VICOR CORP - Annual Report: 2022 (Form 10-K)

PART I

In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context indicates otherwise, references to “Vicor^®,” “the Company,” “our company,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and similar references, refer to Vicor Corporation and its subsidiaries, unless otherwise specified.

Our consolidated operating results are affected by a wide variety of factors that could materially and adversely affect revenues and profitability, including the risk factors described in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. As a result of these and other factors, we may experience material fluctuations in future operating results on a quarterly or annual basis, which could materially and adversely affect our business, consolidated financial condition, operating results, and the share price of our Common Stock. This document and other documents filed by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) include forward-looking statements regarding future events and our future results that are subject to the safe harbor afforded under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other safe harbors afforded under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs, expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections for our future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are identified by the use of words denoting uncertain, future events, such as “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “future,” “goal,” “if,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “project,” “prospective,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” or “would,” as well as similar words and phrases, including the negatives of these terms, or other variations thereof. Forward-looking statements also include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: our expectations that we have adequate resources to respond to financial and operational risks associated with the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) and regarding our and our customers’ ability to effectively conduct business during the pandemic; our ability to address certain supply chain risks; our ongoing development of power conversion architectures, switching topologies, materials, packaging, and products; the ongoing transition of our business strategically, organizationally, and operationally from serving a large number of relatively low volume customers across diversified markets and geographies to serving a small number of relatively large volume customers; our intent to enter new market segments; the levels of customer orders overall and, in particular, from large customers and the delivery lead times associated therewith; anticipated new and existing customer wins; the financial and operational impact of customer changes to shipping schedules; the derivation of a portion of our sales in each quarter from orders booked in the same quarter; our intent to expand the percentage of revenue associated with licensing our intellectual property to third parties; our plans to invest in expanded manufacturing capacity, including the expansion of our Andover facility and the introduction of new manufacturing processes, and the timing, location, and funding thereof; our belief that cash generated from operations together with our available cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund planned operational needs, capital equipment purchases, and planned construction, for the foreseeable future; our outlook regarding tariffs and the impact thereof on our business; our belief that we have limited exposure to currency risks; our intentions regarding the declaration and payment of cash dividends; our intentions regarding protecting our rights under our patents; and our expectation that no current litigation or claims will have a material adverse impact on our financial position or results of operations. These forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations and estimates associated with prospective events and circumstances that may or may not be within our control and as to which there can be no assurance. Actual results could differ materially from those implied by forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including but not limited to those described under Part I, Item 1 — “Business,” under Part I, Item 1A — “Risk Factors,” under Part I, Item 3 — “Legal Proceedings,” and under Part II, Item 7 — “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The discussion of our business contained herein, including the identification and assessment of factors that may influence actual results, may not be exhaustive. Therefore, the information presented should be read together with other documents we file with the SEC from time to time, including our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K, which may supplement, modify, supersede, or update the factors discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of future events or developments, except as required by law.

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Overview

We design, develop, manufacture, and market modular power components and power systems for converting electrical power (expressed as “watts,” and represented by the symbol “W”, with wattage being the product of voltage, expressed as “volts,” and represented by the symbol “V,” and current, expressed as “amperes,” and represented by the symbol “I”). In electrically-powered devices utilizing alternating current (“AC”) voltage from a primary AC source (for example, a wall outlet), a power system converts AC voltage into the stable direct current (“DC”) voltage necessary to power subsystems and/or individual applications and devices (known as “loads”). In many electronic devices, this DC voltage may be further converted to one or more voltages and currents required by a range of loads. In equipment utilizing DC voltage from a primary DC source (for example, a battery) or a secondary source (such as an AC-DC converter), the initial DC voltage similarly may require further conversion. A power system most commonly incorporates four voltage conversion functions: transformation, isolation, rectification, and regulation.

Transformation refers to the process of increasing or decreasing an AC voltage; isolation refers to the electrical separation, for safety, of primary and secondary voltages in a transformer; rectification refers to the process of converting a voltage from AC to DC and/or from DC to AC; and regulation refers to the process of providing a near constant voltage under a range of line and load conditions. Because numerous applications requiring different voltages, currents, and varied power ratings may exist within an electronically-powered device, and system power architectures themselves vary, we offer an extensive range of products and accessories in numerous application-specific configurations. We believe our product offering is among the most comprehensive in the market segments we serve.

Our strategy, competitive positioning, and product offerings are all based on highly differentiated product performance, reflecting our anticipation of the evolution of system power architectures and customer performance requirements. Since the Company was founded, we have pursued continuous innovations in product design and achievements in product performance, largely enabled by our focus on the research and development of advanced technologies and processes, often implemented in proprietary semiconductor circuitry, materials, and packaging. Reflecting this strategy, we categorize our offerings as either “Advanced Products” or “Brick Products,” generally based on design, performance, and form factor considerations, as well as the range of evolving applications for which the products are appropriate.

Our competition varies, depending on the market segment and application. Generally, we compete with developers and manufacturers of integrated circuits and semiconductor-based modules when addressing the needs of customers in enterprise computing and other market segments with implementations of our proprietary Factorized Power Architecture^TM (“FPA”) using Advanced Products. In contrast, we generally compete with manufacturers of integrated power supplies when addressing the needs of customers, across a wide range of market segments, implementing conventional power systems architectures (e.g., Centralized Power Architecture (“CPA”), Distributed Power Architecture (“DPA”), and Intermediate Bus Architecture (“IBA”)) using Brick Products.

Our website, www.vicorpower.com, sets forth detailed information describing our products, the applications for which they may be used, and our suite of design tools. The information contained on our website is not a part of, nor incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K and shall not be deemed “filed” under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).

We are headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, where our manufacturing facility is located. Our wholly-owned subsidiary, VICR Securities Corporation, also is located in Andover, Massachusetts. Our other domestic offices are located in Santa Clara, California, Lombard, Illinois, and Lincoln, Rhode Island. Our two Vicor Custom Power^™ subsidiaries, Freedom Power Systems, Inc. and Northwest Power, Inc., are located in Cedar Park, Texas, and Milwaukie, Oregon, respectively.

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We have established individual subsidiaries or unincorporated branch offices outside of the United States, which we call Technical Support Centers (“TSCs”), to conduct preparatory and auxiliary services in support of the Company. Vicor Japan Company, Ltd. (“VJCL”), our 92.5%-owned Japanese subsidiary, which is engaged in sales and customer support activities exclusively for the sale of certain products customized by VJCL for the Japanese market, is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

In August 2020, our subsidiary, VLT, Inc., which was a vehicle for licensing technologies, was merged with and into the Company.

Our remaining subsidiaries and their legal domicile are set forth in Exhibit 21.1 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The activities of all of the above named entities are consolidated in the financial statements presented herein.

Vicor was incorporated in Delaware in 1981, and we completed an initial public offering in May 1991. The Company has two classes of common stock outstanding: shares of our “Common Stock,” listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker symbol VICR, and shares of our Class B common stock, which are not subject to registration pursuant to the Exchange Act and are not listed on any exchange.

Our Strategy

Our strategy emphasizes demonstrable product differentiation and a value proposition based on competitively superior solution performance, advantageous design flexibility, and a compelling total cost of ownership (“TCO”). Since the Company was founded, our competitive position has been maintained by continuous innovations in product design and achievements in product performance, largely enabled by our focus on the research and development of advanced technologies and processes, often implemented in proprietary semiconductor circuitry, materials, and packaging. Many of our products incorporate patented or proprietary implementations of high-frequency switching topologies, which enable the design of power system solutions more efficient and much smaller than conventional alternatives. This efficiency and small size is enabled by our proprietary switching circuitry and magnetic structures, as well as our use of highly differentiated packaging.    

Power system performance is based primarily on conversion efficiency (i.e., the ratio of output power (i.e., watts) to input power) and power density (i.e., the amount of output power divided by the volume of the power system). Higher efficiency and density contribute to superior thermal performance, as the by-product of power conversion and distribution is heat, which must be dissipated in order to assure the performance of the power system solution itself and the overall system to which it is delivering power. Power system performance also is based on the electrical characteristics of the power system (and their effect on and compatibility with the customer’s application). Important electrical characteristics include transient responsiveness (i.e., the reaction of a power system to a sudden change in voltage or current levels) and noise profile (i.e., the level of electromagnetic interference created by power conversion). We believe the superior performance of our power systems is the most important element of our differentiation strategy.

Our strategy complements performance superiority with design flexibility (i.e., ease of use), as our products can be utilized individually or combined, given their level of integration, to create power system solutions specific to a customer’s precise needs. We articulate this positioning through our “Power Component Design Methodology,” an element of our differentiation strategy, which is our approach to providing our customers the modular products, design tools, and engineering support to enable the rapid design of advanced power system solutions by customers and, thereby, accelerate their own product development cycles. Our value proposition is supported by a compelling TCO, representing the cost of acquiring and operating a power system over its useful life, driven by competitive product pricing, high reliability, and demonstrably lower electricity costs.

Our earliest market focus was on telecommunications infrastructure, which uses a standard DC distribution voltage of 48V (nominally 48V to 54V), the highest distribution voltage that meets Safety Extra-Low Voltage (“SELV”) standard requirements, while leaving sufficient margin for over-voltage protection circuits. While we

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offer products addressing other DC voltage standards (e.g., 380V for power distribution in data centers, 110V for rail applications, 28V for military and avionics applications, and 24V for industrial automation) and a broad range of customer requirements, we consider our core competencies to be associated with 48V distribution, which offers numerous inherent cost and performance advantages over lower distribution voltages, while remaining within the 60V SELV safety limit.

Our product portfolio also includes families of “front-end” devices, which address applications requiring the transformation of AC voltages to regulated DC voltages. Examples of such applications include powering data center server racks, large-scale LED lighting, specialized laboratory, diagnostic, and test equipment, small-cell wireless base stations, and higher power equipment for defense and industrial use.

Reflecting our strategy, we categorize our offerings as either Advanced Products or Brick Products, generally based on design, performance, and form factor considerations, as well as the range of evolving applications for which the respective categories are appropriate. The Advanced Products category consists of our most innovative products, which are used to implement our proprietary distribution architecture, FPA, a highly differentiated approach to power distribution that enables flexible, rapid power system design using individual components optimized to perform a specific function. The Brick Products category largely consists of integrated power converters (i.e., “bricks”), incorporating multiple conversion stages, used in conventional power systems architectures including CPA, DPA, and IBA.

Given the growth profiles and performance requirements of the market segments served with Advanced Products and Brick Products, our strategy involves a transition in organizational focus, emphasizing investment in Advanced Products design and manufacturing, targeting high growth market segments with a low-mix, high-volume operational model, while maintaining a profitable business in mature market segments we serve with Brick Products with a high-mix, low-volume operational model.

Our Products

Reflecting our Power Component Design Methodology, we offer a comprehensive range of modular building blocks enabling rapid design of a power system specific to a customer’s precise needs. Based on design, performance, and form factor considerations, as well as the range of evolving applications for which the products are appropriate, we categorize our product portfolios as either Advanced Products or Brick Products. We also sell a range of electrical and mechanical accessories for use with our products.

