Kionix, Inc. Announces Completion of Spinout and Construction of New Facility

    ITHACA, N.Y., April 2 Kionix, Inc. today announced that it
has successfully completed the reorganization and recapitalization that it
began last year.  Kionix, Inc. will continue its pursuit of MEMS-based
opportunities in the inertial sensor, microfluidics, and data storage market
sectors. The company also announced that they have broken ground on a new
40,000 square foot facility in Ithaca, NY.
    Calient Networks of San Jose, CA acquired the original Kionix, founded in
1993, late in 2000 to secure Calient's access to high-quality MEMS design and
production and now operates the business unit as Calient Optical Components,
Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary.  As part of the acquisition, a portion of
Kionix was spun out to continue the development and production of non-optical
MEMS products.  "Calient saw the potential of the revolutionary Kionix
technology," said Lloyd A. Johnson, Chief Operating Officer of Kionix.  "The
spinout allows the focus on certain non-optical MEMS opportunities to
continue."
    Resurrecting the Kionix name, the spinout sees a bright future in its
targeted industries.  "The same excitement that the optical networking
industry saw in the Kionix MEMS technology exists in the other industries with
which we're involved," says Bruce Finke, Vice President of Sales and
Marketing. "Our next generation MEMS is a disruptive technology, and with its
broad functionality the potential applications are clearly widespread."
    Scheduled for completion in July 2001, a state-of-the-art 40,000 square
foot facility is currently under construction in Ithaca, NY.  "Kionix was
founded on the principle of bringing MEMS into major-market applications,"
says Greg Galvin, the founder of the original Kionix and President/CEO of
Calient Optical Components.  "The new facility capitalizes on eight years of
experience in producing MEMS, as well as fabrication technology focused on its
new market direction, to create one of world's leading MEMS production
facilities."

    About Kionix
    Kionix, Inc., located in Ithaca, NY, was originally founded in 1993 based
on next-generation MEMS technology developed in the '80s at Cornell
University.  Throughout the '90s, the company built a strong position in
innovative MEMS product design, process engineering, and high-volume,
high-quality manufacturing.  Through its leadership in the use of deep silicon
reactive ion etching, Kionix has developed such products as inertial sensors,
microswitches, microfluidic systems, micromirror arrays and mechanical data
storage devices.  In late 2000, Kionix spun off a separate business entity
just prior to the acquisition by Calient Networks, a developer of intelligent,
all-photonic switching systems and software.  Under the terms of the
acquisition, the spin-off retained rights to the Kionix name and trademarks.
Kionix, Inc. continues to pursue non-optical MEMS businesses in industry
sectors as diverse as automotive, consumer products, data storage, and
microfluidics.