Chipworks Collaborates With Canadian Transportation Safety Board in Swissair Disaster.

Business Editors

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2000

Chipworks today announced that it was successful in extracting information from a damaged flight computer memory chip recovered from Swissair Fight 111 for the Canadian Transportation Safety Board in its investigation of the disaster.

"Once we received the damaged board it became apparent that conventional Failure Analysis methods were not going to work," stated Dr. Ray Haythornthwaite of Chipworks. "The device was severely damaged and was corroded from exposure to sea water. Upon closer inspection we noticed that almost all wire connections and bond pads were missing. My role as Project Leader was to come up with a plan of operation, using novel Failure Analysis techniques, to retrieve the data," said Dr. Haythornthwaite.

Chipworks had the engineering experts in-house who through specialized reverse engineering techniques were quick to identify the areas of the device that were faulty and needed repair. The technical investigation identified 15 different electrical connections that had to be re-built. In addition, extra care was required in the analysis to protect the chip from further damage, which could have resulted in re-writing the original data. Chipworks also utilized the talent of two local firms to help extract the data from the chip. Fibics Incorporated provided Focused Ion Bean (FIB) circuit microsurgery services. With the FIB, faulty areas of the chip were disconnected and new metal connections were laid down on the surface of the device to mend the damaged circuitry. Aimtronics devised a method of connecting new bonding wires to reattach the damaged circuits.

This team, led by Dr. Haythornthwaite, was looking for data that would tell accident investigators the condition of the flight controls and any error messages if in fact they functioned incorrectly. Accident investigators would then interpret and correlate the information findings from their investigation.

"The project was a success," stated Dr. Haythornthwaite; "we were able to extract the data from the chip's memory in terms of 0's and 1's and provide this potentially information to the investigators at the Canadian Transportation Safety Board for their interpretation."

ABOUT CHIPWORKS

Chipworks is an internationally recognized technical services company that analyzes the circuitry and physical composition of semiconductors chips and electronics systems for applications in intellectual property licensing, patenting, competitive study, quality reviews, and reliability assurance. Chipworks' technical experts use sophisticated lab facilities and a rich library of in-house semiconductor data to conduct detailed analyses of a wide selection of chip types. Chipworks develops high value, meticulously

researched, on time reports presented in a format that is easy to read, easy to understand, and tailored to customer needs. Chipworks' business supports more than 95% of semiconductor manufacturers and users worldwide. Clients use our services to keep informed of product innovations and to support their intellectual property initiatives in semiconductor technology. Chipworks can be visited via the Internet at www.chipworks.com.

ABOUT FIBICS

Fibics Incorporated is a privately owned company possessing two state-of-the-art Micrion 2500 Focused Ion Beam Microscope (FIB) systems. Established in 1997 Fibics has spent the last three years developing and implementing new and exciting FIB applications in the materials science community, while also taking on the more traditional role of providing FIB services to the international semiconductor market. Fibics is currently located on the campus of the Canadian government's Materials Technology Laboratory. This location allows on site access not only to their own FIB systems, but also to a number of complementary high end analytical tools including: Field Emission TEM, SEM, SIMS, XPS, and EPMA to name just a few. Fibics can be visited via the Internet at www.fibics.com.

ABOUT AIMTRONICS

Aimtronics, a wholly owned subsidiary of AimGlobal Technologies (TSE:AGT.) (AMEX:AGT) offers a complete range of Electronics Manufacturing Solutions and is a leading technical provider of services in the Microelectronics industry. Aimtronics' supply chain management solutions offer design assistance -- reducing time-to-market metrics, time-to-volume metrics, full product testing, packaging, warranty service, and end-of-life support. Aimtronics' Microelectronics Technology Centre provides proprietary thick and thin film hybrid design and assembly including Chip-on-Board, Multi-Chip Module, and Flip-Chip technologies. Through five facilities located across the country Aimtronics' serves the high technology markets through out North America. Amitronics can be visited via the Internet at www.aimtronics.com.