Advanced Products

We continue to invest in the research and development of power system technologies and product concepts addressing two accelerating trends, the first toward higher required conversion efficiencies, and the second toward more and diverse on-board voltages, higher performance demands of complex loads, and, in particular, higher current requirements of those loads. These trends are most visible in the microprocessor-based applications we target with Advanced Products, for which energy consumption, energy efficiency, processor performance, and computing density are critical priorities. Recognizing the performance and scale limitations of conventional power distribution architectures and products, we introduced FPA and a range of enabling products incorporating our latest advances in power distribution concepts, switching topologies, materials, and packaging.

FPA, which is focused on, but not limited to, 48V DC distribution solutions, increases power system conversion efficiency, density, and power delivery performance by “factorizing” (i.e., separating) the power conversion process into individual components, reducing the design limitations, thermal management challenges, and scaling trade-offs associated with conventional architectures for DC voltage distribution. All such architectures follow a sequence whereby a DC voltage is first transformed, or reduced, and that lower voltage subsequently conducted (i.e., “bussed”) across the circuit to the “load” (i.e., the point of use), where the voltage is regulated and lowered once more, to the required operating voltage of the load. In a FPA implementation, the sequence is reversed. Regulation occurs first, and the regulation module can be placed in the optimal position for

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space utilization and thermal management. A regulated voltage approaching 48V is bussed across the circuit to the transformation module, which performs what we refer to as current multiplication, adjacent to the load. Bussing high voltage minimizes the current levels across the circuit, thereby minimizing the potential for distribution losses and reducing the volume of the conduit (e.g., the copper wire). Placing the relatively low noise, low heat current multiplication module adjacent to the load further minimizes the potential for distribution losses associated with bussing a low operating voltage to the load and reduces the potential influence of the power system on the performance of the load.

A typical FPA implementation for delivering 48V DC from a server backplane to a 1.0V microprocessor would consist of three modules: a PRM^™ (Pre-Regulator Module) regulator, a VTM^™ (Voltage Transformation Module) current multiplier, and a proprietary communications controller. In contrast, a commodity IBA design for delivering 48V DC from a server backplane to a 1.0V microprocessor requires an additional conversion stage, to reduce 48V to 12V, and, at the point of load, a voltage regulation module (i.e., a “VRM” consisting of multiple switching regulators, each representing a phase and consisting of two switching transistors, one or more capacitors, and an inductor, with the transistors switched by pulse width modulation controller). For a 200W two stage, multiphase application, a 12V commodity IBA implementation would require an intermediate bus converter, to reduce 48V to 12V, and a VRM solution consisting of parallel phases (i.e., multiple switching regulators) to reduce and regulate the current for use at 1.0V by the microprocessor. Such a commodity IBA implementation requires a significantly higher component count, consumes more motherboard area, requires more copper conduit, generates more heat due to switching and distribution losses, offers inferior dynamic response, and can be meaningfully less efficient than a 48V FPA implementation.

The advantages of FPA over legacy power distribution architectures are most evident in high performance computing applications. Our “Power-on-Package” power system solutions meet the computational performance requirements of artificial intelligence (“AI”). The microprocessors typically used in AI, particularly in more computationally demanding “machine learning” or “training” applications, are graphics processing units (“GPUs”) and custom application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”). Unlike central processing units (“CPUs”), which are designed for serial execution of complex and broad instruction sets, GPUs and AI ASICs are designed for massively parallel (i.e., concurrent) processing of repetitive transactions or calculations. As such, GPUs and AI ASICs generally operate at processing frequencies requiring the higher levels of average and peak current delivered by our FPA-based solutions. Our most popular Power-on-Package solution, consists of one MCD^© (Modular Current Driver) unit, providing high-bandwidth, low-noise regulation, and two MCM^© (Modular Current Multiplier) units, providing high performance current multiplication. Power-on-Package delivers unprecedented current levels to GPUs and AI ASICs, in part due to the placement of the MCMs directly on the substrate onto which the processor is mounted, thereby minimizing distribution losses associated with high current levels. Placement of MCM units on the substrate also reduces the number of GPU or ASIC processor substrate pins required for power, allowing for their use by other functions (e.g., memory input/output (“I/O”)). This three-module laterally-mounted Power-on-Package configuration, powering an AI accelerator card requiring 350W, delivers 0.7V, 650A average current, and up to 1,200A peak current to the GPU or AI ASIC.

We are unaware of any competitive solution for AI acceleration offering the power system performance and density of Power-on-Package, as IBA-based solutions must increase the number of conversion phases to reach high current levels, thereby increasing component count and motherboard area used, which contributes to higher switching and distribution losses, inferior dynamic response, and associated heat generation.

Our latest innovation for powering processors is vertical power delivery, which involves mounting our highest-performance solutions on the underside of the motherboard, opposite the GPU or AI ASIC, thereby enabling a further reduction in distribution losses at the load, yielding higher efficiency and unprecedented power density. Vertically-mounting the solution allows unrestricted access to microprocessor input/output I/O pins on the top side of the motherboard, thereby improving I/O speed and memory access, which are a priority for GPUs and AI ASICs in AI applications. We are in the final development stages of our vertical power delivery solutions and shipped prototype products to a certain customer in 2022.

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Our proprietary technologies enable us to offer a range of Advanced Products, in various package formats across functional families, applicable to other market segments and power distribution architectures other than FPA. Within computing, these market segments include AC to DC voltage conversion and DC voltage distribution in server racks and high voltage conversion across datacenter infrastructure. We also offer Advanced Product power system solutions for aerospace and aviation (e.g., for use in satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, and various airframes, including battery-powered aircraft, for which small size, light weight, and design flexibility are advantageous); defense electronics (e.g., for use in airborne, seaborne, or field communications and radar, for which reliability in harsh environments is a priority); industrial automation, instrumentation, and test equipment (e.g., for use in robotics and semiconductor testing, for which high power levels and precision performance are required); solid state lighting (e.g., for use in large scale displays and signage, for which, again, small size, light weight, and design flexibility are advantageous); telecommunications and networking infrastructure (e.g., for use in high-throughput data distribution and pole-mounted small-cell base stations); and vehicles (e.g., in autonomous driving applications, electric vehicles, and hybrid electric vehicles).

Annual revenue associated with the sale of Advanced Products was approximately 61.0%, 47.4%, and 35.8% of the Company’s consolidated revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively. Advanced Products revenue grew in 2022 primarily due to cloud computing infrastructure growth and the further adoption of AI systems within the cloud.

We anticipate the percentage of periodic revenue associated with the sale of Advanced Products will increase in the future, given our strategic and organizational focus and the relatively higher expected growth of the market segments we serve.

Brick Products

Brick-format converters provide the integrated transformation, rectification, isolation, regulation, filtering, and/or input protection necessary to power and protect loads, across a range of conventional power architectures. We offer a wide range of brick-format DC-DC converters, as well as complementary components providing AC line rectification, input filtering, power factor correction, and transient protection. Wide ranges of input voltages, output voltages, and output power are offered, allowing end users to select components appropriate to their individual applications. The products differ in dimensions, temperature grades, maximum power ratings, performance characteristics, pin configuration, and, in certain cases, characteristics specific to the targeted market.

We also integrate these converters and components into complete power systems representing standard or custom AC-DC and DC-DC solutions for our customers’ power needs. We refer to such standard products as our “Configurable” product line, while our two Vicor Custom Power subsidiaries design, sell, and service custom power system solutions.

We market our standard Brick Products emphasizing “mass customization,” using highly automated, efficient, domestic manufacturing to serve customers with product design and performance requirements, across a wide range of worldwide market segments, which could not be met by high-volume oriented competitors. We focus on distributed power implementations, for which our brick-format products are well-suited, in market segments such as aerospace and defense electronics, industrial automation, industrial equipment, instrumentation and test equipment, and transportation (e.g., rail). Our customers range from independent manufacturers of highly specialized electronic devices to larger original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and their contract manufacturers. Some of our Brick Product lines have been in production for over a decade, reflecting the maturity of the markets we serve, the long-established relationships we have with many customers, and the long-standing suitability of our products to demanding applications.

Annual revenue associated with the sale of Brick Products, inclusive of such sales of our Vicor Custom Power and VJCL subsidiaries, was approximately 39.0%, 52.6%, and 64.2% of the Company’s consolidated revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively.

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Customers and Backlog

The applications in which our Advanced Products and Brick Products are used are typically in the higher-performance, higher-power segments of the market segments we serve. With our Advanced Product lines, our customers are concentrated in the data center and hyperscaler segments of enterprise computing, in which our products are used for voltage distribution on server motherboards, in server racks, and across datacenter infrastructure, although we also target applications in aerospace and aviation, defense electronics, industrial automation, instrumentation, test equipment, solid state lighting, telecommunications and networking infrastructure, and vehicles (notably in the autonomous driving, electric vehicle, and hybrid vehicle niches of the vehicle segment). With our Brick Product lines, we serve customers concentrated in aerospace and defense electronics, industrial automation, industrial equipment, instrumentation and test equipment, and transportation (notably in rail and heavy equipment applications). With our strategic emphasis on larger, high-volume customers, we expect to experience a greater concentration of sales among relatively fewer customers.

As of December 31, 2022, the Company’s order backlog was approximately $304,392,000, compared to $345,594,000 as of December 31, 2021. Backlog, as presented here, consists of orders for products for which shipment is scheduled within the following 12 months, subject to our scheduling and cancellation policies.

The lead times between receipt and acceptance of an order and our shipment of the product have increased, largely as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular in 2022, the resulting lock-downs in China associated with its zero-COVID policy. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread delays in production and delivery. In response, during the second quarter of 2021, we extended our quoted lead times for delivery to customers to 26-32 weeks depending on the product family. Customer demand has outstripped capacity and semiconductor suppliers have allocated capacity. In addition, suppliers have increased component pricing. In the second quarter of 2021 and in the first quarter of 2022, we increased our prices in response to component cost increases that could no longer be absorbed.

A portion of our revenue in any quarter is, and will continue to be, derived from “turns” volume, representing either orders booked and shipped in the same quarter or orders for which customers have requested accelerated delivery from a later quarter to the current quarter. This volume generally has been associated with orders for Brick Products. Due to lengthened delivery lead times and supply constraints across the electronics industry, the volume of turns orders has been lower on average in the last few years than in prior years. However, over the same period, the volume of orders for which customers have requested accelerated delivery has increased, which we believe to be a reflection of the demand for our products in key end markets and our limited capacity to meet this demand. An additional influence on turns volume has been our transition to larger OEM customers, which typically schedule large volumes for delivery over multiple quarters and frequently reschedule deliveries for either earlier or later shipment. Average quarterly turns volume was approximately 11% of 2022 revenue, approximately 19% of 2021 revenue, and approximately 14% of 2020 revenue.

In the second half of 2022, the semiconductor industry experienced a slow down due to a number of factors. The order rate from customers declined in this period. We believe the decline in order rate related, in part, to the general slow down in the semiconductor industry. In addition, order rates from contract manufacturing customers that manufacture for a high performance compute OEM declined and we believe this was due, in part, to the substantial backlog we built up earlier in the year, as well as a product transition from one generation to the next.

