CVD EQUIPMENT CORP

The use of the words “CVD,” “we,” “us,” or “our,” refers to CVD Equipment Corporation, a New York corporation incorporated on October 13, 1982, and its wholly owned subsidiaries, CVD Materials Corporation (including its wholly owned subsidiaries, and CVD MesoScribe Technologies Corporation (“MesoScribe”) and Tantaline CVD Holding ApS (“Tantaline”)), and FAE Holdings 411519R LLC except where the context otherwise requires.

Overview

CVD has served the advanced materials markets with chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor transport and thermal process equipment for over 40 years. We are headquartered in Central Islip, New York with our SDC division located in Saugerties, New York.

We design, develop, and manufacture a broad range of equipment used to develop and produce materials and coatings for the aerospace, compound semiconductor, semiconductor, aerospace, battery energy storage markets as well as advanced industrial applications, and research.

We conduct our business through three reportable segments: i) CVD Equipment that designs and manufactures chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor transport and thermal process equipment; ii) SDC that designs and manufactures ultra-high purity gas and chemical delivery control systems; and iii) MesoScribe that provided products related to advanced materials and coatings.

Developments

On August 8, 2023, we entered into an agreement with a third party to sell certain assets and license certain propriety information of our MesoScribe subsidiary. We fulfilled remaining orders for MesoScribe products during 2024 and sold certain equipment resulting in the recognition of a gain on sale of equipment in 2024.

On May 26, 2023, we sold our Tantaline subsidiary located in Nordborg, Denmark in exchange for a nominal amount at closing and an earn-out provision based on any net income that Tantaline may earn during the five-year period ending December 31, 2027.

The decisions to sell our Tantaline subsidiary and close down the operations of MesoScribe were based on our strategy to focus on the equipment business consisting of the CVD Equipment and SDC segments.

Key Company Strengths

Based on more than 40 years of equipment experience, we use our capabilities in process development, engineering, and vertical manufacturing to transform emerging applications into mainstream manufacturing solutions.

We have built a library of design expertise, know-how and innovative solutions to assist our customers in developing these intricate processes and to accelerate their production and commercialization. This library of equipment design solutions, along with our manufacturing and systems integration facilities, allows us to provide application-specific design, process, and manufacturing solutions to our customers.

Our core competencies in equipment and software design, manufacturing and process development are used to engineer our finished products and to accelerate the commercialization path of our customer base. Our proprietary real-time software allows for rapid configuration, and provides our customers with enabling tools to understand, optimize and repeatedly control their processes. These factors reduce cost, improve quality, and reduce the time it takes between customers’ orders and the shipment of our products. Our Application Laboratory allows customers the option to bring their process tools to our laboratory and to work collaboratively with our scientists and engineers to optimize process performance.

To expand our presence into our major target markets, we are developing a line of proprietary standard use products to complement our customized legacy systems. Historically, we manufactured products for research and development on an application-specific basis to meet an individual customer’s specific research and production requirements. Our proprietary systems leverage the technological expertise that we have developed through designing these custom systems into a broader standardized product line. The standard product line can be configured from a wide range of available options to meet diverse product and budgetary requirements. Manufacturing these standardized systems in higher volumes may provide us the flexibility to reduce both the cost and delivery time of our systems as well as leverage our engineering development cost. These systems, which we market and sell under the CVD, FirstNano and EasyTube® product names, are sold to commercial companies, universities and research laboratories in the United States and throughout the world.

Sales of our proprietary standard systems, custom systems and process solutions have been driven by our installed customer base, which includes many Fortune 500 companies. The performance and success of our products has historically driven repeat orders from existing customers as well as generated business from new customers. Furthermore, with our proprietary solutions and expanded focus on “enabling tomorrow’s technologies”TM we have been developing a new customer base in addition to growing with our existing customers.

Key Growth Strategies

Our core strategy is to focus on growth applications in end markets related to aerospace, microelectronics, and industrial applications.

With respect to aerospace, our systems are being used by our customers to produce ceramic matrix composite materials (“CMCs”) that will be used in next generation gas turbine jet engines with the objective of reducing jet fuel consumption and contributing to the decarbonization of that industry.

