Sharing of Evalution Facility by Nikon and TEL (Tokyo Electron Limited)

TOKYO, JAPAN (Nippon), November 30, 2000 -- Nikon Corporation (Nikon ; Head Office : Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo ; President : YOSHIDA, Shoichiro) announced its agreement with Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL ; Head Office : Minato-Ku, Tokyo ; C.E.O., President : Mr. HIGASHI, Tetsuro) to share evaluation facilities for coater/developers and exposure tools.

Based on this agreement, Nikon will install the Step-and-Repeat Scanning System NSR-S305B, its ArF scanner, at a clean room to be established in the Koshi Plant of Tokyo Electron Kyushu Limited (Head Office : Tosu City, Saga ; President : Mr. YAMASHIRO, Megumi). This TEL subsidiary, engaged in developing and manufacturing coater/developers, is establishing the environment in order for the NSR-S305B to be linked to the CLEAN TRACK ACT 12, its 300mm coater/developer. Furthermore, TEL will install a CLEAN TRACK ACT 12 at the clean room in the Nikon Kumagaya Plant (Kumagaya City, Saitama). The CLEAN TRACK ACT 12 will be linked with the NSR-S205C, Nikon's high-N.A. KrF scanner, for development purposes.

This agreement is based on the recognition that in an environment where all semiconductor manufacturers are moving toward increasingly smaller geometries, Nikon must also adapt to the trend. Nikon's objective is to offer cutting-edge and comprehensive support, such as a short-term process optimization, through sharing of the latest equipments and the expertise of Nikon and TEL.

The facility sharing between the companies will begin in fiscal year 2001. Also, manufacturers of photo-resist materials, which are crucial components in the photolithography processes, will be asked to participate in the program in order to reflect evaluations and problem solving from the user's viewpoint.

In addition, Nikon and TEL is prepared to establish similar relations with other manufacturing equipment manufacturers to realize more comprehensive user support.

About Nikon Corporation

Nikon, established in 1917, is the first comprehensive and integrated optical and precision manufacturer in Japan. With a core of opto-electronics and precision technologies, a wide variety of products such as SLR (single-lens-reflex) cameras, digital cameras, binoculars, microscopes, inspection instruments, measuring instruments as well as ophthalmic lenses are provided worldwide. Its principal business shifted to the semiconductor manufacturing related equipment in 80's which represents majority of its sales turnover.Nikon is now the world leading manufacturer of the Stepper. The product line includes i-line, KrF excimer laser, ArF excimer laser steppers,and the electron-beam (EB) steppers, F₂ excimer laser steppers and EUVL (Extreme Ultra Violet Lithography) are under development. It owns five production facilities in Japan and other domestic and overseas group production companies. Global sales, marketing and servicing activity under the Nikon brand are covered by its subsidiaries worldwide.

The estimated consolidated financial results of the current fiscal year are :
Net Sales : 510 billion Japanese Yen,
Ordinary Income : 41 billion Japanese Yen,
Net Income : 24 billion Japanese Yen.

About Tokyo Electron Limited (http://www.tel.com/)

TEL, established in 1963, is a leading supplier of innovative semiconductor and LCD production equipment worldwide. Product lines include coater/developers, oxidation/diffusion furnaces, dry etchers, CVD systems, sputtering systems (PVD), wet cleaning systems, and test systems. In Japan,TEL distributes other leading edge semiconductor equipment tools, such as metrology tools or process control systems. In addition, TEL distributes high quality computer systems, semiconductor devices and electronic components of other leading suppliers, as well as computer network related products from around the world. To support this diverse product base, TEL has strategically located research & development, manufacturing,sales,and service locations all over the world. TEL estimates in the current fiscal year that revenues will exceed 710 billion yen, or more than 6.5 billion dollars. TEL is a publicly held company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

"CLEAN TRACK" and "CLEAN TRACK ACT" are trademarks of Tokyo Electron Limited. The names of companies are the trademarks and copyrights of said companies.

• Tokyo Electron Limited