Competition and Market Characteristics

The competitive characteristics of the markets we serve with Advanced Products and Brick Products can differ significantly. For example, in the higher-performance segments of computing we serve, our Advanced Products most often compete with solutions offered by large integrated device manufacturers (“IDMs”), which offer integrated circuits (“ICs”) and semiconductor-based modules. These IDMs generally offer far broader product portfolios, possess far greater global manufacturing and support resources, and have the ability to aggressively price their products to defend market share. Accordingly, Advanced Products are positioned as

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highly differentiated alternatives to commodity solutions for customers seeking high levels of performance. The customers we serve with Advanced Products, typically on a direct basis, are in market segments generally characterized by an emphasis on product performance differentiation, a compelling TCO, relatively extended and highly competitive design cycles, and product life cycles of generally less than three years. In contrast, the Brick Products competitive landscape is relatively fragmented, with large-scale, low-cost global suppliers of commodity solutions and many smaller manufacturers focused on specialized products or narrowly defined market segments or geographies. The market segments we serve with Brick Products, typically through sales representatives and distribution partners, generally are characterized by relatively short design cycles, relatively long (i.e., greater than three years) product life cycles, and, given the maturity of many market segments and applications, degrees of commoditization and price competition. As such, Brick Products are positioned with an emphasis on mass customization, through which we offer products with specific features and performance profiles typically not available from catalog-oriented competitors.    

The size and growth characteristics of the markets we serve with Advanced Products and Brick Products also can differ significantly, and the range and quality of market data is problematic, making summary statements about these markets challenging. We believe our Advanced Products generally compete with power modules and power ICs developed and manufactured by IDMs and other fabless vendors of power semiconductors. We believe our Brick Products generally compete with similarly integrated switching power supply products developed and manufactured by large global competitors and a fragmented group of small regional competitors. The switching power supply market can be segmented by product type (i.e., DC-DC converters, AC-DC converters, and DC-AC inverters), by output power levels, and by numerous vertical markets (i.e., industry-specific applications).

For 2022, exports to China and Hong Kong were approximately $75,194,000, representing approximately 18.8% of total revenue and an approximately 23.8% decrease over the 2021 total of approximately $98,700,000. We believe this decreased volume was primarily associated with the lockdowns in China associated with their zero-COVID policy and related constraints on the Chinese economy. Current exports to China and Hong Kong are heavily oriented toward Brick Products for industrial and rail applications, as well as certain aerospace and defense electronics applications permitted under U.S. export control regulations (our products are designated EAR99 commodities under the Export Administration Regulations of the U.S. Department of Commerce and are not subject to export licenses).

For 2022, exports to Taiwan were approximately $105,226,000, representing approximately 26.4% of total revenue and an approximately 82.3% increase over the 2021 total of approximately $57,711,000. Taiwan is a contract manufacturing site for certain high performance compute OEMs that drove increased demand.

Despite our minor share in the overall merchant market and the competitive presence of numerous, far larger vendors in the market segments we serve with both Advanced Products and Brick Products, we believe we maintain an advantageous competitive position in those market segments. While we believe we have a significant share of 48V power distribution opportunities within the segments of the computing markets we serve, there are numerous competitors across these market segments that have significantly greater engineering, financial, manufacturing, and marketing and sales resources, as well as longer operating histories and longer customer relationships than we do.

Marketing and Sales

We reach and serve customers through several sales channels: a direct sales force; a network of independent sales representative organizations in North America; independent, authorized non-stocking distributors in Europe and Asia; and four authorized stocking distributors world-wide: Arrow Electronics, Inc., Digi-Key Corporation, Future Electronics Incorporated, and Mouser Electronics, Inc. All sales channels are supported by regional TSCs,

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each offering application engineering and sales support for our channel partners. Domestic TSCs are located in: Andover, Massachusetts; Lombard, Illinois; and Santa Clara, California. International TSCs are located in: Beijing, China; Hong Kong, China; Shanghai, China; Shenzhen, China; Munich, Germany; Bangalore, India; Milan, Italy; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China); and Camberley, United Kingdom. Customers do not place purchase orders with TSCs, but do so directly with the Company or with our channel partners. In Japan, customers place purchase orders with authorized distributors or, for certain custom products, VJCL.

We generally sell our products on the basis of our standard terms and conditions, and we most commonly warrant our products for a period of two years. The warranty period is three years for a range of H Grade, M Grade, and MI Family DC-DC products. In a limited number of circumstances, we have entered into supply contracts with certain high-volume customers calling for extended warranty terms. With our distribution partners, we also enter into contracts providing for our product warranties to transfer to the end customer upon final sale of our product(s) by the distributor.

Because of the technically complex nature of our products and the applications they address, we maintain an extensive staff of Field Applications Engineers to support our own sales and customer support activities, as well as those of our channel partners. Field Application Engineers, based in our TSCs, provide direct technical support worldwide by reviewing new applications and technical matters with our channel partners in support of existing and potential customers. Product Development Engineering is located in our Andover headquarters, where our Product Development Engineers support the Field Application Engineers assigned to all of our TSCs.

Our direct sales force focuses on higher-volume opportunities involving Advanced Products with global OEMs (and the Original Design Manufacturers (“ODMs”) and contract manufacturers serving these OEMs). Because of the high level of product differentiation and the increasing complexity and challenges of customer requirements, we have experienced, and may continue to experience, extended design cycles before production orders are received.    

We also reach customers through the electronic commerce capabilities of our website, www.vicorpower.com. Registered, qualified customers in the United States, Canada, and certain European countries are able to purchase selected products online.

Our web-based resources are an important element of our efforts to interact with and support customers. Within our website, the Power System Designer workspace of tools and references allow engineers to select, architect, and implement power systems using our products. Our highly differentiated Whiteboard^TM tool allows users to configure and analyze their own power system designs or those from an extensive library of designs addressing a wide range of applications. Users can modify the operating condition for each component of their design to match the intended application and perform efficiency and loss analysis of individual components and the full power system. We continue to enhance and expand the range and capabilities of engineering tools we make available online to customers and prospective customers.

As stated, our strategy involves maintaining high levels of customer engagement and support for design and engineering, which has resulted in significant expansion of our sales and application engineering infrastructure over historical levels. We incurred approximately $49,708,000, $46,602,000, and $43,396,000 in marketing and sales expenses in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively, representing approximately 12.5%, 13.0%, and 14.6% of revenues in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively.

Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, and Supply Chain Management

Our manufacturing facility, consisting of approximately 320,000 square feet, is located in Andover, Massachusetts, where we are headquartered. In this facility, we manufacture Brick Products, with the exception of custom products produced by our Vicor Custom Power and VJCL subsidiaries, and Advanced Products, with

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the exception of certain products manufactured, packaged, and tested by third party wafer foundries and packaging contractors in the United States and Asia.

Our primary manufacturing processes involve steps common to automated assembly of electronics devices. We also have developed and employ proprietary manufacturing processes that contribute to the differentiated performance of our devices, including the innovative electroplating of our SM-ChiP^© modules discussed below. During the third quarter of 2020, we began construction of an addition of approximately 90,000 square feet to our existing manufacturing facility. We initially planned on taking occupancy of the addition in the first half of 2021, but due to a variety of factors including the effect of the global pandemic, we took occupancy of this addition during the first half of 2022 and equipment installation and qualification is underway.

As previously disclosed, we partner with a highly-specialized third-party developer of electroplating processes and equipment, which performs certain elements of our proprietary manufacturing process using equipment designed by the developer. In 2019 and 2020, we entered into service and equipment purchase agreements with this partner. While commodity electroplating services are available from numerous alternate providers, we entered into these agreements due to the level of our collaboration to date with the partner in the refinement of certain proprietary processes we employ and our joint commitment to environmentally sound manufacturing minimizing toxic waste. We have relied on this partner’s services to meet our requirements for SM-ChiP production to date, but we expect to have fully-operational production capabilities on site. The initial planned installation dates for this equipment in 2021 were, in some cases, delayed due to a variety of factors including the effect of the global pandemic, with the current expectation that the line will be complete in 2023.

Product quality and reliability are critical to our success and, as such, we emphasize quality and reliability in our design and manufacturing activities. We follow industry best practices in manufacturing and are compliant with ISO 9001 certification standards (as set forth by the International Organization for Standardization). Our quality assurance practices include rigorous testing and, as necessary, burn-in and temperature cycling (i.e., extended operation of a product to confirm performance) of our products using automated equipment. Incoming components, assemblies, and other parts are subjected to several levels of inspection procedures, and we maintain robust data on our raw material inventories in order to support our quality assurance procedures.

Components and materials used in our products are purchased from a variety of domestic and international vendors. Generally, the global electronics supply chain continued to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. Lead times for delivery of certain raw materials remain extended. Most of these raw materials are available from multiple sources, whether directly from suppliers or indirectly through distributors, and, during 2022 we continued to opportunistically expand certain raw material inventories to offset the uncertainties associated with availability and lead times.

Certain Advanced Products and semiconductor devices used in our production are manufactured by a limited number of wafer foundries, with packaging and test services provided by a limited number of third parties. We rely on these wafer foundries and packaging and test providers for supply continuity of these critical semiconductor devices. Throughout the majority of 2022, the semiconductor test and packaging segment of the global electronics supply chain experienced well-publicized capacity constraints, and, as a result, we have continued to experience unpredicted delays in receipt of certain semiconductor components from our packaging and test vendors. To date, these delays have not had a material impact on our ability to meet customer delivery requirements. In response to current schedule uncertainties, we are seeking alternate providers of packaging and test services and may further increase inventory levels for these semiconductor components, when possible. Should these capacity constraints continue or worsen and we are unable to obtain the necessary volumes of required semiconductor components, we may not be able to meet delivery commitments for certain customers and may not be able to reduce delivery lead times for the foreseeable future. In the later part of 2022, the semiconductor industry experienced a downturn, and we believe the resulting reduction in orders on the industry will serve to loosen supply chains, though specific supply constraints on certain components remain a challenge.

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To date, we have not experienced material delays or reduced raw material availability as a result of trade disputes between the U.S. and China, including the imposition in 2018 of import tariffs under the provisions of Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. § 2411) (“Section 301 Tariffs”) on certain Chinese goods imported into the United States. For the year ended December 31, 2022, costs associated with tariffs totaled approximately $10,201,000, an increase of 52.8% over the $6,678,000 in costs incurred for the year ended December 31, 2021. We continue to assess the impact of these costs and are actively evaluating alternative sources of raw materials. We also have filed “duty drawback” applications with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the recovery of tariffs paid on raw materials used to produce products we subsequently exported. We recovered $229,000 and $676,000 for the years ended, December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively, however, we are not able to estimate the amount or timing of any additional recoveries, and there can be no assurance that there will be any additional recoveries.

Intellectual Property

Our competitive positioning has been, and will continue to be, supported by our long-standing commitment to research and development of power distribution architectures, power conversion technologies, advanced packaging and manufacturing, and innovative approaches to solving customer problems. Our research and development activities have resulted in important patents protecting our products and enabling technologies, as well as proprietary trade secrets associated with our use of certain components and materials of our own design and proprietary manufacturing, packaging, and testing processes. We incurred approximately $60,594,000, $53,114,000, and $50,916,000 in research and development expenses in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively, representing approximately 15.2%, 14.8%, and 17.2% of revenues in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively.

We believe our intellectual property affords advantages by building fundamental and multilayered barriers to competitive encroachment upon key features and performance benefits of our principal product families. Our patents cover the fundamental switching topologies used to achieve the performance attributes of our converter product lines; converter array architectures; product packaging design; product construction; high frequency magnetic structures; and automated equipment and methods for circuit and product assembly.

