To all,
News release! I think this is a very very positive move for NANO.
Wade
Wednesday April 1, 4:53 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Nanometrics Completes Acquisition of Key Semiconductor Metrology
Product
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 1998--Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ:NANO - news), announced today that it has completed the acquisition of the Metra(R) Semiconductor Metrology Product from Optical Specialties, Inc.
The acquisition included purchase of exclusive ownership of the Metra product line and all related assets. Transfer of Metra assets has been completed, including inventory, product test equipment, intellectual property including patents, software and design information. Key Metra employees have transferred to Nanometrics. The Company has assumed
responsibility for sales and service of the existing installed base of nearly 200 Metra systems using its worldwide customer support network.
Nanometrics has already started engineering programs aimed at improved versions of the Metra to meet the roadmap time window of the next generation of integrated circuits with critical dimensions 0.20 micron or smaller. This will require further reduction in stepper registration error and therefore more precise metrology. Integrated circuits are made by building up a series of patterned films on a silicon wafer, using high resolution photolithography and other
complex processes. It is essential that successive layers are accurately aligned, one relative to the other, across the wafer.
Excessive errors in alignment can result in device malfunction and therefore poor production yields. The Metra is used to measure and map these overlay errors after each lithography step. As circuit features shrink and overlay registration requirements become more stringent, the Company anticipates that the need for these tools will grow rapidly in the next few years.
Vincent Coates, Nanometrics' CEO, stated, ''Since 1980 Nanometrics has been a leading manufacturer of integrated circuit metrology products. We are delighted to have acquired the Metra product line which represents for us further product diversification and a significant technological leap forward in automated, fast and accurate measurement. We plan to bring this unique hardware and software capability to our existing customer base throughout the world with a
strong, well-financed organization.
''It is predicted that the next generation of sub-quarter micron computer chip designs will be employed in gigabit DRAMS, gigahertz microprocessors and smaller, less costly microchips. These products will require tighter control of stepper registration errors on their many layers of superimposed, interconnected circuit elements. We will offer our customers Metras with the ability to control these advanced photolithography processes. Metra-type products are expected to show substantial future growth in sales. We will participate aggressively in this market as it develops.''
The Metra acquisition by Nanometrics was a cash transaction. A portion of these costs will be charged to first quarter results.
Nanometrics is a leading producer of automated systems used to measure physical dimensions of circuit elements. The Company has pioneered many developments in the measurement of sub-micron features on integrated circuits, flat panel displays and magnetic memory devices. All of the Company's products contain proprietary features and embedded computer software. Nanometrics' corporate office is located at 310 De Guigne Dr., Sunnyvale, California 94086, with sales and service offices worldwide.
The foregoing discussion includes forward looking statements regarding Nanometrics' manufacture and sale of products incorporating OSI's technology, the development of advanced models and the growth of the market for, and the success of, the product line. Actual results could differ and such differences could be material.
Factors that could cause such differences include market demand for these products and the effect of competition, as well as Nanometrics' ability to integrate the technology and to develop, manufacture, sell and service the products. Also see risk factors set forth in the Company's Forms 10K and 10Q filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Nanometrics' Web Site is nanometrics.com.
Contact:
Nanometrics
Paul Nolan, 408/746-1600 ext. 122 |
