May 17, 2001, Leuven, Belgium --- IMEC, Europe's leading independent center for microelectronics and ICT R&D, and LUC, Limburgs Universitair Centrum, have signed an exclusive license agreement with XPEQT AG, a Swiss based equipment manufacturer with subsidiaries in Belgium and Bulgaria, on its in-situ test methodology for reliability testing and for use during burn-in.

XPEQT will produce and commercialize the reliability test equipment for testing the lifetime, lifetime modeling and measuring degradation kinetics of electronic components, which was jointly developed by IMEC and LUC. The equipment employs electromigration, hot carrier degradation and time dependent dielectric breakdown mechanisms and also allows performing lifetime tests during burn-in.

As part of the agreement, XPEQT obtained also a license for the use of FAILURE, an IMEC and LUC co-owned software package for analyzing failure times coming from reliability tests using statistically well-founded methods. The software can either be incorporated in the test equipment or sold separately.

The test equipment achieves a high measurement resolution whereby lifetime measurements can be performed within a shorter test time at a higher accuracy. The licensed technology is protected by 6 patents in several countries worldwide.

XPEQT will continue to perform research in the field of reliability and burn-in electronics in close collaboration with IMEC and LUC to further extend the capabilities of the technology.

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Notes to editors:

About IMEC

IMEC was founded in 1984 and today is Europe's leading independent research center for the development and licensing of microelectronics, and information and communication technologies (ICT). IMEC is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has a staff of more than 1000 people including more than 200 industrial residents. Its more than $100 million revenue is derived from agreements and contracts with Flemish government, the EC, MEDEA, the European Space Agency, equipment and material suppliers and semiconductor companies worldwide. IMEC's activities concentrate on design of integrated information and communication systems; silicon process technology; silicon technology and device integration; microsystems, components and packaging; advanced training in microelectronics. IMEC has a sub-0.25µm 200mm pilot line and is ISO9001 certified. News from IMEC is located at www.imec.be.

About LUC

LUC is a university located in Diepenbeek, Belgium. The technology was developed within the Institute for Materials Research (IMO), a research lab of LUC. IMO focuses its research on the development and characterisation of material systems for use in electronics. Also the stability of these materials systems, ands its impact on the reliability of electronic components, is a major research topic. IMO is since this year an IMEC associated laboratory, and research in co-operation with industry is carried out by a local IMEC division (IMOMEC)

About XPEQT

XPEQT is headquartered at Bevaix, Switzerland, and is a manufacturer of a broad line of testing, handling, characterization and diagnostics equipment for the microelectronics and electronics industry. XPEQT has a staff of over 80 people of which more than half are highly qualified engineers and scientists. Besides in Switzerland the company has premises also in Belgium and Bulgaria, in both of which design, engineering and R&D activities are carried out. More about XPEQT could be learnt from its web site at www.xpeqt.com.

For more information:

Katrien Marent

Communication Manager

Public Relations and Marketing Communications

IMEC, Kapeldreef 75

B- 3001 Leuven, Belgium

Phone: +32 16 28 18 80     Fax: +32 16 28 16 37

Email: Katrien.Marent@imec.be

Karin Janssens

XPEQT AG

Chemin de Buchaux 38,

CH – 2022 Bevaix, Switzerland

Phone:  +41 32 835 55 69       Fax: +41 32 835 55 74

E-mail: kja@xpeqt.com