As of December 31, 2022, in the United States, we have been issued 122 patents having expirations scheduled between 2023 and 2040 and have filed a number of patent applications which are still pending, many of which are expected to issue as patents in 2023. We have vigorously protected our rights under these patents and will continue to do so. Although we believe patents are an effective way of protecting our technology, there can be no assurances our patents will prove to be enforceable in any given jurisdiction.

In addition to generating revenue from product sales, we seek to license our intellectual property. In granting licenses, we generally retain the right to use our patented technologies and manufacture and sell our products in all licensed geographic areas and fields of use. Revenues from licensing arrangements have not exceeded 10% of our consolidated revenues in any of the last three fiscal years.

Human Capital Management

High-caliber employees are important to achieving Vicor’s mission of providing the highest performance power solutions to meet the requirements of the most demanding applications. In order to maintain leadership in power systems design in a highly competitive employment market, attracting and retaining the best team worldwide is critical. Accordingly, we offer compelling compensation and benefits, foster a culture of innovation in which employees are empowered to do (and are rewarded for) their best work, and seek to establish Vicor as a meaningful contributor to the communities in which we operate, further strengthening the bonds between employees and the Company.

As of December 31, 2022, we had 1,088 full-time employees, of which 989 were in the U.S. and 99 were in our international locations. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

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We recruit from colleges and universities, with a focus on specific engineering disciplines. In collaboration with certain universities, we maintain a student “Co-Op” program, whereby qualifying undergraduate and graduate students work at our Andover facilities for one or two semesters, receiving course credit towards their graduation. In recent years, we have had as many as approximately two dozen participants per semester, with a substantial percentage of participants receiving offers of full-time employment.

Our compensation program is designed to attract and reward talented individuals who possess the skills necessary to support our business objectives, assist in the achievement of our strategic goals, and create long-term value for our stockholders. We provide employees with compensation packages that include a competitive base salary or wage rate and benefits such as life and health (medical, dental, and vision) insurance, supplemental insurance, paid time off, paid parental leave, and a 401(k) plan (with Company match). Generally (and subject to local laws), new employees are awarded non-qualified options for the purchase of the Company’s common stock. Depending on an employee’s role, he or she may be eligible for annual incentive bonuses and periodic awards of non-qualified options based on the performance of the Company and that of the employee. We believe a compensation program with appropriate long-term incentives aligns employee and stockholder interests in increasing the value of the Company.

We emphasize and encourage employee development and training. To empower employees to reach their potential, we provide a range of development programs and opportunities, including in-house training programs and tuition reimbursement for those pursuing outside certification or degrees.

We seek to support the communities in which we operate and believe this commitment contributes to our efforts to attract and retain employees. We also partner with a range of non-profit organizations and have had notable success in our collaboration for over two decades with the Crest Collaborative of Methuen, MA, a local advocacy agency, in providing enriching employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

For more information on our employee and community initiatives, please see our Corporate Social Responsibility webpage at www.vicorpower.com/about-the-company/corporate-social-responsibility.

Available Information

We maintain a website with the address www.vicorpower.com and make available free of charge through this website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to, the SEC. We also make available on our website our Code of Business Conduct, as well as the charters for the Audit and Compensation Committees of our Board of Directors.

While our website sets forth extensive information, including information regarding our products and the applications in which they may be used, such information is not a part of, nor incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K and shall not be deemed “filed” under the Exchange Act.

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This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of, among other factors, the risk factors set forth below.

Operational Risks

Our future operating results are difficult to predict and are subject to fluctuations.

Our operating results, including revenues, gross margins, operating expenses, and net income (loss), have fluctuated on a quarterly and annual basis. Our strategic focus on higher volume opportunities with OEMs, ODMs, and contract manufacturers has caused the actions of a relative few such customers to disproportionately influence our operating results. Unanticipated delays in purchase orders from, and shipments to, certain large customers have resulted in lower than expected revenue. Similarly, our strategic focus on the development of market-leading technologies and manufacturing processes, often implemented in proprietary semiconductor circuitry, materials, and packaging, has exposed the Company to the risks and costs of delays in such development and the use of a relatively few number of suppliers of proprietary circuits and materials or providers of proprietary services.

Despite recent profitability trends, we cannot predict if we will maintain sustained profitability. Our future operating results may be materially influenced by a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

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As a result of these and other factors, we cannot assure you we will not experience significant fluctuations in future operating results on a quarterly or annual basis. In addition, if our operating results do not meet the expectations of investors, the market price of our Common Stock may decline.

Global economic and political uncertainties, notably those associated with trade policy, could materially and adversely affect our business and consolidated operating results.

For the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020, revenues from sales outside the United States were 67.6%, 67.0%, and 64.4%, respectively, of our total revenues. Net revenues from customers in China and Hong Kong, accounted for approximately 18.8% in 2022, approximately 27.5% in 2021, and approximately 31.4% in 2020, respectively, of total net revenues. We expect international sales, notably in Asia, will continue to be a significant component of total sales, since many of the OEMs and ODMs we target as customers are domiciled offshore, and such customers increasingly utilize offshore contract manufacturers, and rely upon those contract manufacturers to place orders directly with us. We also expect international revenue from our distributors to continue to increase.

To date, we have not experienced material delays or reduced raw material availability as a result of trade disputes between the U.S. and China, including the imposition in 2018 of import tariffs under the provisions of Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. § 2411) (“Section 301 Tariffs”) on certain Chinese goods imported into the United States. However, the costs of Section 301 Tariffs have had a material impact on our profitability. For the year ended December 31, 2022, Section 301 Tariffs totaled approximately $10,201,000, an increase of 52.8% over the $6,678,000 incurred for 2021. For 2022, 2021 and 2020, Section 301 Tariffs totaled approximately 2.6%, 1.9% and 2.4%, respectively, of annual revenue, representing a material reduction in our gross profit margin as a percentage of annual revenue.

We continue to evaluate alternative sources of raw materials, and in 2020, 2021, and 2022 we qualified non-Chinese vendors for certain high-volume raw materials and components. We anticipate a reduction in Section 301 Tariffs we incur during 2023, given the ongoing transition to non-Chinese vendors, but we are not able to estimate the amount of such reduction, if any. Similarly, we cannot predict if or when the U.S. government may reduce or eliminate Section 301 Tariffs.

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We also have filed “duty drawback” applications with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the recovery of Section 301 Tariffs paid on raw materials and components used to produce products we subsequently exported. We recovered $229,000 for the year ended December 31, 2022, however, we are not able to estimate the amount or timing of any additional recoveries, and there can be no assurance that there will be any additional recoveries.

In 2019, China implemented reciprocal inbound tariffs of up to 25% on products exported from the U.S., including all of our products. We do not believe these tariffs, incurred by our Chinese and Hong Kong distributors, have had a material impact on the unit volume or dollar value of our exports to China, which we attribute to the differentiated performance of our products in market segments in which we have an established presence. However, we cannot predict the long-term influence of these tariffs on our competitive position in China, especially in light of the increased pressure by the Chinese government on Chinese manufacturers to meet the “China 2025” mandate for targeted development of Chinese technology sectors. Under this mandate, domestic technology vendors are explicitly favored over foreign vendors such as Vicor. We believe we experienced reduced demand in certain segments (e.g., rail), notably in 2019, reflecting the significant role of state-owned enterprises in those segments. We regularly assess the competitive position and profitability of certain product lines sold in China and Hong Kong, and may choose to reduce our product offerings if competitive conditions and reduced profitability so warrant.

Uncertain macroeconomic conditions, extended trade disputes, and the relative strength of the U.S. Dollar may reduce end-demand for our customers’ products and, in turn, their purchases of our products, thereby reducing our revenues and earnings. In addition, such adverse conditions may, among other things, result in increased price competition for our products, notably in Brick Product categories, increased risk of excess and obsolete inventories, increased risk in the collectability of our accounts receivable from our customers, increased risk in potential reserves for doubtful accounts and write-offs of accounts receivable, and higher operating costs as a percentage of revenues.

In October 2022, the U.S. Government instituted export controls of certain semiconductor technologies to China, and subsequent to that action, the U.S. Department of Commerce added certain China-based companies to its entity list, which precludes shipment of semiconductor products to these companies without a license. These restrictions could cause a reduction in demand for our products from contract manufacturing customers that manufacture for high performance compute OEMs, as well as a reduction in exports to customers on the entity list. We cannot be certain what the ultimate impact of these export controls will be on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our operating results recently have been influenced by a limited number of customers, and our future results may be similarly influenced.

Since the introduction of our Advanced Products, the Company has derived the majority of its revenue from Advanced Products in any given year from either one customer or a limited number of customers, whether through sales directly to the customer(s) or indirectly to the customers’ contract manufacturers. This concentration of revenue is a reflection of the relatively early stage of adoption of the Advanced Products and the associated technologies and power system architectures, and our targeting of market leading innovators as initial customers.

Our current sales and marketing efforts are focused primarily on accelerating the adoption of Advanced Products by a diversified customer base, across a number of identified market segments. While we believe we have been successful to date in diversifying our Advanced Products customer base beyond early adopters, we cannot assure you our strategy will be successful and further diversification of customers will be achieved.

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We may not be able to procure necessary key components or raw materials, or we may purchase excess raw material inventory or unusable inventory, which increases the risk of reserve charges to reduce the value of any inventory deemed excess or obsolete, thereby reducing our profitability.

The power systems industry, and the electronics industry as a whole, can be subject to pronounced, lengthy business cycles and otherwise subject to sudden and sharp changes in demand. Our success, in part, is dependent on our ability to forecast and procure inventories of components and materials to match production schedules and customer delivery requirements. Many of our products require raw materials supplied by a limited number of vendors and, in some instances, a single vendor. During certain periods, key components or materials required to build our products may become unavailable in the timeframe required for us to meet our customers’ needs. Our inability to secure sufficient raw materials to manufacture products for our customers has reduced, in the past, our revenue and profitability and could do so again. Over the course of the last few years, there have been circumstances where supply disruptions, often associated with the global pandemic, have impacted our results.

We may choose, and have chosen, to mitigate our inventory risks by increasing the levels of inventory for certain components and materials. Such increased inventory levels may increase the potential risk for excess or obsolete inventories, should our forecasts fail to materialize or if there are negative factors impacting our customers’ end markets, leading to order cancellation. If we identify excess inventory or determine certain inventory is obsolete (i.e., unusable), we likely will record additional inventory reserves (i.e., expenses representing the write-off of the excess or obsolete inventory), which could have an adverse effect on our gross margins and on our operating results.

We rely on third-party vendors and subcontractors for supply of components, assemblies, and services and, therefore, cannot control the availability or quality of such components, assemblies, and services.

We depend on third-party vendors and subcontractors to supply components, assemblies, and services used to manufacture our products, some of which are supplied by a single vendor. We have experienced shortages of certain semiconductor components and delays in service delivery, have incurred additional and unexpected costs to address the shortages and delays, and have experienced our own delays in production and shipping.

