansion into new markets with our existing product portfolio. During 2023, our businesses continued to gain new customers in both the semi market and in our other target markets and we have expanded our sales and support network to regions of the world where we identified gaps in coverage. We also announced in December that we have signed a lease on a 25,000 square foot facility in Penang, Malaysia which will support applications engineering, product development and localized manufacturing for nearly all inTEST brands. It will serve as the main location in the region for customer product demonstrations, customer service and applications training. Currently, revenue from products shipped to Asia–Pacific represents approximately 35% of our consolidated total revenue. Innovation and Differentiation. Our 5-Point Strategy focuses on leveraging our engineering know-how and expertise to deliver innovative solutions which we believe will outperform those of our competitors. We continue to invest in engineering resources with the goal of developing new and unique solutions to help solve our customers’ most complex challenges in their manufacturing and quality processes. Designed to be broadly applicable through more standardized platforms, these solution platforms enable late-stage configuration to address each customers’ unique requirements. We believe creating more standardization to increase market availability will drive growth and reduce costs by enabling us to increase the breadth and depth of our customer base. In 2023 in our Process Technologies division, we continued the roll out of our all-new Zoom Block camera with SCAiLX technology manufactured by Videology, which is a first-to-market product with custom artificial intelligence on the Edge platform. We also introduced our all-new EKOHEAT 2 induction heating products manufactured by Ambrell. The EKOHEAT 2 offering is the next generation and evolution of Ambrell’s renowned VPA Technology. In our Environmental Technologies division, we made great progress on the BT28, our next generation benchtop Thermostream. The BT28 is a new benchtop thermal testing system that we intend to officially be released at the OTC Conference in San Diego on March 26, 2024. It uses the same compressor technology that is in our large Thermostream to deliver -28 degrees Celsius to +225 degrees Celsius air at 14 standard cubic feet per minute, enabling our customers to save space and still be able to test a broad range of devices. Environmental Technologies also released several new industrial process chillers, specifically designed for the expanding automotive electric vehicle inverter testing market. In our Electronic Test division, we continued to expand our automated manipulator offerings with the launch of the LS2 manipulator for test heads under 250kg and the fully automated LSL manipulator for test heads weighing up to 1200kg. We expanded our solutions for the high-powered integrated circuit (“IC”) test market with new interface solutions supporting test equipment up to 2KV and 300AMPs with high site counts and our first automated hinge manipulator. Acculogic Inc. (“Acculogic”) shipped its first Flying Probe system with an integrated radio frequency (“RF”) measurement system for improved high frequency test measurement capability for semiconductor ATE and communications markets.

Service and Support. We have strong customer relationships and believe service and support activities are valuable in strengthening customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Through ensuring that we serve our customers’ needs, whether by expanding service coverage and decreasing response time or through expanding and enhancing service offerings, we believe we can drive revenue growth and strengthen our customer relationships. We expect to invest in resources to fill areas where we have identified gaps in service and support. As we expand our SAM and increase our market penetration, we also expect to identify opportunities to add more consumable products within our offerings. We believe that increasing the number of ways and the frequency with which we make customer contacts can drive growth in our business in the future. In 2023, we continued to expand our global service partner network. In addition, as noted previously, we recently announced our plans to open a facility in Malaysia which will serve as the main location in the region for customer product demonstrations, customer service and applications training. This facility is expected to begin operations in the second or third quarter of 2024.

Strategic Acquisitions & Partnerships. In addition to driving organic growth, our strategy includes acquiring businesses, technologies or products that are complementary to our current product offerings. Our acquisition strategy is to add to our current solutions by expanding capabilities, such as expanded induction heating frequency or refrigeration temperature range, and to expand our geographic presence. We also will consider new technologies that replicate the highly engineered, high quality and differentiated solutions of our current product portfolio for test and process solutions. Our focus is on expanding our electronic test capabilities, widening our thermal test capabilities in areas such as environmental test, and building our processing technologies offerings with expanded imaging and heating capabilities. We continue to assess target companies to drive further inorganic growth in support of our 5-year plan.

Talent and Culture. We believe ensuring the right people are in the right roles and are empowered to deliver success is crucial to the achievement of our core strategies. In addition, we have and will continue to create a culture and environment of openness, one that is results-oriented and drives accountability across the organization. Finally, we intend to foster diversity, equity and inclusion and provide opportunities for career development so as to maximize employee engagement, all of which is necessary to achieving our corporate vision. In 2023, we created the inTEST leadership academy which is another tool for identifying and developing talent from within, connecting emerging leaders across our organization and promoting collaboration and teamwork. In addition, we held our first company-wide marketing summit where our sales and marketing leadership from across the organization came together to collaborate on a global level and share ideas for growing and expanding the inTEST brand.

ACQUISITION

On March 12, 2024 we entered into a stock purchase agreement to acquire all of the outstanding capital shares of Alfamation S.p.A., (“Alfamation”), a leading global provider of state-of-the-art test and measurement solutions for the automotive, life sciences and specialty consumer electronics markets. Alfamation was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy. Alfamation also has a small sales and service subsidiary based in Suzhou City, China. Alfamation will become a part of our Electronic Test operating segment. The aggregate purchase price was approximately €20 million comprised of approximately €18 million in cash, 187,432 shares of our common stock and an additional approximately €542,000 in cash for assets delivered at closing in excess of agreed upon thresholds. On the closing date, this equated to a total purchase price of approximately $22.4 million.

