BILTHOVEN, The Netherlands, June 6, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- ASM International N.V. (Nasdaq:ASMI) (Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam:ASM) today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California against Genus, Inc. for patent infringement.
ASM charges Genus with infringing on two of the company's U.S. patents for Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology originally developed by ASM. ASM markets the technology under the trade names Atomic Layer Chemical Vapor Deposition, Atomic Layer CVD(tm) and ALCVD(tm).
"ASM has always been very diligent about intellectual property ownership," said Daniel Queyssac, president and COO of ASM Front-End Businesses. "With the acquisition of Microchemistry in 1999, the company that invented ALD, ASM became the owner of very valuable intellectual property on ALD. ASM intends to vigorously defend its position as the ALD pioneer and protect the significant investment it has made by developing the technology and bringing it to market. With this suit, we intend to strictly enforce our intellectual property rights and we expect to prevail."
ASM owns an extensive portfolio of intellectual property in ALD technology. The two ASM patents mentioned in the lawsuit are U.S. Patent No. 6,015,590 and 5,916,365. Patent No. 6,015,590 is a patent on ALD technology that enabled commercialization of ALD for microelectronics applications. The second patent, Patent No. 5,916,365, extends ALD technology to ALD using plasma.
ALD is a new process that allows the deposition of a variety of materials one layer at a time. ALD is forecasted to be an enabling technology for the 100 nm and below process nodes, which will make the construction of next-generation electronic products possible.
ASM Microchemistry, a subsidiary of ASM International, develops and manufactures ALCVD films for the latest as well as future semiconductor device designs.
About ASM
ASM International N.V. is headquartered in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. ASM International is a global company, serving one of the most important and demanding industries in the world. The Company possesses a strong technological base, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, a competent and qualified workforce and a highly trained, strategically distributed support network. ASM International's subsidiaries design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. ASM International and its subsidiaries provide production solutions for wafer processing, assembly and packaging through their facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common stock shares trade on Nasdaq (symbol ASMI) and the Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASM's Website at http://www.asm.com
Safe Harbor Statement under the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements regarding orders, earnings development and the effects of research and new products on ASM's future, and other matters discussed in this statement, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to economic conditions in the semiconductor industry, currency fluctuations, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, risk factors related to litigation and other risks indicated in filings from time to time with the SEC and Stock Exchange Authorities.
ASM is a registered trademark and Atomic Layer CVD and ALCVD are trademarks of ASM International.