If suppliers or subcontractors cannot provide their products or services on time or to our specifications, we may not be able to meet the demand for our products and our delivery times may be negatively affected. In addition, we cannot directly control the quality of the products and services provided by third parties. In order to expand revenue, we likely will need to identify and qualify new suppliers and subcontractors to supplant or replace existing suppliers and subcontractors, which may be a time-consuming and expensive process. In addition, any qualification of new suppliers may require customers of our products utilizing products and services from new suppliers and service providers to undergo a re-qualification process. Such circumstances likely would lead to disruptions in our production, increased manufacturing costs, delays in shipping to our customers, and/or increases in prices paid to third parties for products and services.

As previously disclosed, we rely on a third-party partner to provide certain manufacturing steps associated with a proprietary Advanced Products packaging process. This process, developed with the third-party partner, involves complex electroplating, performed on equipment developed by the third-party partner. An important, differentiating benefit of this proprietary process is that it does not generate problematic effluent, resulting in an environmentally safe approach to electroplating, with minimal waste. We have entered into agreements with the third-party partner for production and transfer of technologies and process know-how, including the purchase of the enabling equipment developed by the third-party partner.

To date, we have successfully relied upon this third-party partner to perform these manufacturing steps, although we have experienced delivery delays and higher costs associated with the third-party partner’s volume constraints. This experience has caused us to establish our own high-volume capabilities in-house, modifying, in 2020, our construction plans to accommodate a dedicated, on-premises electroplating process facility. We expect

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to rely on our third-party partner for production requirements through the installation and qualification for production of the enabling equipment in the addition to our Andover manufacturing facility. We may also rely on our third-party partner in the future for surge capacity requirements.

If the third-party partner cannot deliver sufficient volumes to us, if we are unable to complete our facility expansion in a timely manner, or if we are unable to effectively implement the new manufacturing processes, we may not be able to achieve the expected volumes or production capacity and, as a result, may experience reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries, and/or increased expenses, any of which could negatively influence our financial condition and results of operations.

Extended interruption of production at our manufacturing facility in Andover, Massachusetts, could materially reduce our revenue, increase our costs, and, potentially, negatively impact our customers.

The majority of our power components and power systems, whether for direct sale to customers or for sale to our subsidiaries for incorporation into their respective products, are manufactured in our Andover facility.

Substantial damage to our existing manufacturing facility due to fire, natural disaster, power loss, or other events, including disruptive events associated with our ongoing expansion of the facility, could interrupt manufacturing, contributing to lengthy shipment delays that could have a negative impact on customers and, in turn, our customer relationships. While we have never experienced any meaningful interruption of manufacturing in our history, any prolonged inability to utilize all or a significant portion of our Andover facility could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

An extended delay in completing our capacity expansion could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and negatively impact our ability to execute on our Advanced Products strategy.

We have been making and will continue to make capital investments for the expansion of manufacturing capacity for the production of Advanced Products at our Andover facility.

The addition to our facility includes installation of certain equipment and implementation of certain manufacturing steps associated with Advanced Products manufacturing processes we currently outsource to a third-party partner, as described above. These manufacturing processes are associated with a proprietary packaging approach requiring complex electroplating processes using environmentally safe technologies. Given our volume expectations and the proprietary elements of these processes, we have chosen to accelerate the development of a captive capacity that we expect will exceed the total capacity available from our third-party partner. Today, we own and operate, with our employees, certain equipment on premises at our third-party partner and, as such, have established a level of operational competence we believe will enable us to successfully install and implement these manufacturing processes internally. However, we may experience delays and incur additional costs during 2023 in implementing the manufacturing processes, given the complexity of the installation and qualification of the equipment. An extended delay in completing our capacity expansion (and implementing new manufacturing processes) could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and negatively impact our ability to execute on our Advanced Products strategy.

Once the facility expansion has been completed and all manufacturing equipment installed and qualified for volume production, we may not achieve the anticipated production volumes and operating efficiencies. As we qualify equipment and bring production online, any delay in achieving anticipated operating efficiencies associated with added capacity may cause manufacturing costs to be higher than expected for some period of time, thereby potentially negatively influencing our operating and financial results.

Disruption of our information technology infrastructure could adversely affect our business.

We depend heavily on our computing and communications infrastructure to achieve our business objectives, particularly for our financial and operational record keeping, our computer-integrated manufacturing processes controlling all aspects of our operations in our manufacturing facility in Andover, Massachusetts, our public

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website, and our email communications. We also rely on trusted third parties to provide certain infrastructure support services to us. If we or a third party service provider encounter a problem that impairs this infrastructure, the resulting disruption could impede the accuracy and timeliness of our financial reporting processes, and our ability to record or process customer orders, manufacture, and ship in a timely manner, or otherwise carry on business in the normal course. Our image and reputation also could be negatively affected by such circumstances. Additionally, we could incur material liabilities associated with the harm such impairment and disruption of our infrastructure may have on third parties including those associated with the unintentional release of confidential information and or sensitive data. While we carry business interruption insurance to offset financial losses from such an interruption, and cyber-risk insurance to address potential liabilities from such circumstances, such insurance may be insufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant costs or liabilities incurred. Any such events, if prolonged, could have a material and adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

On December 24, 2019, elements of our network were compromised by a form of malware referred to as “ransomware.” In close collaboration with our service provider, we had restored computing and network functions to full operational status by the afternoon of December 27, 2019. Subsequent analysis by management and the forensic specialists we retained allowed us to conclude the incident had no material impact on our operations, financial condition and performance, or the integrity of our financial reporting systems.

Our systems are designed to protect us from network security incidents and associated disruptions. However, as evidenced by the ransomware incident described above, we remain vulnerable to computer viruses and related software-based challenges to the integrity of our systems, unauthorized or illegal break-ins, or malicious network hacking, equipment or software sabotage, acts of vandalism to our systems by third parties, and, in the extreme, forms of cyber-terrorism. Our security measures or those of our third party service provider detected, but did not prevent, the network security incident and the associated disruptions described above and may not detect or prevent such incidents and disruptions in the future.

The Company provides confidential information to third party business partners and/or receives confidential information from third party business partners in certain circumstances, when doing so is necessary to conduct business, particularly with departments of agencies of the U.S. Government. While we employ confidentiality agreements to protect other sensitive information (i.e., information not considered CUI), our own security measures or those of our third party service providers may not be sufficient to protect such information in the event the computing infrastructure of these third party business partners is compromised. Security incidents involving our computing and communications infrastructure or that of a third party business partner or service provider could result in the misappropriation or unauthorized release of confidential information belonging to us or to our employees, partners, customers or suppliers, which could result in an interruption to our operations, result in a violation of privacy or other laws, expose us to a risk of litigation, or damage our reputation, any of which could have a material and adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition. Our network segmented NIST 800-171 environment was not impacted by the December 2019 ransomware incident, but there can be no assurance that it will not be impacted by similar incidents in the future, which could have a material and adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition for the reasons described above.

We may face legal claims and litigation from product warranty or other claims that could be costly to resolve.

We have in the past and may in the future encounter legal action from customers, vendors, or others concerning product warranty or other claims. We generally offer a two-year warranty from the date title passes from us for all of our standard products. The warranty period is three years for a range of H Grade, M Grade and MI Family DC-DC legacy products. In a limited number of circumstances, we have entered into supply contracts with certain high-volume customers calling for extended warranty terms. With our distribution partners, we also enter into contracts providing for our product warranties to transfer to the end customer upon final sale of our product(s) by the distributor.

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We invest significant resources in the testing of our products; however, if any of our products contain defects, we may be required to incur additional development and remediation costs, pursuant to our warranty policies. These issues may divert our technical and other resources from other product development efforts and could result in claims against us by our customers or others, including liability for costs associated with product returns, which may adversely influence our operating results. If any of our products contain defects, or have reliability, quality, or compatibility problems, the Company’s reputation may be damaged, which could make it more difficult for us to sell our products to existing and prospective customers and could adversely affect our operating results. We are currently party to a limited number of supply agreements with certain customers contractually committing us to warranty and indemnification requirements exceeding those to which we have been exposed in the past. While we maintain insurance coverage for such exposure, we could incur significant financial cost beyond the limits of such coverage, as well as operational disruption and damage to our competitive position and image if faced with a significant product warranty or other claim.

Our ability to successfully implement our business strategy may be limited if we do not retain our key personnel and attract and retain skilled and experienced personnel.

Our success depends on our ability to retain the services of our executive officers. The loss of one or more members of senior management could materially adversely influence our business and financial results. In particular, we are dependent on the services of Dr. Vinciarelli, our founder, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President. The loss of the services of Dr. Vinciarelli could have a material adverse effect on our development of new products and on our results of operations. In addition, our research and development and marketing and sales activities depend on highly skilled engineers and other personnel with technical skills, who are in high demand and are difficult to replace. Our continued operations and growth depend on our ability to attract and retain skilled and experienced personnel in a very competitive employment market. If we are unable to attract and retain such employees, our ability to successfully implement our business strategy may be harmed. The labor market for skilled and unskilled workers has been very tight over the past year, and at times we have experienced longer than normal times in recruiting necessary resources, and have had to increase compensation to attract and retain employees.

Our operations could be affected by the complex laws, rules and regulations to which our business is subject, and political and other actions may adversely impact our business.

We are subject to laws and regulations domestically and worldwide, affecting our operations in areas including, but not limited to, intellectual property ownership and infringement; taxes; import and export requirements and tariffs; anti-corruption; business acquisitions; foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions; data privacy requirements; employment; product regulations; cybersecurity; environmental, health, and safety requirements; and climate change. Compliance with such requirements can be onerous and expensive and may impact our business operations negatively. Should any of these laws, rules and regulations be amended or expanded, or new ones enacted, we could incur materially greater compliance costs and/or restrictions on our ability to manufacture our products and operate our business.

Government actions, including trade protection and national security policies of U.S. and foreign government bodies, such as tariffs, import or export regulations, including deemed export restrictions, trade and economic sanctions, decrees, quotas or other trade barriers and restrictions could affect our ability or the ability of our customers and end users to sell products in certain countries and thereby have a material adverse effect on our business, revenue and results of operations. For example, in 2022, the U.S. government imposed additional export controls on certain advanced computing semiconductor chips (chips, advanced computing chips, integrated circuits (“ICs”)), certain semiconductor manufacturing items and transactions for certain IC end use, including supercomputer end uses. Furthermore, the U.S. government has continued to expand, the number of foreign entities on the Entity List (a restricted party list that imposes additional licensing requirements on shipments to listed parties). These recent export controls are, in part, intended to restrict the ability of the People’s Republic of China to obtain advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and

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manufacture advanced semiconductors. The implementation, interpretation and impact on our business of these rules and other regulatory actions taken by the U.S. government is uncertain and evolving, and these rules, other regulatory actions or changes, and other actions taken by the governments of either the U.S. or China, or both, that have occurred and may occur in the future could materially and adversely affect our business, revenue and results of operations.

While we have policies and procedures in place to ensure compliance with sanctions and trade restrictions and other applicable laws, our employees, contractors, partners, and agents may take actions in violation of such policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible. Intentional and unintentional violations of these laws can result in fines and penalties; criminal sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees; prohibitions on the conduct of our business; and damage to our reputation, any of which could have a material and adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition.

Global economic uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic could materially and adversely affect our business and consolidated operating results.

