News Alert: JMAR: JMAR Achieves Breakthrough X-Ray Source Performance
Key Milestone for Compact, Low-Cost Alternative to Synchrotrons
Wednesday March 31, 9:31 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
biz.yahoo.com
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 31, 1999--JMAR Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ NM:JMAR - news), a growing provider of precision micro-technology products, announced that its JMAR Research center has achieved a major X-ray production milestone with its patented picosecond X-ray source, or PXS.
Individual PXS modules in qualification testing have been producing approximately 3 watts of 1-nanometer synchrotron-like X-rays on a steady state basis. The PXS is powered by JMAR's new Britelight(TM) laser, a few cubic feet in size. It produces a rapid train of very short and powerful light pulses having intensities of many hundreds of trillions of watts per square centimeter that are focused into a breadbox-size chamber to produce the X-rays.
''Our ability to achieve meaningful 'soft' X-ray generation in a package this small, by combining our new compact lasers with advanced optics, is one of the most important technology developments in the Company's history,'' said John S. Martinez, JMAR's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Previously, such X-rays could only be made commercially by synchrotrons, larger by orders of magnitude than our PXS technology, and costing up to $50 million, including supporting facilities.
''This new X-ray milestone represents a significant advance in the Company's drive to develop a compact, lower-cost alternative to the large, costly synchrotrons for advanced semiconductor lithography applications. Its tiny, less than seven microns, X-ray source spot size also opens the door for JMAR to become a serious competitor in alternative major-market X-ray applications such as high resolution X-ray imaging, radiobiology, X-ray fluorescence analysis and micromachining.''
Added JMAR Chief Scientist, Edmond Turcu, Ph.D., an internationally recognized authority in the generation and application of soft X-rays, ''This X-ray production achievement is substantially above that of any laser plasma soft X-ray source. I believe that we will be able to demonstrate a compact, economical X-ray source for semiconductor lithography and other advanced X-ray optical applications within the near future. Soft X-rays of the type generated by JMAR's Britelight(TM)-driven PXS, positioned and controlled by the Company's low-cost precision stages - rather than multi-million dollar lithography steppers - have great potential for a new range of practical non-lithography applications in the semiconductor, life sciences, and industrial markets.''
Richard M. Foster, president of JMAR Research Inc., the company's division responsible for X-ray source and laser R&D, commented, ''We are currently in the process of scaling up our PXS technology, consisting of several Britelight(TM) laser modules, to higher X-ray power levels. This initial multi-module system, designed to produce in excess of 30 watts of X-rays, will begin operational testing in the second quarter of this year. It will be followed by a 90-watt beta system scheduled for the first half of 2000 having a throughput goal of twenty-four 300-millimeter wafers per hour for production of integrated circuits having feature sizes of 0.13 microns, and below. We expect this system will be competitive for commercial semiconductor lithography applications.''
For more information on JMAR's X-ray source development program please refer to the company Home Page at www.jmar.com.
JMAR Technologies Inc. develops, manufactures and markets precision measurement, motion control and laser manufacturing systems, provides custom semiconductor products for the microelectronics industry and is a leading developer of advanced lithography sources for production of future higher performance semiconductors.
Pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements regarding JMAR's future sales or profit growth of advanced lithography and other X-ray sources, size of potential markets, competitive position or products, projects, or processes currently under development and the ability of the company to successfully introduce those products into the commercial marketplace or to apply or otherwise transfer those products, projects or processes to alternate applications are forward-looking statements based on current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements, including failure of advanced technology and equipment to perform as predicted, uncertainties associated with the timing of the funding of government contracts, timing of future orders, delays in shipment or cancellation of orders, failure of expected orders to materialize, concentration of sales to certain markets and customers, customer reorganizations, fluctuations in demand, economic conditions in various geographic regions, natural events such as earthquakes, flood and fire and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in the company's reports which are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
