Semiconductor300 Places Order for Jenoptik Infab's New Wafer Logistic Station; WLS 300 Will be Instrumental in Automated Wafer Handling for Pioneering 300 mm Pilot Line Project

Business Wire, April 2, 1998

GENEVA, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 1998-- Semiconductor300 has placed a multiple-system order for Jenoptik Infab's new 300 mm Wafer Logistic Station (WLS 300) for use in its 300 mm pilot project. The pilot line is being built at the Siemens facility in Dresden, Germany. The announcement was made here today at the opening of the SEMICON Europa exposition.

According to Karl-Heinz Kuch, Executive Vice President of Jenoptik Infab, the Semiconductor300 facility will be the first customer to accept delivery on this new modular family of products utilizing the Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP), which was designed by Jenoptik Infab specifically for automating semiconductor production on 300 mm wafers.

"This system was custom-designed in an extensive joint development program between us and the customer to meet its specific production requirements," Kuch stated. "We are pleased to be a partner in this exciting new venture, which will be the forerunner of the full production 300 mm fabs of the future."

The WLS 300's range of applications includes all FOUP-to-FOUP, FOUP-to-open cassette, and open cassette-to-open cassette handling tasks for the transfer, alignment and identification of 300 mm wafers. The stations also incorporate a bright light inspection module for top-side and bottom-side inspection in a Class 1 environment. The design allows retrofitting of the stations to all carrier and load port designs, making it possible to adapt them to any manufacturing line requirements.

Jenoptik Infab has been at the forefront of the minienvironment concept now utilized in 200 mm production facilities around the world. The company's FOUP concept has been endorsed by the leading global consortia, Japan's J300 and I300I, a global organization headquartered in Austin, Texas, for use in 300 mm production.

The WLS 300 adds to Infab's extensive line of 300 mm fab automation products including equipment load ports, buffers, personal guided vehicles, lot identification, tracking systems and total factory automation software. Taken separately or as an integrated whole, Jenoptik Infab products are designed to maximize productivity, reduce misprocessing and reduce ramp-up time.

Jenoptik Infab is a worldwide leading global supplier of complete 200/300 mm fab automation solutions. It is part of Jenoptik AG, headquartered in Jena, Germany. Revenues for Jenoptik AG in 1997 were 2.6 billion DM. Jenoptik AG is a global organization of high-technology companies such as Meissner Wurst, the worldwide leading supplier for facility design and build. Together, Jenoptik Infab and Meissner Wurst are pioneers in complete solutions for factory integration, employing 1,750 worldwide with joint 1997 revenues in excess of 1.4 billion DM.

CONTACT: Jenoptik Infab

Andrea Schoen, 49-3641-65 3005

andrea.schoen@infab.com

or

Mathews & Clark Communications

Karen Johnson, 512/347-8400

karenj@io.com