During 2020, global economic conditions varied by region, and were rapidly and significantly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and the response of governments worldwide to contain its spread negatively influenced our financial and operational performance for all four quarters of 2020, and in subsequent years including in 2022, and future developments may have a potentially more substantial negative influence on our financial and operational performance over an unknown period of time.

Our deliveries to and orders from North American industrial and defense electronics customers declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic, during the first quarter of 2020, given reduced manufacturing activity and broad uncertainty. The second half of 2020 saw a recovery of North American activity to pre-pandemic levels. Further growth continued through 2021. In 2022, our revenue increased but the order rate declined.

Trading conditions in China (inclusive of Hong Kong), had deteriorated through 2019 due to macroeconomic and trade-related uncertainties. At the beginning of 2020, trading conditions were significantly further affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with much of the country’s manufacturing disrupted for January and February 2020. By late March 2020, after aggressive measures to contain the coronavirus, the Chinese government quickly implemented economic stimulus measures, and we experienced a rapid recovery of demand from China and Hong Kong. This demand was sustained through the first part of 2021 before subsiding in late 2021. As addressed in our discussion herein of market characteristics, exports to China and Hong Kong for 2022 totaled approximately $75,194,000, representing approximately 18.8% of total revenue for the year, and a reduction from the prior year. It’s not possible for us to predict whether this market will rebound as the Chinese government has eliminated their zero-COVID policy.

We have taken action to protect the health and safety of our workforce and to otherwise minimize the potential impact of the coronavirus on our operations, the costs of which, to date, have not had a material effect on our financial performance. We expect to maintain the measures put in place until we determine the COVID-19 pandemic is adequately contained for purposes of our business, and we may take further actions we consider to be in the best interests of our employees, customers, business partners, and suppliers or in response to government mandate or requirement. Such further actions may have a negative influence on our costs and productivity and, in turn, our financial and operational performance.

Our customers, business partners, and suppliers have been and may continue to be adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which also may contribute to a negative influence on our future financial and operational performance.

Competitive Risks

We compete with many companies possessing far greater resources.

Some of our competitors have far greater financial, manufacturing, technical, and sales and marketing resources than we possess or have access to. Our Brick Products compete with those products offered by

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domestic and foreign manufacturers of integrated power supplies and related power conversion components. With our Advanced Product lines, we compete with global IDMs and fabless developers of semiconductor-based power management modules and power management ICs. These competitors have far larger organizations and broader semiconductor-based product lines. Competition is generally based on product performance, design flexibility (i.e., ease of use), product price, and product availability, but with the relative importance of these factors varying among products, markets, and customers.

Existing or new competitors may develop products or technologies that more effectively address the demands of our customers and markets with enhanced performance, features and functionality, or lower cost. Larger competitors frequently seek to maintain market share and protect customer relationships through heavily-discounted pricing, which we may not be able to match. If we fail to develop and commercialize leading-edge technologies and products that are cost effective and maintain high standards of quality, and introduce them to the market on a timely basis, our competitive position and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Our future success depends upon our ability to develop and market differentiated, leading-edge power conversion products for larger customers, potentially contributing to lengthy product development and sales cycles that may result in significant expenditures before revenues are generated. Our future operating results are dependent on the growth in such customers’ businesses and on our ability to profitably develop and deliver products meeting customer requirements.

The power system industry and the industries in which many of our customers operate are characterized by intense competition, rapid technological change, quickened product obsolescence, and price erosion for mature products, each of which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations. We are following a strategy based on the development of differentiated Advanced Products addressing what we believe to be the long-term limitations of traditional power architectures, while at the same time sustaining sales and profitability of our well-established Brick Products. The development of new, innovative products is often a complex, time-consuming, and costly process involving significant investment in research and development, with no assurance of return on investment. Although we have introduced many Advanced Products over recent years, there can be no assurance we will be able to continue to develop and introduce new and improved products and power system concepts in a timely or efficient manner. Similarly, there can be no assurance recently introduced or to be developed products will achieve customer acceptance.

Our future success depends substantially upon further customer acceptance of our innovative Advanced Products including our Power-on-Package concept for the computing market and Advanced Products supporting the electrification of automobiles. As we have been in the early stages of market penetration for these and other Advanced Products, we have experienced lengthy periods during which we have focused our product development efforts on the specific requirements of a limited number of large customers, followed by further periods of delay before meaningful purchase orders are received. These lengthy development and sales cycle times increase the possibility a customer may decide to cancel or change product plans, which could reduce or eliminate our sales to that customer. As a result, we may incur significant product development expenses, as well as significant sales and marketing expenses, before we generate the related revenues for these products. Furthermore, we may never generate the anticipated revenues from a product after incurring such expenses if our customer cancels or changes its product plans.

In 2022, we continued our expansion of a dedicated sales effort to penetrate the automotive market with our Advanced Products, notably in the electrification of passenger automobiles. Our Power Component Design Methodology provides conversion solutions for 800V, 400V, and 48V within advanced electric vehicles. The automotive market is dominated by relatively few global OEMs and “tiers” of well-established suppliers. Penetrating this market will be challenging and we may not be successful in doing so.

We continue to focus our go-to-market strategy on larger opportunities with global OEMs, ODMs, and contract manufacturers. Our growth is therefore dependent on: the pace at which these OEMs and ODMs develop

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their own new products; the acceptance of our Advanced Products by these OEMs and ODMs; and the success of the customers’ products incorporating our Advanced Products. If we fail to anticipate changes in our customers’ businesses and their changing product needs or do not successfully identify and enter new markets, our results of operations and financial position could be negatively impacted.

We cannot offer any assurance the markets we currently serve will grow in the future, our Advanced Products or Brick Products will meet respective market requirements, or we can maintain adequate gross margins or operating profits in these markets.

Intellectual Property Risks

We may be unable to adequately protect our proprietary rights, which may limit our ability to compete effectively.

We operate in an industry in which the ability to compete depends on the development or acquisition of proprietary technologies that must be protected to preserve the exclusive use of such technologies. We devote substantial resources to establish and protect our patents and proprietary rights, and we rely on patent and intellectual property law to protect such rights. This protection, however, may not prevent competitors from independently developing products similar or superior to our products. We may be unable to protect or enforce current patents, may rely on unpatented technology that competitors could restrict or replicate, or may be unable to acquire patents in the future, all of which may have a material adverse effect on our competitive position. In addition, the intellectual property laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as those of the United States. We have been defending and may need to continue to defend or challenge patents. We have incurred and expect to incur significant financial costs in the defense of our patented technologies and have devoted and expect to devote significant resources to these efforts which, if unsuccessful, may have a material adverse effect on our operating results and financial position.

We face intellectual property infringement claims that could be disruptive to operations and costly to resolve and may encounter similar infringement claims in the future.

The power supply industry is characterized by vigorous protection and pursuit of intellectual property rights. We have in the past and may in the future receive communications from third parties asserting that our products or manufacturing processes infringe on a third party’s patent or other intellectual property rights. Such assertions, if publicly disclosed, have in the past and may in the future inhibit the willingness of potential customers to purchase certain of our products. In the event a third party makes a valid intellectual property claim against us and a license is not available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, we could be forced to either redesign or stop production of products incorporating that technology, and our operating results could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, litigation may be necessary to defend us against claims of infringement, and this litigation could be costly, extend over a lengthy period of time, and divert the attention of key personnel. An adverse outcome in these types of matters could have a material adverse impact on our operating results and financial condition.

Please see Note 15 – Commitments and Contingencies, to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding current litigation related to our intellectual property.

Any expenses or liability resulting from the outcome of litigation could adversely influence our operating results and financial condition.

From time to time, we may be subject to claims or litigation, including intellectual property litigation as described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Any such claims or litigation may be time-consuming and costly, divert management resources, require us to change our products, or have other adverse effects on our business. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and could require us to pay significant monetary damages.

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The outcomes of legal proceedings and claims brought against us are subject to significant uncertainty. An estimated loss from a loss contingency such as a legal proceeding or claim is accrued by a charge to income if it is considered probable an asset has been impaired or a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. Disclosure of a contingency is required if there is at least a reasonable possibility that a loss has been incurred. In determining whether a loss should be accrued, we evaluate, among other factors, the degree of probability of an unfavorable outcome and the ability to make a reasonable estimate of the amount of loss. Changes in these factors could materially impact our financial statements.

Please see Note 15 – Commitments and Contingencies, to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding current litigation related to our intellectual property.

Regulatory Risks

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls over financial reporting or discover material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to report our financial results accurately or timely or detect fraud, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

An effective internal control environment is necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and is an important part of our effort to prevent financial fraud. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”) requires our management to report on, and our independent registered public accounting firm to attest to, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.

We have an ongoing program to perform the system and process evaluation and testing necessary to comply with the requirements of SOX and to continuously improve and, when necessary, remediate internal controls over financial reporting.

While management evaluates the effectiveness of our internal controls on a regular basis, these controls may not always be effective. There are inherent limitations on the effectiveness of internal controls, including collusion, management override, and failure in human judgment. In addition, control procedures are designed to reduce rather than eliminate business risks. In the event our Chief Executive Officer or Chief Financial Officer, our certifying officers under SOX, or our independent registered public accounting firm determines our internal controls over financial reporting are not effective as defined under Section 404, we may be unable to produce reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, which could materially harm our business. In addition, we may be subject to sanctions or investigation by government authorities or self-regulatory organizations, such as the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC. Any such actions could affect investor perceptions of the Company and result in an adverse reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which could cause the market price of our Common Stock to decline or limit our access to capital.

Regulations related to conflict minerals could adversely impact our business.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act contains provisions to improve transparency and accountability concerning the supply of certain minerals, known as conflict minerals (including gold, tantalum, tin, and tungsten, and their related ores), originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) and adjoining countries. As a result, in August 2012 the SEC released final rules for annual disclosure and reporting for those companies who use conflict minerals mined from the DRC and adjoining countries in their products. We began to implement processes within our supply chain to comply with these rules beginning in 2012, filed our initial Form SD in May 2014, and have filed Form SD annually since then. There have been and will continue to be costs associated with complying with these disclosure requirements, including due diligence to determine the sources of conflict minerals used in our products and other potential changes to products, processes, or sources of supply as a consequence of such verification activities. The implementation of these rules could adversely affect the sourcing, supply, and pricing of materials used in our products. As there may be

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only a limited number of suppliers offering “conflict free” conflict minerals, we cannot be certain we will be able to obtain necessary conflict minerals from such suppliers in sufficient quantities or at competitive prices. Also, we may face reputational challenges if we determine that certain of our products contain minerals not determined to be conflict free or if we are unable to sufficiently verify the origins for all conflict minerals used in our products through the procedures we may implement.

Risks Related to Share Value

The price of our Common Stock has been volatile and may fluctuate in the future.

Because of the factors set forth above and below, among others, the trading price of our Common Stock has fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate significantly:

In the past, we have declared and paid cash dividends on our Common Stock. The payment of dividends is based on the periodic determination by our Board of Directors that we have adequate capital to fund anticipated operating requirements and that excess cash is available for distribution to stockholders via a dividend. We have no formal policy regarding dividends and, as such, investors cannot make assumptions regarding the possibility of future dividend payments nor the amounts and timing thereof. As of December 31, 2022, we have no plans to declare or pay a cash dividend.

