Amended Release -- Siliconix Introduces MICRO FOOT: Chip-Scale Power MOSFET Technology Reduces Mobile Power Management Space Requirements by 70%.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 2000

Siliconix incorporated (Nasdaq: SILI), an 80.4%-owned subsidiary of Vishay Intertechnology Inc. (NYSE: VSH), has unveiled a proprietary chip-scale power MOSFET packaging technology that will greatly reduce the size of the devices required to manage and convert power in cell phones and handheld internet appliances.

The new Vishay Siliconix MICRO FOOT(TM) devices use a solder bump process along with proprietary techniques developed at Siliconix to eliminate the need for an outer package to encase the power MOSFET die.

With the package eliminated, and by enabling a device that can be mounted directly to the circuit board, MICRO FOOT power MOSFETs will allow designers to obtain the same performance as devices packaged in the TSOP-6 in a footprint that is 70% smaller and with a 50% lower height profile.

New MICRO FOOT power MOSFETs will serve in low-power, low-duty-cycle applications such as cell phone power management and power conversion, where their small size and height will enable slimmer end products with a broader range of features.

For higher-current, higher-power-cycle applications, Siliconix is introducing PowerPAK(TM), a new packaging technology that provides the thermal performance of a DPAK package in an SO-8-sized footprint.

"Minimizing the board space required by power semiconductors is crucial to enabling new generations of cell phones and other portable information appliances that will make the wireless internet an affordable reality," said Dr. Felix Zandman, chairman and chief executive officer of Vishay.

"With MICRO FOOT, we're giving mobile communications designers a footprint and height profile that are 70% smaller and 50% thinner than the TSOP-6 power MOSFETs they use now. The new dimensions of the package are in fact the dimensions of the chip itself."

Vishay Siliconix MICRO FOOT devices are sampling to selected customers now. Production quantities of the first MICRO FOOT devices will begin shipping in Q1 2001.

About Siliconix

Siliconix, a company of Vishay Intertechnology Inc., is a leading manufacturer of power MOSFETs, power ICs, and analog signal processing devices for computers, cell phones, fixed communications networks, automobiles, and other electronic systems.

With 1999 worldwide sales of $383 million, the company's facilities include Class 1, six-inch wafer fabs dedicated to the manufacture of power products in Santa Clara and Itzehoe, Germany. Analog switches, analog multiplexers, and low-power transistors are fabricated in the company's four-inch wafer fab in Santa Clara and by a subcontractor in Beijing, China.

Assembly and test facilities include a company-owned facility in Taiwan, a joint venture in Shanghai, China, and subcontractors in the Philippines, China, and the United States.

About Vishay Intertechnology Inc.

Vishay Intertechnology Inc., a Fortune 1,000 company with an annual sales rate of $2.4 billion, is the largest U.S. and European manufacturer of passive electronic components (resistors, capacitors, inductors) and a major producer of discrete semiconductors (diodes, optoelectronics, transistors), IrDCs (infrared communication devices), and power and analog switching integrated circuits.

The company's components are vital to electronic operations and can be found in products manufactured in a very broad range of industries worldwide.

With headquarters in Malvern, Pa., Vishay employs over 20,000 people in more than 60 plants in the U.S., Mexico, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Taiwan, China, and the Philippines. Vishay can be found on the Internet at http://www.vishay.com.

MICRO FOOT and PowerPAK are trademarks of Siliconix incorporated.