In connection with the acquisition, we have entered into a lease agreement (the “Lease Agreement”) with the former owner of Alfamation. The Lease Agreement will last for six years starting on March 12, 2024 and will be automatically renewed for the same period of time unless terminated by either party. Under the terms of the Lease Agreement, Alfamation will lease warehouse and office space totaling about 51,817 square feet. Alfamation will pay a yearly lease payment of €231,312 broken up into four equal payments. At the date of the signing of the Lease Agreement, the yearly lease payment equated to approximately $253,000.

MARKETS

Overview

We are focused on specific target markets which include automotive, defense/aerospace, industrial, life sciences, security and semi. Our largest market is semi. Products and equipment sold into semi are generally delineated as being part of either “front-end” or “back-end.” The roots of inTEST’s engineered product history are in the back-end of semi in integrated circuit (“IC”) testing.

During 2023 our consolidated revenue grew $6.5 million or 6%. The increase primarily reflects increased demand for our thermal test solutions from customers in the defense/aerospace and industrial markets, and, to a lesser extent, increased demand for our induction heating solutions from customers in the industrial market. These increases were partially offset by declines in demand from the semi market. While demand from our customers in both the front-end and back-end of the semi market remained strong throughout most of 2023, we experienced declines in revenue from both these sectors of the semi market in the fourth quarter of 2023. We attribute these declines to the cyclical slowdown in the semi market which has been impacting this market as a whole for most of 2023 but which had not yet impacted us significantly as certain specific customers to which we sell many of our products in this market had continued to place orders with us.

Semi Market

The semi market includes both the broader semiconductor manufacturing industry as well as the more specialized wafer manufacturing (front-end) and semiconductor ATE (back-end) sectors within the broader semiconductor market. With our induction heating products, we serve the front-end of the semiconductor manufacturing process including silicon carbide ("SiC") crystal growth and epitaxial reactors. A variety of our electronic test and environmental technologies segments’ products are used in the back-end of the semiconductor manufacturing process, which includes the testing of ICs.

IC Testing. Semiconductor manufacturers typically produce ICs in multiples of several hundred or more on a silicon wafer that is later separated or "diced" into individual ICs. Extended leads are then attached to the individual ICs for later connection to other electrical components. In most cases, the ICs are then encapsulated in a plastic, ceramic or other protective housing. These process steps are called "packaging."

Wafers are tested before being diced and packaged to ensure that only properly functioning ICs are packaged. This testing step has several names, including "front-end test," "wafer test," "wafer probe" or "wafer sort." In front-end testing, an electronic handling device known as a wafer prober automatically positions the wafer under a probe card that is electronically connected to a "test head," which connects electrically to a test system. During front-end testing, there is a growing trend of thermally conditioning the wafer. Once the good ICs have been identified, they are packaged.

The packaged ICs also require testing, called "back-end test" or "final test," to determine if they meet design and performance specifications. Packaged ICs are tested after loading into another type of electronic handling device called a "package handler" or "handler," which then transfers the packaged ICs into a test socket that is attached to the test head. These handlers may be temperature controlled for testing.

Testers range in price from approximately $100,000 to over $2.0 million each, depending primarily on the complexity of the IC to be tested. Probers and handlers range in price from approximately $50,000 to $500,000 each. A typical test floor of a large semiconductor manufacturer may have 100 test heads and 100 probers or 250 handlers supplied by various vendors for use at any one time. While larger global semiconductor manufacturers typically purchase ATE to test the ICs they manufacture, there are a growing number of semiconductor manufacturers who outsource IC testing to third-party foundries, test and assembly providers.

Test head manipulators, also referred to as positioners, facilitate the movement of the test head to the electronic device handler. Docking hardware mechanically connects the test head to the wafer prober or handler. Tester interface products provide the electrical connection between the test head and the wafer or packaged IC.

Market Trends. We believe the semi market, an historically highly cyclical industry, will experience increased growth in the overall size of the market over the next several years as a result of billions of dollars of investments in new fabrication (“fab”) facilities around the world. These investments are being driven by the continued growth of the use of electronics, the need for powering an ever-growing number of devices and the continued economic development of less wealthy nations. We believe the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in geopolitical tensions in recent years have made the high concentration of semiconductor manufacturing in China and Taiwan very apparent to more wealthy nations and has spurred the investment in expansion of this industry in areas outside of these regions. While we believe the semi market will continue to experience its historical pattern of cyclicality, we expect the effect on our business to be reduced due to our efforts to expand our customer base and the release of new products. Nonetheless, we expect the shifts in demand in the industry from periods of expansion to periods of contraction may be significant, as has been the case for much of the semi market in 2023, when the industry was in a period of slowing growth and overall declines as compared to 2021 and 2022.