The ownership of our Common Stock is concentrated between Dr. Vinciarelli and a limited number of institutional investors. As of December 31, 2022, Dr. Vinciarelli was the beneficial owner of 9,592,017 shares of our Common Stock, plus 429,371 shares which Dr. Vinciarelli has the right to acquire upon exercise of options to purchase Common Stock within 60 days of December 31, 2022. He also holds 11,023,648 shares of our unregistered Class B Common Stock (which may only be sold or transferred after required conversion, on a one-for-one basis, into registered shares of Common Stock), which together with his ownership of Common Stock, represents 48.1% of our total issued and outstanding shares of capital stock. Accordingly, the market float for our Common Stock and average daily trading volumes are relatively small, which may negatively impact investors’ ability to buy or sell shares of our Common Stock in a timely manner.

Dr. Vinciarelli owns 93.8% of the issued and outstanding shares of our Class B Common Stock, which possess 10 votes per share. Dr. Estia J. Eichten, a member of our Board of Directors, owns the majority of the balance of the Class B Common Stock issued and outstanding. As such, Dr. Vinciarelli, controlling in aggregate 80.0% of our outstanding voting securities, has effective control of our governance.

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None.

Our corporate headquarters building in Andover, Massachusetts, which we own, provides approximately 90,000 square feet of office space for our sales, marketing, engineering, and administrative personnel. We also own a building of approximately 320,000 square feet (which includes the 90,000 square foot expansion described below) in Andover, Massachusetts, which houses all Massachusetts manufacturing activities.

Current capital investments are focused on the expansion of manufacturing capacity for the production of Advanced Products at our Andover facility. During 2020, we began construction of a two-story addition to our Andover manufacturing facility that is intended to expand the Advanced Products production area by approximately 90,000 square feet. Completion of the construction and production have been delayed from 2021 to 2023. We have received an occupancy permit for the addition and equipment installation is underway.

We own a single-story industrial building of approximately 31,000 square feet in Sunnyvale, California, which we lease on a long-term basis to a corporate tenant, which has occupied the building since June 2016.

All other domestic and foreign facilities are leased from third-party lessors on arms’ length terms. We believe our owned and leased facilities are adequate for our foreseeable needs.

See Note 15 — Commitments and Contingencies, to the Consolidated Financial Statements for a complete description of the Company’s legal proceedings.

Not Applicable.

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PART II

Our Common Stock is listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, under the trading symbol “VICR.” Shares of our Class B Common Stock are not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, are not listed on any exchange nor traded on any market, and are subject to transfer restrictions under our Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended.

As of February 16, 2023, there were 95 holders of record of our Common Stock and 12 holders of record of our Class B Common Stock. These numbers do not reflect persons or entities that hold their shares in nominee or “street name” through various brokerage firms.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

In November 2000, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $30,000,000 of our Common Stock (the “November 2000 Plan”). The November 2000 Plan authorizes us to make such repurchases from time to time in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. The timing and amounts of Common Stock repurchases are at the discretion of management based on its view of economic and financial market conditions.

Stockholder Return Performance Graph

The graph set forth below presents the cumulative, five-year stockholder return for each of (i) the Company’s Common Stock, (ii) the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (“S&P 500 Index”), a value-weighted index made up of 500 of the largest, by market capitalization, listed companies, (iii) the Standard & Poor’s SmallCap 600 Index (“S&P SmallCap 600 Index”), a value-weighted index of 600 listed companies with market capitalizations between $200,000,000 and $1,000,000,000, and (iv) the Standard & Poor’s MidCap 400 Index (“S&P MidCap 400 Index”), a value-weighted index of 400 listed companies with market capitalizations between $3,700,000,000 and $14,600,000,000. Due to the potential growth of the market capitalization of the Company, we were included within the S&P MidCap 400 Index and removed from the S&P SmallCap 600 Index in December 2021.

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The graph assumes an investment of $100 on December 31, 2017, in each of our Common Stock, the S&P 500 Index, the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, and the S&P MidCap 400 Index, and assumes reinvestment of all dividends. The historical information set forth below is not necessarily indicative of future performance.

Comparison of Five Year Cumulative Return

Among Vicor Corporation, S&P 500 Index,

S&P SmallCap 600 Index, and S&P MidCap 400 Index

Our equity plan information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the information in Part III, Item 12 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Overview

A discussion regarding our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, was included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, on pages 33-37 under Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, which was filed with the SEC on March 1, 2022.

We design, develop, manufacture, and market modular power components and power systems for converting electrical power for use in electrically-powered devices. Our competitive position is supported by innovations in product design and achievements in product performance, largely enabled by our focus on the research and development of advanced technologies and processes, often implemented in proprietary semiconductor circuitry, materials, and packaging. Many of our products incorporate patented or proprietary implementations of high-frequency switching topologies enabling power system solutions that are more efficient and much smaller than conventional alternatives. Our strategy emphasizes demonstrable product differentiation and a value proposition based on competitively superior solution performance, advantageous design flexibility, and a compelling total cost of ownership. While we offer a wide range of alternating current (“AC”) and direct current (“DC”) power conversion products, we consider our core competencies to be associated with 48V DC distribution, which offers numerous inherent cost and performance advantages over lower distribution voltages. However, we also offer products addressing other DC voltage standards (e.g., 380V for power distribution in data centers, 110V for rail applications, 28V for military and avionics applications, and 24V for industrial automation).

Based on design, performance, and form factor considerations, as well as the range of evolving applications for which our products are appropriate, we categorize our product portfolios as either “Advanced Products” or “Brick Products.” The Advanced Products category consists of our more recently introduced products, which are largely used to implement our proprietary Factorized Power Architecture^™ (“FPA”), an innovative power distribution architecture enabling flexible, rapid power system design using individual components optimized to perform a specific conversion function.

The Brick Products category largely consists of our broad and well-established families of integrated power converters, incorporating multiple conversion stages, used in conventional power systems architectures. Given the growth profiles of the markets we serve with our Advanced Products line and our Brick Products line, our strategy involves a transition in organizational focus, emphasizing investment in our Advanced Products line and targeting high growth market segments with a low-mix, high-volume operational model, while maintaining a profitable business in the mature market segments we serve with our Brick Products line with a high-mix, low-volume operational model.

The applications in which our Advanced Products and Brick Products are used are typically in the higher-performance, higher-power segments of the market segments we serve. With our Advanced Products, we generally serve large Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEMs”), Original Design Manufacturers (“ODMs”), and their contract manufacturers, with sales currently concentrated in the data center and hyperscaler segments of enterprise computing, in which our products are used for voltage distribution on server motherboards, in server racks, and across datacenter infrastructure. We have established a leadership position in the emerging market segment for powering high-performance processors used for acceleration of applications associated with artificial intelligence (“AI”). Our customers in the AI market segment include the leading innovators in processor and accelerator design, as well as early adopters in cloud computing and high performance computing. We also target applications in aerospace and aviation, defense electronics, industrial automation, instrumentation, test equipment, solid state lighting, telecommunications and networking infrastructure, and vehicles(notably in the autonomous driving, electric vehicle, and hybrid vehicle niches of the vehicle segment). With our Brick Products, we generally serve a fragmented base of large and small customers, concentrated in aerospace and

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defense electronics, industrial automation, industrial equipment, instrumentation and test equipment, and transportation (notably in rail and heavy equipment applications). With our strategic emphasis on larger, high-volume customers, we expect to experience over time a greater concentration of sales among relatively fewer customers.

Our quarterly consolidated operating results can be difficult to forecast and have been subject to significant fluctuations. We plan our production and inventory levels based on management’s estimates of customer demand, customer forecasts, and other information sources. Customer forecasts, particularly those of OEM, ODM, and contract manufacturing customers to which we supply Advanced Products in high volumes, are subject to scheduling changes on short notice, contributing to operating inefficiencies and excess costs. In addition, external factors such as supply chain uncertainties, which are often associated with the cyclicality of the electronics industry, regional macroeconomic and trade-related circumstances, and force majeure events (most recently evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic), have caused our operating results to vary meaningfully. Supply chain disruptions, including those associated with lockdowns in China due to their zero-COVID policy, those associated with our reliance on outsourced package process steps that are essential in the production of some of our Advanced Products, and those relating, for example, to the procurement of raw material, have in the past negatively impacted and may in the future negatively impact our operating results. We have taken steps to mitigate the impact of supply chain disruptions by, among other things and in varying degrees, moving outsourced manufacturing steps in-house to the Company, ordering supplies with extended lead times, paying higher prices for certain supplies or outsourced production, and expediting deliveries at a cost premium. The resulting impact of the steps taken to mitigate supply chain disruptions have, to varying degrees and at different times, reduced our revenue, gross margin, operating profit and cash flow and may continue to do so in the future. While we continue to make progress in moving outsourced manufacturing steps in-house to the Company, we are still experiencing long lead times on certain raw material components, sporadic disruptions related to shutdowns in China as a result of their zero-COVID policy, and uncertainty of output from our outsourced manufacturing supplier. Our quarterly gross margin as a percentage of net revenues may vary, depending on production volumes, average selling prices, average unit costs, the mix of products sold during that quarter, and the level of importation of raw materials subject to tariffs. Our quarterly operating margin as a percentage of net revenues also may vary with changes in revenue and product level profitability, but our operating costs, aside from recent increases in legal expense associated with the intellectual property litigation with SynQor Inc., are largely associated with compensation and related employee costs, which are not subject to sudden or significant changes.

Ongoing / Potential Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Company

As of the date of this report, the number of Company employees diagnosed with COVID-19 and the corresponding absenteeism due to COVID-19 are negligible. While the productivity of our factory is not currently impacted by COVID-19, productivity may be reduced if quarantine rates increase or if the number of employees diagnosed with COVID-19 requires further implementation of restrictive health and safety measures, including factory closure. We continue to operate with three shifts in our factory, and, with few exceptions, our engineering, sales, and administrative personnel are working from the Company’s offices.

We are closely monitoring the operating performance and financial health of our customers, business partners, and suppliers, but an extended period of operational constraints brought about by the pandemic could cause financial hardship within our customer base and supply chain. Such hardship may continue to disrupt customer demand and limit our customers’ ability to meet their obligations to us. Similarly, such hardship within our supply chain could continue to restrict our access to raw materials or services. Additionally, restrictions or disruptions of transportation, such as reduced availability of cargo transport by ship or air, have resulted and may continue to result in higher costs and inbound and outbound delays.

Although there is uncertainty regarding the extent to which the pandemic will continue to impact our operational and financial results in the future, the Company’s high level of liquidity, flexible operational model, existing raw material inventories, and increased use of second sources for critical manufacturing inputs together support management’s belief the Company will be able to effectively conduct business until the pandemic passes.

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We are monitoring the rapidly changing circumstances, and may take additional actions to address COVID-19 risks as they evolve. Because much of the potential negative impact of the pandemic is associated with risks outside of our control, we cannot estimate the extent of such impact on our financial or operational performance, or when such impact might occur.

2022 Financial Highlights

The following table sets forth certain items of selected consolidated financial information as a percentage of net revenues for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020. This table and the subsequent discussion should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and related footnotes contained elsewhere in this report.

