Electroglas Unveils Advanced Wafer Prober for Next-Generation Semiconductor Devices; New system responds to industry's need for extremely rapid, accurate, fully automated probers.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 1996--Empowering semiconductor manufacturers with the technology required to support next-generation advanced devices, Electroglas, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGLS) today unveiled its new Horizon 4090 automatic wafer prober.

The Horizon 4090 is a highly advanced, 200mm system specifically designed to support the precision and accuracy requirements of emerging 0.25-micron chip designs, while boosting capital productivity.

According to David Durham, director of prober product marketing for Electroglas, the semiconductor industry is entering a new age in wafer valuation-mandating innovative probing solutions. "As the price/performance curve of semiconductors continues to accelerate, the resultant shrinking geometry of devices demands improved wafer prober performance, automation and interfacing. These needs drive chipmakers to select highly productive tools that meet their volume manufacturing requirements, integrate seamlessly into increasingly complex, automated test environments and, most importantly, accelerate time to market while reducing costs. In short, they need a solution that ensures no compromises between the system's technical performance and capital productivity," stated Durham.

In response to this need, Electroglas designed the Horizon 4090 to meet the performance demands of 0.25-micron processes with greater accuracy and improved productivity-enabling chipmakers to rapidly collect, manage and act on test information. An improved, sophisticated architecture and advanced feature set increases productivity by boosting reliability and delivering the industry's highest probing throughput rates. The Horizon 4090 provides a stepping accuracy of plus/minus 4 microns, a 20 percent improvement over its predecessor, enabling probe-to-pad interfacing, particularly on advanced products such as 128-megabit dynamic random-access memories (DRAMs) and 64-bit microprocessors.

The Horizon 4090 also incorporates a broad range of advanced capabilities. Chief among these are fully automatic probe-to-pad alignment (APTPA), optical character recognition (OCR) and comprehensive automated test equipment compatibility-all within a smaller footprint.

APTPA is a critical capability, enabling accurate probe placement in a fully automated mode on today's smaller device pads. Electroglas' fully integrated Direct Probe Sensor (DPS II), for automatic probe-to-pad alignment, leverages the power of highly advanced vision technology and software, enhancing image resolution and clarification to achieve highly accurate alignment of probe tips to bond pads. Thus, the Horizon 4090 was designed to eliminate process variability (induced by human intervention) typically associated with older-technology probe-to-pad alignment systems. By enabling superior, automated probe-to-pad placement, the Horizon 4090 greatly improves chipmakers' yield potential.

Patented vision technology similarly enables highly advanced optical character recognition, creating comprehensive functionality and rapid, accurate, reliable pattern identification. This capability maximizes read rates, further enhancing productivity, while enabling accurate image recognition, even under worst-case conditions.

The Horizon 4090 is also the first prober to incorporate SEMI's Generic Equipment Model (GEM) standard, as well as Ethernet communication standards. The integration of these proven open communications protocols reinforces Electroglas' commitment to advancing prober equipment interoperability by broadening interface options and supporting customer-specific needs under any manufacturing environment. To further enhance real-time processing, GEM is supported by a series of information management products, including Electroglas' SORTnet, which enables real-time collection and distribution of data over the prober network while testing is in process.

A number of other advanced features have also been integrated into the Horizon 4090 to ensure a comprehensive wafer probing solution. These include support of external wafer ID features to enhance automation and flexibility and a state-of-the-art operator interface, which incorporates an interactive flat panel display with optional keyboard. A sophisticated power loss recovery feature ensures wafer safety while enabling operators to restart the wafer at the exact die where probing was disrupted following a power failure.

The Horizon 4090 incorporates several proven features from the Horizon 4080X platform, including Electroglas' proprietary linear motor system and the EGCommander system for probing process optimization. It also supports all existing Horizon interface hardware.

"With its optimized toolset, the Horizon 4090 is a decisive step toward providing chipmakers with a new breed of leading-edge probers that address emerging application requirements," noted Vice President of Marketing Phillip Truckle. "Basically, this tool incorporates advances in each of the four core competencies requisite for advanced probing, namely, motion control, software, networking and vision engineering. The result is that our customers will be able to address both their productivity and technical requirements." Truckle added the Horizon 4090 is expected to open up new market potential for Electroglas by expanding the company's served market to include leading-edge chipmakers now converting to next-generation device technologies.

Electroglas will be featuring the Horizon 4090 automated wafer prober in its booth, No. 5743, at the upcoming SEMICON/West conference and exhibition, July 16-18, at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Orders for the new system are being taken now, with production shipments scheduled to begin this fall.

To the extent that this news release discusses expectations about market conditions or market acceptance and future sales of our products, or otherwise makes statements about the future, such statements are forward looking and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. These factors include the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry, risks associated with the acceptance of new products, and other factors discussed in the business description and management's discussion and analysis sections of the Company's report on Form 10K and annual report to shareholders.

About Electroglas: Founded in 1960, Electroglas, Inc. is a world-leading supplier of the automated wafer-probing products that semiconductor manufacturers rely on to sort and classify integrated circuits. The company's products position semiconductor devices that are still in wafer form under contact probes to facilitate accurate, rapid, reliable testing and manage information collected during the testing process. Electroglas' common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the trading symbol EGLS. The company's World Wide Web site is located at http://www.electroglas.com

CONTACT: Electroglas, Inc.

Yolanda Ruiz, 408/727-6500

or

MCA Inc.

Lisa Gillette, 415/968-8900