We believe that semiconductor manufacturers remain under pressure to maximize production yields and reduce testing costs. At the same time, the growing complexity of ICs has increased the difficulty of maximizing test yields. In order to address these market trends, we believe semiconductor manufacturers strive for more effective utilization of ATE, smaller test areas and increased wafer level testing which requires our differentiated solutions that include test head manipulators, test head docking stations and test interfaces. As technology advances and ICs become increasingly more complex, we believe the need for increased capabilities in the test process should drive greater demand for our equipment. We expect that more front-end testing is going to be required in order to ensure maximum yield from the massive capital investments being made in fab expansion.

Other Markets

We provide a variety of solutions to our automotive, defense/aerospace, industrial, life sciences, and security markets. We believe a number of drivers are creating more opportunity for our highly-engineered solutions in these markets.

In the automotive market, we provide solutions that help in the quality and productivity of both internal combustion and electric vehicle (“EV”) manufacturing. Our EV solutions include, but are not limited to, induction heating solutions for motor manufacturing, automated test equipment for battery cells, and industrial process chillers and thermal test chambers for inverter and battery testing. We believe there is a strong global growth trend in EVs and that our differentiated solutions can be applied with more customers in more geographic regions.

In the defense/aerospace industry, we provide ATE to prime and subcontract manufacturers to ensure quality control is maintained while also providing quicker, more accurate test times of electronic circuit boards. We also provide solutions for thermal testing of equipment to ensure it will function over the specified temperature range. We believe this market is growing, in part, due to recent global instability.

The industrial market is the broadest, most diverse area we serve with a majority of our products serving a variety of applications. Applications for our induction heating products include annealing, bonding, brazing, curing, forging, heat treating, melting and shrink-fitting. Applications for our thermal test and process products include pressure-sensor testing, printed circuit board testing and cold-trap cooling for industrial processes. We believe the trend toward the use of green energy, automation, increased productivity and expanding manufacturing technology present opportunities for us to help our customers solve their complex challenges.

In the life sciences industry, we provide image capture products, electronic test systems and heating systems for medical device manufacturing and equipment for critical applications within the medical cold chain for pharmaceuticals.

In the security industry, our image capture and data management technologies are used in a broad variety of applications.

OUR SOLUTIONS

We focus our development efforts on designing and producing high quality products that provide superior performance and cost-effectiveness. We seek to address each manufacturer's individual needs through innovative and customized designs, use of the best materials available, quality manufacturing practices and personalized service. We design solutions to overcome the evolving challenges facing the semi market and other markets that we serve, which we believe provide the following advantages:

Temperature-Controlled Testing. Our ThermoStream(R) products are used by manufacturers in a number of markets to stress test a variety of semiconductor and electronic components, printed circuit boards and sub-assemblies. Factors motivating manufacturers to use temperature testing include design characterization, failure analysis and quality control, as well as determining performance under extreme operating temperatures, all of which contribute to manufacturing cost savings. Our thermal platforms and temperature chambers, sold under our Sigma Systems product line, can accommodate large thermal masses and are found in both laboratory and production environments. Thermonics' products provide a range of precision temperature forcing systems and have been melded into Temptronic's ATS ThermoStream product line. The Thermonics brand is now used to market a family of process chillers for test and industrial applications.

Ultra-Cold Storage Solutions. Our North Sciences offerings include high-performance biomedical freezer, refrigerators and mobile storage solutions that meet versatile applications, including ultra-cold storage solutions for biological sample banks, blood safety, vaccine safety, medical supplies and reagent safety.

*Induction Heating.*Our induction heating products are used in process applications where precision-controlled heating is needed. Customers use our induction heating products in conjunction with other technologies in various manufacturing environments to improve production efficiencies and reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Applications for our EKOHEAT(R) or EASYHEAT™ induction heating products include annealing, bonding, brazing, curing, forging, heat treating, melting, shrink-fitting, crystal growing, semi-wafer heating and material testing.

*Digital Streaming and Image Capturing Solutions.*Videology offers industrial-grade circuit board mounted digital imaging solutions, Zoom Block cameras and complete image capture systems. Videology also offers OEMs imaging solutions designed to the customers’ specifications and that can interface with the customers’ software.

Scalable, Universal, High Performance ATE Integration Solutions. Our universal test head manipulators provide a high degree of positioning flexibility with a minimum amount of effort. As a result, our products can be used in virtually any test setting. Our manipulator products are designed to accommodate the increased size of test heads and can now supporting test heads weighing up to 1200kg. Our docking hardware products offer precise control over the connection to test sockets, probing assemblies and interface boards, reducing downtime and minimizing costly damage to fragile components. Our newest manipulator and docking hardware designs offer automated capabilities that allow for reduced downtime and increased productivity through predictable and repeatable production setup with reduced risk of operator error. Our tester interface products optimize the integrity of the signals transmitted between the test head and the device under test by being virtually transparent to the test signals, which results in increased accuracy of the test data and may thus enable improved test yields. Our interface product offerings have recently been expanded to serve the growing market for testing higher powered devices. A hallmark of our semi market product offerings has been, and continues to be, compatibility with a wide variety of ATE. Our manipulator and docking hardware products are all designed to be used with otherwise incompatible ATE. We believe this integrated approach to ATE facilitates smooth changeover from one tester to another, longer lives for interface components, better test results, increased ATE utilization and lower overall test costs.