During 2022, we also received an order from an aerospace company for a production chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) system that will be used to manufacture CMCs for gas turbine jet engine components. We received additional orders from the same aerospace company for three CVI systems in 2023 and one CVI system in 2024.

In February 2024, we received a multisystem order from an industrial customer for approximately $10 million that will be used for depositing a silicon carbide protective coating on OEM components and the units are expected to be delivered over 18 to 24 months period.

The phrase “electrification of everything” within the microelectronics market refers to the shift from fossil fuels to the use of electricity to power devices, buildings, electric vehicles (“EVs”) and many other applications. Our strategy yielded multisystem orders of PVT150 equipment that was delivered to one company in 2022 and 2023 that manufactures silicon carbide wafers.

In February 2024, we received an order from an additional customer for our new PVT200 system used to grow silicon carbide crystals for the manufacture of 200 mm wafers. This represents our second customer for our PVT equipment. This customer is evaluating our equipment performance for potential additional purchases of PVT equipment. We have also received orders from OneD Battery Materials in 2023, a company that is engaged in providing battery nanomaterials. We also provide a line of CVD systems which are used to develop and produce material for the anode portion of batteries.

Both technologies are essential for the support of the EV market. These systems should provide us with standard product offering to continue to support the EV focused market as well as energy storage, power conversion and power transmission. We are also evaluating our ability to provide other equipment used in the manufacturing process of silicon carbide wafers.

We have observed lower-than-anticipated industrywide electric vehicle sales which may reduce demand for silicon carbide and negatively impact sales of our PVT systems. In addition, the recent global over capacity of 150 mm silicon carbide wafers has reduced the market for 150 mm silicon carbide growth systems.

We have generally gained new customers through our industry reputation, as well as limited print advertising and trade show attendance. We have increased the number of trade shows and industry conferences we attend in 2024.

Major Target Markets

Our major target markets are aerospace & defense and industrial, microelectronics / high power electronics, and EV battery materials / energy storage.

Aerospace & Defense

CVD is a leading manufacturer of preform CVI and tow-coating systems to manufacture CMCs for aerospace gas turbine jet engine applications. Our customers include two of the leaders in aerospace gas turbine engines.

We continue to engage additional customers in the aerospace market regarding CMCs. During 2022, we received an order for a production CVI system. We received additional orders from the same aerospace company for three CVI systems in 2023 and one additional CVI system in 2024. These systems will be used to manufacture CMCs for aerospace gas turbine jet engines.

We believe our future growth will be derived from production applications in our major target markets. Our legacy product line continues to provide advanced equipment and subsystems to enable development of emerging technology and research applications.

Microelectronics / High Power Electronics

Demand for silicon carbide wafers to support high power electronics for energy storage and transmission/charging resulted in a multi-system order from a US-based, silicon carbide wafer manufacturer. Through December 31, 2024, we have received and delivered orders for 30 of our PVT150 physical vapor transport systems from one customer, which planned to use our systems to grow silicon carbide crystals that are made into 150 mm silicon carbide wafers for use in power electronics. In late 2023, we launched our PVT200 system designed to manufacture silicon carbide crystals for 200 mm wafer and in mid-2024 we received our first order from a second customer. We plan to continue to support the market with our PVT 200 system and possible future product development for the PVT200 product line. We will continue to monitor the market dynamics for silicon carbide wafers.

EV Battery Materials / Energy Storage

We have experienced increased interest and demand for nanotechnology materials including carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and silicon nanowires (Si-NWs) to support the development and manufacturing for battery materials used in electric vehicles.

Our major targeted markets are further described as follows (the term “legacy product” refers to products and systems within our product offerings that we have produced in our history):

Bookings

During 2024, bookings of new orders from customers was approximately $28.1 million, representing an increase of approximately 8.9% compared to 2023 bookings of $25.8 million. The increase in bookings of $2.3 million was related to an increase in aerospace and industrial orders.

