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For first-quarter 2008, Rubicon Technology Inc of Franklin Park, IL, USA, which manufactures sapphire substrates and products for the LED, RFIC, semiconductor and optical industries, reported revenue of $10.5m, up 10% on last quarter and 46% on Q1/2007. Net income was $2.3m ($0.10 diluted earnings per share).

The firm continued the rapid build out of manufacturing capacity in its new crystal growth facility in Bensenville, IL, which opened in January.

“We were able to start building out crystal growth furnaces in our new facility earlier than anticipated,” said chief financial officer Bill Weissman. “As a result, our first quarter revenue and earnings per share came in better than expected."

CEO Raja Parvez added: “We now have larger furnaces operational that are capable of producing next generation eight inch diameter sapphire material.”

Commenting on the outlook for Q2 and full year 2008, Weissman continued: "We anticipate revenue in the second quarter of $11.5 million and diluted EPS of $0.11, based on a projected diluted share count of 22.5 million shares. Regarding the full year 2008, we continue to add significant capacity and our full year revenue and EPS estimates have been based on the expected added capacity throughout this year. While we had a strong first quarter and expect our second quarter to be strong as well, we are not raising the top end of our earlier estimates until we are sure capacity can continue to come on-line ahead of schedule. We are however, tightening our range of anticipated revenue for 2008 to between $47 and $49 million and our diluted EPS range to between $0.45 and $0.47. These EPS estimates exclude the costs to be incurred by the Company associated with the proposed secondary offering currently in registration, which we estimate to be approximately $400,000, or approximately $0.02 per share."

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