Robotics-Based Electronic Production Test Equipment. Acculogic adds to our electronic test platform offerings beyond those which exclusively serve the semi market. Acculogic designs and manufactures robotics-based electronic production test equipment and provides application support services which are sold to electronic manufacturers including OEM and contract electronic manufacturers as well as battery manufacturers.

Worldwide Customer Service and Support. We have long recognized the need to maintain a physical presence near our customers' facilities. At December 31, 2023, we had manufacturing facilities in the U.S. in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York as well as outside the U.S. in Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. We provided service to our customers from sales and service personnel based in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Our engineers are easily accessible to, and can work directly with, most of our customers from the time we begin developing our initial proposal, through the delivery, installation and use of the product by our customer. In this way, we are able to develop and maintain close relationships with our customers.

As previously mentioned, we announced in December 2023 that we have signed a lease on a 25,000 square foot facility in Penang, Malaysia which will support applications engineering, product development and localized manufacturing for nearly all inTEST brands. It will serve as the main location in the region for customer product demonstrations, customer service and applications training. This facility is expected to begin operations in the second or third quarter of 2024.

OUR SEGMENTS

As noted above, we have three operating segments which are also our reportable segments and reporting units: Electronic Test, Environmental Technologies and Process Technologies.

Our Electronic Test segment consists of (i) inTEST EMS which has operations in New Jersey and California, and (ii) Acculogic, which has operations in Canada, California and Germany. Semiconductor manufacturers use our inTEST EMS solutions in back-end testing where our mechanical and electrical products serve production testing of wafers and specialized packaged ICs. These ICs include microprocessors, digital signal processing chips, mixed signal devices, MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems), application specific ICs and specialized memory ICs, and are used primarily in the automotive, consumer electronics, industrial, and mobile communication markets. Our products are a combination of standard designs based on industry requirements and those designed specifically to meet a customer's particular combination of ATE. Acculogic’s product offerings include robotics-based electronic test equipment and application support services used primarily in defense/aerospace, automotive, battery, life sciences and electronic manufacturing services industries.

Our Environmental Technologies segment consists of inTEST Thermal Solutions (“iTS”), which manufactures and sells products under the Temptronic, Sigma, Thermonics and North Sciences brand names and has operations in Massachusetts, Germany and Singapore. Customers use the thermal solutions produced by iTS for product development, characterization and production test. This segment also offers ultra-cold storage solutions for the life sciences cold chain market. Our Environmental Technologies segment provides these solutions across an array of markets including automotive, defense/aerospace, industrial, life sciences and semiconductor.

Our Process Technologies segment consists of (i) Ambrell which has operations in New York, the Netherlands and the U.K. and (ii) Videology, which has operations in Massachusetts and the Netherlands. Ambrell provides customers with induction heating solutions for a wide variety of manufacturing processes. Videology is a designer, developer and manufacturer of digital streaming and image capturing solutions. Our Process Technologies segment provides these solutions across an array of markets including automotive, defense/aerospace, industrial, life sciences, security and semiconductor.

Electronic Test Products

*Manipulator Products.*We offer three lines of manipulator products: the in2(R), the Cobal and the LS Series. These free-standing universal manipulators can hold a variety of test heads and enable an operator to reposition a test head for alternate use with any one of several probers or handlers on a test floor.

Our manipulator products incorporate a balanced floating-head design. This design permits a test head weighing up to 1,760 pounds to be held in an effectively weightless state, so it can be moved manually or with optional powered assistance, up or down, right or left, forward or backward and rotated around each axis (known as six degrees of motion freedom) by an operator using a modest amount of force or with a computer controlled pendant. The same design features enable the operator to dock the test head without causing inadvertent damage to the fragile electrical contacts. As a result, after testing a particular production lot of ICs, the operator can quickly and easily disconnect a test head that is held in an in2(R) or Cobal Series manipulator and equipped with our docking hardware and dock it to another electronic device handler for testing either a subsequent lot of the same packaged ICs or to test different ICs. With the LS Series manipulators, the undocking, movement of the test head and redocking can be done automatically through the computer controlled pendant. Our manipulator products generally range in price from approximately $12,000 to $100,000.

Docking Hardware Products. We offer two lines of docking hardware products: fixed manual docking and IntelliDock pin and cup docking. Both types protect the delicate interface contacts and ensure proper repeatable and precise alignment between the test head's interface board and the prober's probing assembly or the handler's test socket as they are brought together, or "docked." Fixed manual docking includes a mechanical cam mechanism to dock and lock the test head to the prober or handler. IntelliDock is an automated docking solution that provides operator feedback for each docking step via a touchscreen display, and when coupled with the LS Series manipulator, redeployment of the test head can be done automatically and accurately via the computer pendant. Both types of docking hardware products eliminate motion of the test head relative to the prober or handler once docked. This minimizes deterioration of the interface boards, test sockets and probing assemblies that is caused by constant vibration during testing. Our docking hardware products are used primarily with floating-head universal manipulators when maximum mobility and inter-changeability of handlers and probers between test heads is required. By using our docking hardware products, semiconductor manufacturers can achieve cost savings through improved ATE utilization, improved accuracy and integrity of test results, optimized floor support and reduced repairs and replacements of expensive ATE interface products.