Segments

CVD Equipment- supplies state-of-the-art chemical vapor deposition and thermal process equipment targeting growth production markets as well as systems for use in research and development. This includes systems marketed under the FirstNano product brand. Utilizing our over 40 years of expertise in the design and manufacture of chemical vapor deposition and thermal process equipment, we provide material processing capability and control at a competitive cost of ownership.

The targeted growth production markets include aerospace advanced materials primarily for gas turbine jet engines, high power electronics (both silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN)), and nanomaterials used in batteries. The product group also consists of legacy products serving the production and R&D applications such as semiconductors, LEDs, carbon nanotubes, nanowires, solar cells and several other industrial & research applications.

Our developments and opportunities for the carbon composite business come from achievements in our Applications Laboratory. The Applications Laboratory, along with the sales and marketing team continue to explore carbon-based products and applications that can be made from our CNT, infiltrated carbon/CVI and carbon nano fiber technology (CNF). Some applications include CNT and infiltrated carbon/CVI based battery material and CNF capacitors for 5G technology.

To support new emerging applications, we provide equipment to and collaborate with laboratory scientists to bring state-of-the-art processes from the research laboratory into production. CVD Equipment group provides process development value through our Application Laboratory where our personnel interact directly with the scientists and engineers of our customer base to develop solutions to tomorrow’s challenges today. CVD Equipment segment operates from our 128,000 square feet facility in Central Islip, New York.

SDC- designs and manufactures ultra-high purity gas and chemical delivery control systems for state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication processes, aerospace, solar cells, LEDs, carbon nanotubes, nanowires, and a number of industrial applications. Our SDC products are sold on a stand-alone basis and are also integrated into certain CVD equipment. This internal supply of chemical and gas delivery systems and components provide a competitive advantage for our CVD Equipment group over its competition. SDC operates from a 22,000 square foot facility fitted with a clean room manufacturing space located in Saugerties, New York.

MesoScribe- consisted of MesoScribe’s direct write printed electronics business. MesoScribe provided MesoPlasma™ printing services and products (heaters, antennas, and sensors) to aerospace, satellite, power generation, defense, and other markets requiring high performance. MesoScribe operations were located at our main facility in Central Islip, New York.

On August 8, 2023, we entered into an agreement with a third party to sell certain assets and license certain proprietary information of MesoScribe. We fulfilled remaining orders for MesoScribe products during 2024,completed the sales of the equipment assets and ceased operations as of September 30, 2024.

Products and Technology

Chemical Vapor Deposition/Infiltration – Chemical vapor deposition is a method of coating or growing material through a chemical disassociation and recombination at elevated temperatures onto or within pores of a substrate material. A single or collection of gases or vapor introduced on to the surface or into pores of a substrate material that is heated to such a degree that the gases decompose and deposits a desired layer onto and or into a substrate material. Chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) is a variant of a chemical vapor deposition process that is performed at low pressures to allow for coating the internal surfaces of a porous material. Using heat and low pressure, precursor vapors penetrate the pores/fiber of the material and deposit to form a conformal coating on the internal surfaces. Both processes are accomplished by combining appropriate gases in a reaction chamber, of the kind we manufacture, at elevated temperatures (typically 500° to 2,500° Celsius). Our chemical vapor deposition and CVI systems are complete and include all necessary heating techniques, precise control instrumentation, gas delivery and abatement subsystems and components and include state-of-the-art proprietary process control software. We provide both standard and emerging applications specified products. Some of the standard systems we offer are for SiC, GaN, Aluminum Nitride (AlN), CMCs, silicon (Si), CNT, graphene, silicon nanowires. The systems are sold under the CVD and FirstNano product brands.

Physical Vapor Transport (PVT) – While the PVT150 was officially launched for production in 2022, we have sold PVT systems in prior years and have pioneered both resistive heating and more effectively inductively heated PVT systems. The PVT150 system was specifically designed to address the SiC crystal growth market for 150 mm substrates or wafers. Designed to provide enhanced process parameter control it allows existing and future customers the ability to tightly control and monitor the crystal growth process for 150mm substrates. A 200 mm version called the PVT200 was developed during 2023, and the first order was received in February 2024 and delivered in 2024. The crystal growth technique utilized a high temperature furnace to vaporize from seed granular material of SiC and further deposit out in an ordered crystal structure onto substrate wafer. The process takes days to over a week to complete and yield a SiC crystal ready for further processing into wafers.

Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) – Used to heat semiconductor materials to elevated temperatures of up to 1,200° Celsius at rapid rates of up to 200° Celsius per second. Our RTP systems are offered for implant activation, oxidation, silicide formation and many other processes. We offer systems that can operate both at atmospheric and reduced pressures.

Annealing, Diffusion and Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) Furnaces – These furnaces are used for dislocation removal in crystals, dopant diffusion, oxidation, for SiC, Si, SiOx and other applications. The systems are normally operated at atmospheric and/or reduced pressure with gaseous atmospheres related to the process. An optional feature of the system allows for the heating element to be moved away from the process chamber allowing the wafers to rapidly cool or be heated in a controlled environment. Our temperature control system enables more precise control of the wafers. The systems are equipped with an automatic process controller, permitting automatic process sequencing and monitoring with safety alarm provisions.

Ultra-High Purity Gas and Liquid Control Systems – Our standard and custom designed gas and liquid control systems, which encompass gas cylinder storage cabinets, custom gas and chemical delivery systems, gas and liquid valve manifold boxes and gas isolation boxes, provide safe storage and handling of pressurized gases and chemicals. Our system design allows for automatic or manual control from both a local and remote location. These subsystems and components are provided to the general market as well as support the CVD Equipment segment.

Quartzware– The majority of our process equipment solutions, utilize quartz components which we partially manufacturer internally. In addition, the equipment typically requires routine maintenance, consumable and spare parts. One such spare part and consumable which is core to our technology offering is quartz hardware. We provide standard and custom fabricated quartzware used in our equipment and to a lesser extent for other customer tools.

Intellectual Property

Our success is dependent, in part upon the development and protection of our proprietary technology and other proprietary rights. We have historically and continue to protect our proprietary information and intellectual property such as design specifications, blueprints, technical processes, and employee know-how through the use of patents and non-disclosure agreements. In the area of patents, we believe there is value in having protected intellectual property and will continue to file for patent protection of our proprietary technology that we believe has the potential to be incorporated into our products and sold to multiple customers. We also maintain certain trademarks relating to certain of our products and product lines and claim copyright protection for certain proprietary software and documentation.

While patent, copyright and trademark protections for our intellectual property are important to different degrees for our various products and solutions, we believe our future success in highly dynamic markets is most dependent upon the technical competence and creative skills of our personnel and our ability to accelerate the commercialization of next generation intellectual properties. We strive to protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information through non-disclosure agreements with our customers, suppliers, employees and consultants and other security measures.

Research and Development

We develop new products based on market analysis or by customer request. The technology included in our product development includes mechanical hardware, software and controls systems and overall configuration. Our research and development activities over have yielded a wealth of technology from which systems and solutions can be derived from and productized. Together with a number of leading universities and startup companies with whom we partner from time to time, we conduct research on Si deposition for both aerospace Si bond coat and microelectronic applications, SiC growth, the growth and infiltration of carbon nanotubes, graphene and nanowires as well as on selected aerospace manufacturing processes. Our intention is that together with customers and universities, we will leverage our collective expertise in this field, which we believe will allow us to capitalize on commercial opportunities in the future.

Markets and Marketing

We serve multiple emerging and mature global markets including compound semiconductor high power electronics, aerospace, defense, battery energy storage, silicon and other microelectronic and micromechanical devices, semiconductor, universities, and research centers. Due to the highly technical nature of our products, we believe it is essential to engage with customers directly through our sales personnel, our network of domestic and international independent sales representatives, and distributors specializing in the type of equipment, products, and services that we sell. Our primary marketing activities include direct sales engagement, participation in trade associations and trade shows and our internet websites. We expanded our marketing activities through attendance at key tradeshows and online marketing.

