Akrion Will Ship V3 Auto Station to Foundry in Asia

ALLENTOWN, Pa., April 5 -- Akrion announced today receipt of an order for a V3 auto station valued at $1.1 million. The station, a capacity buy from a repeat customer, will be used for high throughput resist stripping in a leading edge foundry in Asia.

Akrion's V3 is the smallest footprint automated tool in the market (average length less than 2 meters). The V3, which is designed for S2 and S8 compliance, is a low cost, low cost-of-ownership automated immersion batch system. With multiple chemistry support and flexible configurations, the tool is particularly well suited as a safe, supported solution for lab requirements.

The V3 utilizes Akrion's patented DIO3(TM) system, which replaces sulfuric acid to lower chemical consumption and disposal costs. The ozonated water stripping system also provides a safer working environment. V3 stations feature patented ICE-1(TM) concentration control, which assures uniform processing and extends bath life to save money.

Akrion president, James S. Molinaro commented, "We take great pride in contributing to this repeat customer's long-term success. Akrion succeeds only when our customer succeeds, which is why we focus on offering customer- friendly flexible solutions."

About Akrion

Akrion is a world-class provider of surface preparation solutions to the semiconductor and electronics industries. The company designs, manufactures, installs and services advanced batch immersion and single wafer wet processing equipment for cleaning a range of semiconductor-related devices, including integrated circuits (ICs) on silicon and SiGe/SiGe:C wafers, MEMS/MST devices, photomasks and photoblanks. Akrion's flexible product platforms offer reduced cost of ownership by providing small footprints, high uptime and throughput, efficient chemical management and environmentally benign technologies. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., Akrion maintains applications labs and service offices in Asia, Europe and the United States. Akrion's Allentown production facility is ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:1996 certified. The company Web site is located at http://www.akrion.com/.