We believe our docking hardware products offer our customers the ability to make various competing brands of test heads compatible with various brands of probers and handlers by only changing interface boards. This is called "plug-compatibility." Plug-compatibility enables increased flexibility and utilization of test heads, probers and handlers purchased from various ATE manufacturers. We believe that because we do not compete with ATE manufacturers in the sale of probers, handlers or testers, ATE manufacturers are willing to provide us with the information that is integral to the design of plug-compatible products. Our docking hardware products generally range in price from approximately $2,000 to $25,000.

Interface Products. Our tester interface products provide the electrical connections between the tester and the wafer prober or IC handler to carry the electrical signals between the tester and the probe card on the prober or the test socket on the handler. Our designs optimize the integrity of the transmitted signal. Therefore, our tester interfaces can be used with high speed, high frequency, digital or mixed signal testers used in testing more complex ICs. Because our tester interface products enable the tester to provide more reliable yield data, our interfaces may also reduce IC production costs. We design standard and modular interface products to address most possible tester/prober combinations on the market today. In addition, we provide a custom design service that will allow any of our customers to use virtually any tester, prober or handler combination with any type of device, such as analog, digital, mixed signal and radio frequency. For example, our Centaur(R) modular interface is designed to provide flexibility and scalability through the use of replaceable signal modules which can be easily changed on the test floor as our customers' testing requirements change. In addition to the Centaur(R) modular interface, we also offer over 200 different types of tester interface models that we custom designed for our customers' specific applications. These tester interface products generally range in price from approximately $7,000 to $175,000.

Acculogic Scorpion Flying Probe Test Systems. Acculogic designs and manufactures robotics-based electronic test equipment and provides application support services for OEMs, contract electronic manufacturers and battery manufacturers. These systems are used to structurally test an electronic device including printed circuit board assembly (“PCBA”) and battery interconnect test. Structural testing provides confirmation that the device was manufactured properly by confirming circuits are functioning properly. In addition to testing of the basic circuitry of a PCBA, our Acculogic solutions can integrate various functional testing capabilities such as boundary scan and RF measurement to confirm that the device will perform the functions for which it is designed. Acculogic’s Scorpion Flying Probe system can be quickly programmed to test almost any printed circuit board. This programming is done with computer-aided design or design data of the device to be tested. Traditional in-circuit testing systems require a dedicated fixture for each board to be tested. Acculogic’s Flying Probe system can test a virtually unlimited number of boards without any hardware modifications. These systems generally sell for between $250,000 and $800,000.

Acculogic BRiZ Automated Test and Programming Services: BRiZ is an automated test platform that can consolidate any variety of circuit board test and programming into a single, compact, low-cost test station. These platforms generally sell for between $50,000 and $250,000.

Environmental Technologies Products

ThermoStream(R) Products: Our ThermoStream(R) products are used in the semi market as a stand-alone temperature management tool, or in a variety of electronic test applications as part of our MobileTemp** **systems. ThermoStream(R) products provide a source of heated and cooled air that can be directed over the component or device under test. These systems are capable of controlling temperatures to within +/- 0.1 degree Celsius over a range of -100 degrees Celsius to as high as +300 degrees Celsius within 1.0 degree Celsius of accuracy. As a stand-alone tool, ThermoStreams(R) provide a temperature-controlled air stream to rapidly change and stabilize the temperature of packaged ICs and other devices.

Our MobileTemp Series combines our ThermoStream(R) products with our family of exclusive, high-speed ThermoChambers to offer thermal test systems with fast, uniform temperature control in a compact package enabling temperature testing at the test location. MobileTemp Systems are designed specifically for small thermal-mass applications beyond the semi market and have found application in the automotive, electronic, fiber optic and oil field service markets testing such things as electronic sub-assemblies, sensor assemblies, and printed circuit boards.

Traditionally, our customers use ThermoStream(R) products primarily in engineering, quality assurance and small-run manufacturing environments. ThermoStream(R) and MobileTemp products generally range in price from approximately $15,000 to $55,000.

Thermal Chambers: Our thermal chamber products are available in a variety of sizes, from small bench-top units to chambers with internal volumes of twenty-seven cubic feet and greater and with temperature ranges as wide as from -190 degrees Celsius to +500 degrees Celsius. Chambers can be designed to utilize liquid nitrogen or liquid carbon dioxide cooling or mechanical refrigeration, and sometimes both. These chambers can accommodate large thermal masses and are found in both laboratory and production environments. Chambers are generally priced from $18,000 to $150,000.

