STMicroelectronics Joins Worldwide Search for Higgs Boson Particle; ST to Supply Specially Designed Silicon Sensors to CERN in the Search for Elusive Nuclear Particles.

Business Editors

GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 2002

STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), the world's third largest silicon chip manufacturer, announced today that it has been chosen to supply critical components for one of the world's most ambitious scientific collaborations, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) being constructed by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, with the participation of scientists from over 30 countries.

ST will supply specially designed silicon sensors that will detect nuclear particles generated in the LHC experiments, including experiments designed to detect the particle known as the Higgs Boson whose existence, if verified, has crucial implications for theoretical physics. A Boson is a particular kind of subatomic particle and the Higgs Boson is named after physicist Peter Higgs who postulated its existence in the 1960's as an explanation for why some subatomic particles have zero mass and some do not. The Higgs Boson has so far eluded all attempts to detect it, although previous work at CERN has provided encouraging evidence of its existence.

ST will specially manufacture some 20,000 sensors, of eight different types, which will be used to detect subatomic particles created by the collision of other particles that have been accelerated to achieve very high collision energies. Because the sensors have an area around 100 times larger than conventional silicon chips, their manufacture requires the most stringent precautions to eliminate impurities and defects in the silicon crystal.

The ST sensors will be used in one of the most important experiments that will be performed when the LHC starts operation in 2005. Known as the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), the experiment is designed to provide, among other things, a definitive answer to the question that has tantalized nuclear physicists for more than 30 years: does the Higgs Boson exist?

"We are proud to be taking part in what is not only one of the most wide-reaching collaborations in scientific history but also one of the most important in terms of advancing our understanding of the nature of the universe," said Giuseppe Ferla, R&D Director of ST's Discrete and Standard Circuits Group. "ST is uniquely qualified to play its part in this endeavor; through our close links with Universities such as Florence and Pisa and INFN center of Pisa, we have the highly specialized and rare expertise required to work with the CERN physicists, while the excellence of our manufacturing processes means that we can produce the devices in the volumes required."

The sensors will be manufactured at ST's M3 fab in Catania, Italy, using a technology similar in complexity to that used to produce power MOSFET transistors. However, because each sensor measures around 9cm x 9cm, much larger than a typical silicon chip, it is only possible to fit a single sensor on each thin wafer of ultra-pure silicon that passes through the manufacturing cycle, which involves eight basic stages of processing.

Physicists have calculated that the Higgs Boson, if it exists, will be produced by only one in every thousand billion collisions between high-energy protons, which means that sensors of the highest possible performance will be required to detect it. "Semiconductor manufacturers normally make hundreds of chip simultaneously on each wafer and expect a few of them to be defective due to normal manufacturing tolerances. We will be making just one sensor on each wafer and making sure that each one works perfectly as our contribution to this prestigious experiment," said Ferla.

About STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics, the world's third largest semiconductor company, is a global leader in developing and delivering semiconductor solutions across the spectrum of microelectronics applications. An unrivalled combination of silicon and system expertise, manufacturing strength, Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and strategic partners positions the Company at the forefront of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology and its products play a key role in enabling today's convergence markets. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2001, the Company's net revenues were $6.36 billion and net earnings were $257.1 million. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.

Notes for editors

* subatomic particles are classified as bosons or fermions. Bosons have zero or integral spin and follow the statistical description developed by Bose and Einstein, while fermions have half-integral spin and follow the statistical description developed by Fermi and Dirac