Customers

Our systems and products are used in both production applications and advanced materials research. We market and sell primarily to companies that are the engaged in producing aerospace gas turbine jet engine component material, defense, compound semiconductor wafers, battery energy storage, silicon and other microelectronic and micromechanical devices, semiconductor, universities and research centers. We have both a domestic and international customer base.

Given the complexity and magnitude of the systems we sell, revenue from a single customer in any one year can exceed 10% of our total sales. During the year ended December 31, 2024, one customer represented 29.5% of our revenues, while in 2023 three customers represented 14.3%, 13.5% and 10.9% of our revenues. While we believe that our relationships with these customers are generally positive, the loss of a large customer would have to be replaced by others, and our inability to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

For the year ended December 31, 2024, approximately 4.3% of our revenues were generated by sales to customers outside the U.S., compared to approximately 17.2% for the year ended December 31, 2023.

Competition

We can experience intense direct competition from both domestic and international competitors in all our product segments. Our CVD Equipment product lines, including FirstNano, target multiple markets and both production and research customers. Competition is substantial in both the production applications and research. In production application, competition comes from larger companies offering enhanced services. In research applications, the competition comes from small companies that compete with us mostly on price. We are aware of other competitors that offer a substantial number of products and services comparable to ours. Many of our competitors (including customers who may elect to manufacture systems for internal use) have financial, marketing and other resources greater than our own. To date, we believe that each of our product and service segments has been able to compete favorably in markets that include these competitors, primarily based on know-how, technical performance, quality, delivery, price and aftermarket support. We continue to focus on products, which serve markets that are growing and where we have a technical and commercially competitive advantage.

CVD Equipmentcompetes with companies located in Asia, Europe, and the US in both the production and research market. In the production and research markets, some of our potential customers built their own equipment. Additionally, there are large established companies who compete with us and pose a competitive risk in the market. Due to budgetary and funding constraints, many customers are price sensitive. We believe that our systems are among the most advanced available for the targeted market and coupled with our vertical integration in engineering and manufacturing, we believe that we can compete effectively.

SDC’sgas management and chemical delivery control systems are among the most advanced available. We further believe that SDC is differentiated from our competitors through our deep understanding of how the systems in which our products are incorporated are used in field applications. We have gained this understanding as a result of having designed and built complex process gas systems for our CVD Equipment group as well as for a number of the world’s leading semiconductor, aerospace, medical, solar manufacturers, research laboratories and universities.

Sources of Supply

Many of the components used in producing our products are purchased from unrelated suppliers. We have OEM status with our suppliers, but we are not obligated to purchase a pre-determined quantity. We are not dependent on a principal or major supplier and alternate suppliers are available. Historically, subject to lead times, the components and raw materials we used in manufacturing our products were readily obtainable.

We maintain a fully equipped machine shop that we use to fabricate a significant portion of our metal components in-house, including the most intricately designed parts of our equipment. We expanded our machine shop in 2022 to allow us to expand our ability to fabricate parts. Our quartz fabrication capability is currently sufficient to meet our quartzware needs. We believe our vertical manufacturing integration is a competitive advantage.

Materials procured from suppliers and/or manufactured internally undergo a rigorous quality control process to ensure that the parts meet or exceed our requirements and those of our customers. Upon final assembly, all equipment undergoes a final series of complete testing to ensure maximum product performance.

Backlog

As of December 31, 2024, our backlog was approximately $19.4 million, compared to $18.4 million as of December 31, 2023, an increase of $1.0 million. Our backlog at December 31, 2024 consists of approximately $17.4 million remaining performance obligations for system contracts in progress and not yet started and the balance of approximately $1.9 million represents other non-system orders received from customers. The timing for completion of backlog varies depending on the product mix and can be as long as two years or as short as 30-60 days.