Thermal Platforms: Our thermal platforms are available in surface sizes ranging from 7.2 square inches to 616 square inches. They provide a flat, thermally conductive, precisely temperature controllable surface that is ideal for conditioning of testing devices with a flat surface. Platforms are available with temperature ranges as broad as -100 degrees Celsius to +250 degrees Celsius. Thermal platforms can be designed to utilize either liquid nitrogen or liquid carbon dioxide cooling or mechanical refrigeration. Platforms offer virtually unimpeded access to the device under test and their easy access and compact size makes them ideal for convenient bench-top use. Platforms are generally priced from $6,500 to $65,000.

Thermonics(R) Products: Our Thermonics temperature conditioning products, which include our process chillers, provide tempered gas or fluid to enable customers to maintain desired thermal conditions within their tool or process. Applications include general industrial, chemical processing, energy, electronics, automotive, defense/aerospace and semiconductor markets. Prices generally range from $25,000 to greater than $300,000.

*Ultra-Cold Storage Solutions:*Our high-performance biomedical freezers, refrigerators and mobile storage solutions meet versatile applications, including ultra-cold storage solutions for biological sample banks, blood safety, vaccine safety, medical supplies and reagent safety. Prices generally range from $1,500 to $20,000.

Process Technologies Products

*EKOHEAT(R) Products:Our EKOHEAT(R) *induction heating systems with power ratings from 10kW to 1 MW are manufactured by Ambrell and are used to conduct fast, efficient, repeatable non-contact heating of metals or other electrically conductive materials in order to transform raw materials into finished parts. Prices generally range from $25,000 to $250,000.

EASYHEAT™* Products:* Our compact EASYHEAT™* *induction heating systems with power ratings from 0.5kW to 10kW are manufactured by Ambrell and used to conduct fast, efficient, repeatable non-contact heating of metals or other electrically conductive materials in order to transform raw materials into finished parts. Prices generally range from $5,000 to $25,000.

Applications for both EKOHEAT(R) and EASYHEAT™ products include annealing, bonding, brazing, curing, forging, heat treating, melting, shrink-fitting, soldering and testing.

*Digital Streaming and Image Capturing Solutions.*Our industrial-grade imaging solutions are designed and manufactured by Videology. They provide custom solutions for OEMs and end users and specialize in meeting customer’s design specifications for imaging systems. Per unit prices for these products can range from less than $100 to as much as $5,000 for a single unit. These products are generally purchased in higher volumes than our other products.

Financial Information About Operating Segments and Geographic Areas

Please see Note 17 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report for additional data regarding revenue, profit or loss and total assets of each of our segments and revenue attributable to foreign countries.

MARKETING, SALES AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT

We market and sell our products globally and across multiple markets, as previously discussed. North American and European semiconductor manufacturers, as well as third-party foundries, test and assembly providers, have located most of their back-end factories in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The front-end wafer fabrication plants of U.S. semiconductor manufacturers are primarily in the U.S. Likewise, European, Taiwanese, South Korean and Japanese semiconductor manufacturers generally have located their wafer fabrication plants in their respective countries.

Electronic Test Products: In North America, we sell our inTEST EMS products to semiconductor manufacturers through internal account representatives and independent, commissioned sales representatives. North American sales representatives also coordinate product installation and support with our technical staff and participate in trade shows.

Our internal sales account managers handle sales to ATE manufacturers and are responsible for a portfolio of customer accounts and for managing certain independent sales representatives. In addition, our sales account managers are responsible for pricing, quotations, proposals and transaction negotiations, and they assist with applications engineering and custom product design. Technical support is provided to North American customers by employees based in New Jersey, California and Texas.

In Europe, we sell to semiconductor and ATE manufacturers through our internal sales staff. Technical support is provided by our staff in the U.K. In China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand, we sell through the use of independent sales representatives who are supervised by our internal sales staff. In Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, our sales are handled by our internal sales staff. International sales representatives are responsible for sales, installation, support and trade show participation in their geographic market areas. Technical support is provided to Asian customers primarily by employees based in Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Our robotics-based electronic test equipment and automated test programming services are sold in North America through a combination of internal sales staff and manufacturer representatives. Customer support is supplied by a team located throughout North America. In Europe, these products and services are sold through manufacturer representatives and supported with direct employees based in our Hamburg, Germany facility. In Asia, these products and services are sold through a mixture of distributors and manufacturer representatives. Customer support is provided by trained distributors and supplemented by direct employees from North America and Europe.

Environmental Technologies Products: We market our Temptronic, Sigma Thermonics, and North Sciences brands under the umbrella name of inTEST Thermal Solutions and sales to ATE manufacturers are handled directly by our own sales force and our network of independent representatives and distributors. Sales to life sciences customers worldwide are handled directly by our own sales force and by our network of independent representatives and distributors. Sales to semiconductor manufacturers and customers in other markets in the U.S. are handled through independent sales representative organizations. In Singapore and Malaysia, our sales and service are handled through our internal sales and service staff. In the rest of Asia, our sales are handled through distributors. In Europe, sales managers at our office in Germany, as well as regional distributors and independent sales representatives, sell to semiconductor manufacturers and customers in other markets. We communicate with our distributors regularly and have trained them to sell and service our thermal products.

