SCHäRDING, Austria – March 24, 2005 - EV Group, a leading supplier of wafer-bonding equipment for MEMS, 3D interconnects and micro devices, today announced that it has successfully installed a Gemini Production Wafer Bonder at DALSA Corporation, a premium supplier of specialized and custom wafer-foundry services. The Gemini Production Wafer Bonder is designed for alignment and low-temperature plasma bonding for a wide variety of wafer types and sizes.

DALSA’s semiconductor division, which is based in Bromont, Quebec, Canada, will use the Gemini Production Wafer Bonder to leverage its patented and patent-pending low-temperature wafer bonding and wafer-level packaging technologies. The production tool's flexibility will also enable the company to implement these and other strategies for very low-temperature direct-wafer bonding of CMOS-friendly substrates, further enhancing DALSA's intelligent-MEMS capabilities.

As the strategic supplier for MEMS wafer-bonding and thick-polymer lithography semiconductor production equipment for DALSA, EV Group previously installed a Hercules thick-polymer lithography tool customized for DALSA's specifications at its foundry in Bromont. The Hercules system has been qualified to process advanced chemically amplified thick photopolymers for its MEMS processes involving DRIE, electroforming and wafer bonding. The Hercules is a customizable system for MEMS production that integrates coat/align-expose/develop stations for fully automated and integrated production.

“EV Group’s fully automated Gemini Wafer Bonder cluster tool and Hercules lithography system enable DALSA to use its proprietary CMOS-friendly electroformed lead-free eutectic solders, EV Group’s LowTemp plasma-activated bonding, low temperature thermo-compression and other CMOS-friendly and proprietary low temperature wafer bonding technologies to address the most demanding intelligent-MEMS and 3D interconnects for our IDM, fab-lite and fabless semiconductor customers,” said Luc Ouellet, DALSA Semiconductor’s director of technology. “The precision of EV Group’s SmartView wafer-to-wafer alignment allows high-end CMOS DSP to be used to its full potential to create truly intelligent-MEMS using 3D interconnects. In addition, we are able to offer our customers volume production pricing by using this fully automated Gemini Wafer Bonder cluster tool in combination with our other customized, high-throughput automated MEMS production tools, which will open up new opportunities in the automotive, industrial, RF-telecom, photonics, information technologies and biomedical MEMS market segments.”

“DALSA is a key member of EV Group’s growing customer base for MEMS production, nanotechnology and other emerging fields in North America,” said Dr. Peter Podesser, chief executive officer of EV Group. “As part of this collaboration between EV Group and DALSA, we will enhance the capabilities of the equipment sub-modules to handle new materials and processes.”

About DALSA Corporation
DALSA is an international high performance semiconductor and electronics company that designs, develops, manufactures, and markets digital imaging products and solutions, in addition to providing wafer foundry services. DALSA’s core competencies are in specialized integrated circuit and electronics technology, and highly engineered semiconductor wafer processing. Products include image sensor components; electronic digital cameras; and semiconductor wafer foundry services for use in MEMS, high-voltage semiconductors, image sensors and mixed-signal CMOS chips.

DALSA is a public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “DSA”. Based in Waterloo, ON. Canada, the company has operations in Bromont, PQ; Colorado Springs, CO; Woodland Hills, CA; Eindhoven, NL; Munich, Germany and Tokyo, Japan.

About EV Group
Founded in 1980, EV Group is a global supplier of wafer bonders, aligners, photoresist coaters, cleaners and inspection systems for semiconductor, MEMS and emerging nanotechnology markets. EV Group holds the dominant share of the market for wafer bonding equipment (especially SOI bonding) and is a leader in lithography for advanced packaging, MEMS and nanotechnology. The company’s unique Triple I approach (Invent – Innovate – Implement) is supported by a vertical infrastructure, allowing EV Group to respond quickly to new technology development, apply the technology to manufacturing challenges and expedite volume production. Headquartered in Schärding, Austria, EV Group operates via a global customer support network, with subsidiaries in Phoenix, Arizona; Cranston, Rhode Island; Yokohama, Japan; and Chung-Li, Taiwan. EV Group has built up a strong local organization in China with representative offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzen. For more information, visit www.EVGroup.com.

Agency Contact:
Luz Rodriquez
Loomis Group
+ 33 (0) 1.58.18.59.30
[email protected]

Company Contact:
Dr. Ursula Deinhammer
EV Group
+ 43.77.12.53.11.40.09
[email protected]