There can be no assurance that our backlog will result in actual revenue in any particular period, or at all, or that any contract included in backlog will be profitable. The actual amount and timing of any revenue is subject to various contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, such as cancellations and delays. As a result of these contingencies, we may adjust our backlog if we determine that such orders are no longer firm. In addition to adjustments from these types of contingencies, variations in backlog from time to time are attributable, in part, to changes in sales mix, the timing of contract proposals, the timing of contract awards, delivery schedules on specific contracts. As a result, we believe our backlog and orders, at any point in time, are not necessarily indicative of the total sales anticipated for any future period.

Government Regulations

We are subject to a variety of federal, state and local government regulations, such as environmental, labor and export control regulations. We believe that we have obtained all necessary permits to operate our business and that we are in material compliance with all laws and regulations applicable to us. These regulations are subject to change and the effect of these changes could materially impact our business in certain technology areas and regions.

Utilizing our in-house safety team, engineering expertise and consultants as required, we continue to monitor and comply with applicable Environmental Health and Safety regulations at our facilities as well as the installation of equipment at our customer facilities.

With respect to our sales to customers located in China or elsewhere outside the United States, products which (i) are manufactured in the United States, (ii) incorporate controlled U.S. origin parts, technology, or software, or (iii) are based on U.S. technology, are subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”). We continue to monitor, review, and maintain ongoing compliance with the EAR with respect to our export sales.

Product Liability

Our products are used in our customers’ manufacturing processes, which in some cases contain explosive, flammable, corrosive, and toxic gases. There are potential exposures to personal injury as well as property damage, particularly if operated without regard to the design limits of the systems and components. Additionally, the end products of some of our customers are used in areas such as aerospace and high-tech devices where safety is of great concern. Management reviews its insurance coverage on an annual basis or more frequently, if appropriate, and we believe we have the types and amounts of insurance coverage that are sufficient for our business.

Human Capital

We consider our employees a vital asset to our business and strive to ensure we foster a work environment of respect, communication, objective orientation, and personal life balance. We believe this results in a higher level of employee satisfaction and hence improved performance and employment longevity. On December 31, 2024, we had 118 employees. We had 58 employees in manufacturing, 30 in engineering (including research and development and efforts related to product improvement), 5 in field service, 10 in sales and marketing and 15 in general management, maintenance and administration, compared to 128 employees as of December 31, 2023. None of our employees were subject to a collective bargaining agreement.

The implementation of our business strategy depends on our ability to hire, train, and retain qualified and diverse professionals, and we must emphasize employee development and training to do so. We are committed to identifying and developing the talents of our next generation of managers and intend to establish a strong succession-planning program for our critical positions, including internships for technical and engineering resources from local universities. Moreover, a key strategic focus of our management team is to foster and maintain a strong and healthy culture, where collaboration to achieve results and focus on the success of our customers and shareholders is paramount.

Employee Safety

The health and safety of our employees and partners is our highest priority, and this is consistent with our operating philosophy. We maintain strong environmental, health and safety protocols that focus on implementing policies and training programs, as well as performing self-audits to ensure our colleagues and partners leave the workplace safely on a daily basis.

Employee Compensation

Management continues to review our employee compensation programs to better align the compensation of our employees with our objectives, performance, and personal performance, and to provide the proper short-term and long-term incentives to attract, retain and motivate them to achieve superior results. We believe we must offer wages that are competitive and consistent with employee positions, skill levels, experience, and knowledge, and in order to do so we may work with a nationally recognized outside compensation and benefits consulting firm to independently evaluate the effectiveness of our executive and non-executive compensation and benefit programs and to provide benchmarking against our peers within our industry.

Equal Opportunity

We are committed to building and sustaining a culture of equal opportunity that encourages all of our employees to reach their full potential. Our CVD team, like the technologies we enable, is a rich combination of diverse individuals coming together to make a material difference for our people, our customers, and the world. As a company that enables tomorrow’s technologies, we recognize that a diverse employee population makes CVD a stronger, more innovative, and a more engaging place to work. We are always striving to attract talented individuals from a diverse candidate pool.

Available Information

Our website address is www.cvdequipment.com and the contents of our website, including our investor relations website, is not incorporated by reference into this filing or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC. We have no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in other reports filed with the SEC, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless we are required to do so by law. The SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.