Process Technologies Products: We market our EASYHEAT™ and EKOHEAT(R) precision induction heating equipment to manufacturers who require specialized industrial heating in a wide array of industries, including automotive, aerospace and semiconductor, and are sold globally through a combination of regional sales managers and independent distributors. In North America, direct regional sales managers provide sales coverage augmented by independent sales representatives. In Europe, direct sales managers provide sales coverage augmented by independent distributors. In Asia, distributors have responsibility for sales and service of our products. We generate a significant portion of our sales leads through our website as well as through trade show attendance where we display our products and technology.

We also provide induction heating product support through our SmartCARE Service offering, which includes equipment repairs and training, preventative maintenance, enhanced warranties and spare parts. Our field service engineers, located in the U.S. and Europe, provide service and support globally. Additionally, a number of distributors in Europe and Asia have factory-trained service technicians.

We market our Videology industrial camera solutions to OEMs and end users both directly and through distributors. We have both manufacturing and service capabilities in the U.S. and the Netherlands. We acquire our sales from repeat long-term customers, new leads through our website, regional sales managers and distributors as well as through trade show attendance where we display our products and technology.

CUSTOMERS

We market our products to end users including semiconductor manufacturers, third-party foundries and test and assembly providers, as well as to OEMs, which include ATE manufacturers and their third-party outsource manufacturing partners. We also market our products to independent testers of semiconductors, manufacturers of automotive, defense/aerospace, industrial, life sciences and security products, semiconductor research facilities, and manufacturers and manufacturing process integrators for a variety of industrial process applications. Our customers use our products principally in production testing or process/manufacturing applications, although our ThermoStream(R) products traditionally have been used largely in engineering development and quality assurance. We believe that we sell to most of the major semiconductor manufacturers in the world.

During the year ended December 31, 2023, one customer accounted for 13% of our consolidated revenue. This revenue was primarily generated by our Electronic Test segment. During the year ended December 31, 2023, no other customer accounted for 10% or more of our consolidated revenue. During the year ended December 31, 2022, no customer accounted for 10% or more of our consolidated revenue.

An important aspect of our 5-Point Strategy includes broadening and diversifying our customer base. We plan to do this both through acquisitions as well as through leveraging current customer relationships, increasing our portfolio of product offerings and expanding our global footprint to better serve existing and new customers. The list of our largest customers in any given period continues to shift as we advance the applications of our technologies, acquire new technologies and grow the business. The loss of any one or more of our largest customers, or a reduction in orders by a major customer, could materially reduce our revenue or otherwise materially affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

MANUFACTURING AND SUPPLY

At December 31, 2023, our principal manufacturing operations consisted of assembly and testing at our facilities in in the U.S. (Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York), Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. We assemble most of our products from a combination of standard components and custom parts that have been fabricated to our specifications by either third-party manufacturers or our own facilities. Our practice is to use high quality raw materials and components in our products. The primary raw materials used in fabricated parts are widely available. Substantially all of our components are purchased from multiple suppliers; however, certain raw materials and components are sourced from single suppliers, as discussed further in Item 7, “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”. Although, from time to time, certain components may be in short supply due to high demand or inability of vendors to meet quality or delivery requirements, we believe that all materials and components are available in adequate amounts from other sources, except as noted above.

We conduct inspections of incoming raw materials, fabricated parts and components using sophisticated measurement equipment. This includes testing with coordinate measuring machines in all but one of our manufacturing facilities to ensure that products with critical dimensions meet our specifications. We have designed our inspection standards to comply with applicable MIL specifications and ANSI standards.

Each of our Massachusetts, New York, and Canada facilities is ISO 9001:2015 certified. Our New Jersey facility manufactures products only for the semiconductor industry where ISO certification is not required, so we do not maintain any ISO certifications there. However, this location does employ the practices embodied in the ISO 9001:2008.

Our Massachusetts facility and our Acculogic office in CA are ITAR compliant enabling them to support the specific requirement of the U.S. Department of Defense. Our Canadian facility is compliant with the Canadian Controlled Goods Program, enabling them to support the Canadian Department of Defense.

ENGINEERING AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Our success depends on our ability to provide our customers with products and solutions that are well engineered and to design those products and solutions before, or at least no later than, our competitors. At December 31, 2023, we employed a total of 84 engineers engaged in engineering and product development. In addition, when the demands of engineering and product development projects exceed the capacity or knowledge of our in-house staff, we retain temporary third-party engineering and product development consultants to assist us. Our practice in many cases is to assign engineers to work with specific customers, thereby enabling us to develop the relationships and exchange of information that is most conducive to successful product development and enhancement. In addition, some of our engineers are assigned to new product research and development and have worked on such projects as the development of new types of universal manipulators, the redesign and development of new thermal products and the development of high-performance interfaces.

Since most of our products are customized, we consider substantially all of our engineering activities to be engineering and product development. In the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, we spent approximately $7.6 million and $7.5 million, respectively, on engineering and product development.

PATENTS AND OTHER PROPRIETARY RIGHTS

We intend to protect our technology by filing patent applications for the technologies that we consider important to our business. We also rely on trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights and unpatented know-how to protect our proprietary rights.

