Clare Slashes Price of AC Solid-State Isolation With New Solid State Relay.

Business/High Tech Editors

BEVERLY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 2001

-Easy-Living AB, Stockholm, Sweden, Selects CPC1943G for

use in Home Communication and Networking Systems-

Clare, Inc. (Nasdaq:CPCL), a global leader in solid state relays and integrated circuits (ICs), today announced the release of the CPC1943G OptoMOS(R)solid state relay (SSR).

The CPC1943G is the most cost-effective AC SSR on the market today, offering up to a 30-percent price advantage over other SSRs with comparable zero-cross switching capabilities.

Clare's CPC1943G SSR has been designed for process control, process automation and power control applications. The relay's 240-volt load voltage and .5A load current rating make it ideal for household electronics that need to be isolated against overvoltage. Additionally, the relay's zero-cross switching prevents current and voltage spikes as power is switched on in a circuit. Clare's CPC1943G SSR provides this functionality in a compact, six-pin package, thereby helping reduce board space requirements.

"Clare's CPC1943 was the best solution for our Easy-Net home communication system," said Mikael Boberg, vice president of engineering, Easy-Living AB. " We were faced with some difficult design trade-offs, classic electromechanical relays were too large and triacs or other methods of electronic switching required a more robust power supply which would have greatly increased the cost of our design. Clare made our choice easy by responding quickly with a solution that met our need for isolated switching and was smaller and far less expensive than other solutions we considered."

Easy-Living AB's Easy-Net home communication system enables the user to monitor their home or control appliances within it using the Internet or a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) enabled mobile phone. This new level of connectivity can be applied to energy consumption management, security management, general home condition management and more.

"The CPC1943G sets a new benchmark in price, while maintaining Clare's high standards for solid state reliability," said David Donlin, product marketing manager for Clare's OptoMOS line of solid state products. "Clare's dialogue with its customers, combined with experience in high-voltage semiconductors enables the company to develop tailored solutions to specific SSR challenges. Additionally, our proprietary fab and advanced production methods allow us to keep costs to a minimum."

Pricing and Availability

The CPC1943G is currently available in production quantities. For OEM quantities of 10,000, the CPC1943G is priced at $1.35, with a standard lead-time of eight weeks after receipt of order.

About Clare, Inc.

Clare, Inc. is a leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance, mixed-signal and high-voltage integrated circuits (ICs), custom ASICs, OptoMOS solid state relays (SSRs), custom ASICs and high-quality Dyad switches. The company's products enable communications by providing a critical interface between real-world electrical signals and the low-voltage electronics that process those signals. Leading manufacturers of data communications, telecommunications and industrial equipment around the world rely on Clare for semiconductors and specialized components. Clare trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol CPCL. Additional information about Clare can be found at www.clare.com.

Trademarks mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners. OptoMOS(R) is a registered trademark of Clare, Inc.