Microbonds Announces Release of X-Wire(TM) 2.0 Head Start Kit.

TORONTO -- Microbonds Inc., a privately held Canadian company, today announced the release of its X-Wire(TM) 2.0 Head Start Kit for bond wire diameters of 20, 23 and 25 microns. Microbonds has developed and is licensing special insulating coatings for application to existing bare bonding wires used in the packaging and assembly of integrated circuits (IC).

Microbonds X-Wire(TM) 2.0 Head Start Kit provides users with the requisite tools, materials and information to conduct a feasibility evaluation of X-Wire(TM) Technology, for its use as an interconnect option for IC packages.

Insulated bond wire technology represents a material advancement and extension of the existing bare wire interconnect technology. The benefits of X-Wire(TM) Technology are well known to the industry, as it enables the move towards smaller geometries, higher I/O counts, denser 3D packages such as stacked die, longer interconnect wires by permitting wires to touch and cross in the x, y and z dimension.

X-Wire(TM) Technology has been recognized as a Technology Innovation award winner and will be showcased at this year's 2006 Semicon West event being held July 11-13 in San Francisco.

Microbonds has worked in alliance with leading suppliers to the IC packaging industry over the past year as a key part of its commercialization strategy, expanding the window of compatible materials, equipment and processes and enabling a broad infrastructure to support the use of X-Wire in volume production. The company has recently announced a license in favor of Tanaka Denshi to produce X-Wire in volume, initially at its Saga facility in Japan.

Recent optimization work with leading wire bonder equipment company - ASM Pacific - and leading capillary company - SPT - has yielded a stable process window for 20 micron X-Wire(TM), developed to meet requests received from customers for fine pitch, multi row package applications. In addition, the alliance group is coordinating their technical roadmaps to help support future product releases.

"X-Wire is designed to utilize the existing low cost wirebonding infrastructure, while providing benefits ranging from yield improvement to flexibility in IC pad layout and design. Microbonds is working closely with alliance partners on specific technical programs aimed at ensuring immediate compatibility with adjacent processes such as: wire bonding equipment, capillaries, plasma cleaning and transfer molding. Long term development programs focus on aligning technology roadmaps to jointly create innovative processes that fully exploit the value of insulated bond wire," said Robert Lyn, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Microbonds.

John Scott, CEO of Microbonds commented, "The leading suppliers and customers in the market have demonstrated a strong desire to adopt X-Wire(TM) Technology to address many of the technical and business challenges arising with certain advanced packaging applications like stacked die and fine pitch fine diameter packages. We are grateful for the support and advice of our technical alliance partners and look forward to working with them to make insulated bond wire a robust interconnect solution."

About Microbonds

Microbonds, Inc. is the leading developer and licensor of insulated wire bonding technologies for use in the design and assembly of microelectronic devices. The company's X-Wire(TM) Technology has recently received a 2006 Technology Innovation Showcase Award from SEMI(R).

For further information, visit www.microbonds.com.