We believe our intellectual property has value, and we have taken in the past, and will take in the future, actions we deem appropriate to protect such property from misappropriation. There can be no assurance, however, that such actions will provide meaningful protection from competition. In the absence of intellectual property protection, we may be vulnerable to competitors who attempt to copy or imitate our products or processes. For additional information regarding risks related to our intellectual property, see Part I, Item 1A "Risk Factors" in this Report.

While we believe that our patents and other proprietary rights are important to our business, we also believe that, due to the rapid pace of technological change in the markets we serve, the successful manufacture and sale of our products also depends upon our engineering, manufacturing, marketing and servicing skills.

It is our practice to require that all of our employees and third-party product development consultants assign to us all rights to inventions or other discoveries relating to our business that were made while working for us. In addition, all employees and third-party product development consultants agree not to disclose any private or confidential information relating to our technology, trade secrets or intellectual property.

At December 31, 2023, we held 30 active U.S. patents and had no pending U.S. patent applications covering various aspects of our technology. Our U.S. patents expire at various times beginning in 2024 and extending through 2039. During 2023, one U.S. patent was issued and 18 U.S. patents expired. We do not believe that the upcoming expiration of certain of our patents in 2024 will have a material impact on our business. We also hold foreign patents and file foreign patent applications, in selected cases corresponding to our U.S. patents and patent applications, to the extent management deems appropriate.

COMPETITION

We operate in an increasingly competitive environment within all of our operating segments. Some of our competitors have greater financial resources and more extensive design and production capabilities than us. Certain markets in which we operate have become more fragmented, with smaller companies entering the market. These new smaller entrants typically have much lower levels of fixed operating overhead than us, which enables them to be profitable with lower priced products. In order to remain competitive with these and other companies, we must continue to commit a significant portion of our personnel, financial resources, research and development and customer support to developing new products and maintaining customer relationships worldwide.

Our competitors include independent manufacturers, ATE manufacturers and, to a lesser extent, semiconductor manufacturers' in-house ATE interface groups. Competitive factors in the markets we serve include price, functionality, timely product delivery, customer service, applications support, product performance and reliability. We believe that our long-term relationships with our customers in the various markets we support and our commitment to, and reputation for, providing high quality products, are important elements in our ability to compete effectively in all of our markets.

Our principal competitors for manipulator products are Advantest Corporation, Esmo AG, Reid-Ashman Manufacturing and Teradyne, Inc. Our principal competitors for docking hardware products include Advantest Corporation, Esmo AG, Reid-Ashman Manufacturing and Teradyne, Inc. Our principal competitors for tester interface products are Advantest Corporation, Esmo AG, Reid-Ashman Manufacturing and Teradyne, Inc. Our principal competitors for Acculogic products are Digitaltest GmbH, Seica S.P.A., SPEC S.P.A., and Takaya Corporation.

Our principal competitors for Thermostream(R) products are FTS Systems, a part of SP Industries, and MPI Corporation. Our principal competitors for environmental chambers are Cincinnati Sub-Zero Products, Inc., Espec Corp. and Thermotron Industries. Our principal competitor for thermal platforms is Environmental Stress Systems Inc. Our principal competitors for liquid chillers include Huber Kältemaschinenbau AG, Julabo GmbH, Boyd Corporation, and Advanced Thermal Sciences Corporation. Our principal competitors for life sciences products include Panasonic Health Care Holdings Corporation, Haier Group Corporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation, and Eppendoerf AG.

Our principal competitors for EKOHEAT(R) and EASYHEAT™ products are Inductotherm Corporation, Park-Ohio Holdings, EFD Induction Corporation, Trumpf Huettinger GmbH, Ultraflex Power Technologies and CEIA SpA. Our digital streaming and image capturing solutions products compete in a large space with multiple small competitors. There is no competitor that has over 5% share of the current market.

BACKLOG

At December 31, 2023, our backlog of unfilled orders for all products was $40.1 million compared with $46.8 million at December 31, 2022. Our backlog consists of purchase orders that we have accepted, substantially all of which we expect to deliver in 2024. While backlog is calculated on the basis of firm purchase orders, a customer may cancel an order or accelerate or postpone currently scheduled delivery dates. Our backlog may be affected by the tendency of customers to rely on shorter lead times available from suppliers, including us, in periods of depressed demand. In periods of increased demand, there is a tendency towards longer lead times, which has the effect of increasing backlog. As a result of these factors, our backlog at a particular date is not necessarily indicative of sales for any future period. See also the discussion of backlog in Part II, Item 7 under “Orders and Backlog.”

EMPLOYEES

At December 31, 2023, we had 334** employees (323 of which were full-time), including 154 in manufacturing operations, 130 **in customer support/operations and 50 in administration. Substantially all of our key employees are highly skilled and trained technical personnel. None of our employees are represented by a labor union, and we have never experienced a work stoppage. From time to time, we retain third-party contractors to assist us in manufacturing operations and engineering and product development projects.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports that are filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”), are available free of charge through our website (www.intest.com) as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. We also routinely post press releases, presentations, webcasts and other information regarding the Company on our website. The information posted to our website is not part of this Report.