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Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations is based upon our Consolidated Financial Statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”). The preparation of these financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, and related disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions, and our associated judgments, including those related to inventories, income taxes, contingencies, and litigation. We base our estimates, assumptions, and judgments on historical experience, knowledge of current conditions, and on various other factors we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. We also have other policies we consider key accounting policies (See Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements – Significant Accounting Policies – Impact of recently issued accounting standards). However, the application of these other policies does not require us to make significant estimates and assumptions difficult to support quantitatively.

Inventories

We employ a variety of methodologies to evaluate inventory that is estimated to be excess, obsolete or unmarketable, in order to write down that inventory to net realizable value. Our estimation process for assessing net realizable value is based upon forecasted future usage which we derive based on backlog, historical consumption, and expected market conditions. For both Brick and Advanced product lines, the methodology used compares on-hand quantities to forecasted usage and historical consumption, such that amounts of inventory on hand in excess of management’s estimate of expected future utility, are fully reserved. While we have used our best efforts and believe we have used the best available information to estimate future demand, due to uncertainty in the economy and our business and the inherent difficulty in forecasting future usage, it is possible actual demand for our products will differ from our estimates. If actual future demand or market conditions are less favorable than those projected by management, additional inventory reserves for existing inventories may need to be recorded in future periods.

Evaluation of the Realizability of Deferred Tax Assets

Significant management judgment is required in determining whether deferred tax assets will be realized in full or in part. We assess the need for a valuation allowance on a quarterly basis. We record a valuation allowance to reduce our deferred tax assets to the amount we believe is more likely than not to be realized. In assessing the need for a valuation allowance, we consider all positive and negative evidence, including scheduled reversals of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income, tax planning strategies, and past financial performance. Despite recent positive operating results, the Company is in a cumulative loss position as of December 31, 2022, primarily due to tax deductions on 2020 and 2021 exercises of stock-based compensation. The Company faces uncertainties in forecasting its operating results due to vendor supply and factory capacity constraints, certain process issues with the production of Advanced Products and the unpredictability in certain markets. This operating uncertainty also makes it difficult to predict the availability and utilization of tax benefits over the next several years. As a result, management has concluded, at this time, is more likely than not the Company’s net domestic deferred tax assets will not be realized, and a full valuation allowance against all net domestic deferred tax assets is still warranted as of December 31, 2022. The valuation allowance against these deferred tax assets may require adjustment in the future based on changes in the mix of temporary differences, changes in tax laws, and operating performance. If the positive operating results continue, and the Company’s concerns about industry uncertainty and world events, supply and factory capacity constraints, and process issues with the production of Advanced Products are resolved, and the amount of tax benefits the Company is able to utilize to the point that the Company believes future taxable income can be more reliably forecasted, the Company may release a portion of the valuation allowance in the near-term. Certain state tax credits, though, will

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likely never be released by the valuation allowance. If and when the Company determines the valuation allowance should be released (i.e., reduced), the adjustment would result in a tax benefit reported in that period’s Consolidated Statements of Operations, the effect of which would be an increase in reported net income.

The amount of any such tax benefit associated with release of our valuation allowance in a particular quarter may be material.

New Accounting Pronouncements

From time to time, new accounting pronouncements are issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) that we adopt as of the specified effective date. Unless otherwise discussed, we believe the impact of recently issued accounting standards will not have a material impact on our future financial condition and results of operations. See Note 2 – Significant Accounting Policies – Impact of recently issued accounting standards, to the Consolidated Financial Statements for a description of recently issued and adopted accounting pronouncements, including the dates of adoption and expected impact on our financial position and results of operations.

Other new pronouncements issued but not effective until after December 31, 2022 are not expected to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Year ended December 31, 2022 compared to Year ended December 31, 2021

Consolidated net revenues for 2022 were $399,079,000, an increase of $39,715,000, or 11.1%, as compared to $359,364,000 for 2021.

Net revenues, by product line, for the years ended December 31 were as follows (dollars in thousands):

Changes in our net revenues are primarily attributable to fluctuations in shipment volumes. Our net revenue can be affected by changes in demand for higher priced or lower priced products, which we refer to as changes in the mix of products shipped. The increase in net revenues for Advanced Products was primarily the result of growth in the high performance compute business, in the United States and Asia Pacific markets. The decrease in net revenues for Brick Products was primarily due to unfavorable market conditions.

Gross margin for 2022 increased $2,359,000, or 1.3%, to $180,559,000 from $178,200,000 in 2021. Gross margin as a percentage of net revenues decreased to 45.2% in 2022 from 49.6% in 2021. The increase in gross margin dollars and decrease in gross margin percentage was attributable to favorable higher volumes, offset by production inefficiencies and certain increases in supply chain costs, including an increase of $9,986,000 in outsourced manufacturing costs of certain Advanced Products, and an increase of $5,799,000 in freight-in and tariff (net of “duty drawback”) costs.

Selling, general, and administrative expenses were $86,264,000 for 2022, an increase of $16,780,000, or 24.1%, as compared to $69,484,000 for 2021. As a percentage of net revenues, selling, general, and administrative expenses increased to 21.6% in 2022 from 19.3% in 2021.

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The components of the $16,780,000 increase in selling, general, and administrative expenses were as follows (dollars in thousands):

Research and development expenses increased $7,480,000, or 14.1%, to $60,594,000 in 2022 from $53,114,000 in 2021. As a percentage of net revenues, research and development expenses increased to 15.2% in 2022 from 14.8% in 2021.

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The components of the $7,480,000 increase in research and development expenses were as follows (dollars in thousands):

Litigation-related expense was $6,500,000 for 2022 which related to the SynQor litigation, as compared to $0 for 2021. See Note 15 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

The significant changes in the components of “Other income (expense), net” for the years ended December 31 were as follows (in thousands):

Our exposure to market risk fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates relates to the operations of VJCL, for which the functional currency is the Japanese Yen, and all other subsidiaries in Europe and Asia, for which the functional currency is the U.S. Dollar. These subsidiaries in Europe and Asia experienced more unfavorable foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations in 2022 compared to 2021. “Interest income (expense), net” includes an immaterial error correction of $834,000 related to the amortization of bond premiums on available for sale securities.

Income before income taxes was $28,687,000 in 2022, as compared to $56,805,000 in 2021.

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The provision for income taxes and the effective income tax rate for the years ended December 31 were as follows (dollars in thousands):

The effective tax rates were lower than the statutory tax rates for the year ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 primarily due to the Company’s full valuation allowance position against domestic deferred tax assets during both years. The provision for income taxes for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 included estimated federal, state and foreign income taxes in jurisdictions in which the Company does not have sufficient tax attribute, offset by excess tax benefits related to stock based compensation during those periods.

See Note 14 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for disclosure regarding our current assessment of the valuation allowance against all domestic deferred tax assets, and the possible release (i.e., reduction) of the allowance in the future.

We reported net income for the year ended December 31, 2022 of $25,446,000, or $0.57 per diluted share, as compared to $56,625,000, or $1.26 per diluted share, for the year ended December 31, 2021.

LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES

At December 31, 2022, we had $190,611,000 in cash and cash equivalents. The ratio of current assets to current liabilities was 5.6:1 at December 31, 2022, as compared to 7.3:1 at December 31, 2021. Net working capital decreased $9,612,000 to $298,055,000 at December 31, 2022 from $307,667,000 at December 31, 2021.

The primary working capital changes were due to the following (in thousands):

The primary sources of cash for the year ended December 31, 2022 were $22,939,000 of cash generated from operations, $45,000,000 of cash from the sale or maturities of short-term investments, and $4,439,000 of cash received in connection with the exercise of options to purchase our Common Stock awarded under our stock option plans and the issuance of Common Stock under our 2017 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. The primary use of cash during the year ended December 31, 2022 was $63,966,000 for the purchase of property and equipment and internal-use software.

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In November 2000, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $30,000,000 of Common Stock (the “November 2000 Plan”). The November 2000 Plan authorizes us to make such repurchases from time to time in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. The timing of such repurchases and the number of shares purchased in each transaction are at the discretion of management based on its view of economic and financial market conditions. We did not repurchase shares of Common Stock under the November 2000 Plan during the year ended December 31, 2022. As of December 31, 2022, we had approximately $8,541,000 remaining for share purchases under the November 2000 Plan.

As of December 31, 2022, we had a total of approximately $24,205,000 of cancelable and non-cancelable capital expenditure commitments, principally for manufacturing and production equipment, which we intend to fund with existing cash, and approximately $4,194,000 of capital expenditure items which had been received and included in Property, plant and equipment in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets, but not yet paid for. As of December 31, 2022, we had approximately $2,936,000 of remaining capital expenditures expected to be incurred through the remainder of 2023 associated with the construction of a 90,000 sq. ft. addition to the Company’s existing manufacturing facility and the installation of new manufacturing and production equipment. Our primary needs for liquidity are for making continuing investments in manufacturing and production equipment and for funding the construction of the additional manufacturing space adjoining our existing Andover manufacturing facility (as described above), including architectural and construction costs. We believe cash generated from operations together with our available cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to fund planned operational needs and capital equipment purchases for the foreseeable future.

We do not consider the impact of inflation and changing prices on our business activities or fluctuations in the exchange rates for foreign currency transactions to have been significant during the last three fiscal years.

We are exposed to a variety of market risks, including changes in interest rates affecting the return on our cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. As our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments consist principally of cash accounts, money market securities and U.S. Treasury securities, which are short-term in nature, we believe our exposure to market risk on interest rate fluctuations for these investments is not significant. As of December 31, 2022, our long-term investment portfolio, recorded on our Consolidated Balance Sheet as “Long-term investment, net”, consisted of a single auction rate security with a par value of $3,000,000, purchased through and held in custody by a broker-dealer affiliate of Bank of America, N.A., that has experienced failed auctions (the “Failed Auction Security”) since February 2008. While the Failed Auction Security is Aaa/AA+ rated by major credit rating agencies, collateralized by student loans and guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education under the Federal Family Education Loan Program, continued failure to sell at its periodic auction dates (i.e., reset dates) could negatively impact the carrying value of the investment, in turn leading to impairment charges in future periods. Periodic changes in the fair value of the Failed Auction Security attributable to credit loss (i.e., risk of the issuer’s default) are recorded through earnings as a component of “Other income (expense), net”, with the remainder of any periodic change in fair value not related to credit loss (i.e., temporary “mark-to-market” carrying value adjustments) recorded in “Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)”, a component of Vicor Corporation Stockholders’ Equity. Should we conclude a decline in the fair value of the Failed Auction Security is other than temporary, such losses would be recorded through earnings as a component of “Other income (expense), net”. We do not believe there was an “other-than-temporary” decline in value in this security as of December 31, 2022.

We estimate our annual interest income would change by approximately $30,000 in 2022 for each 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates.

Our exposure to market risk for fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates relates primarily to the operations of VJCL, for which the functional currency is the Japanese Yen, and changes in the relative value of

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the Yen to the U.S. Dollar. Relative to our Yen exposure as of December 31, 2022, we estimate a 10% unfavorable movement in the value of the Yen relative to the U.S. Dollar would increase our foreign currency loss by approximately $30,000. The functional currency of all other subsidiaries in Europe and other subsidiaries in Asia is the U.S. Dollar. While we believe risk to fluctuations in foreign currency rates for these subsidiaries is generally not significant, they can be subject to substantial currency changes, and therefore foreign exchange exposures.

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