Brooks Automation Acquires Irvine Optical Company

CHELMSFORD, MA - May 5, 2000 - Brooks Automation, Inc. announced today that it has acquired Irvine Optical Company (IOC) of Burbank, California, a leader in micro/macro inspection, wafer handling, and sorting and control technologies. The acquisition will be accounted for as a pooling of interests, with the assumption of debt giving the transaction an enterprise value in excess of $30 million. The acquisition has passed regulatory review and is subject to the customary closing conditions.

Irvine Optical Company has over 24 years experience serving the semiconductor industry in its core competency of wafer handling technology. Its principal products center on equipment that ensures accuracy of lot and wafer identification within a fab. It has the leading market share in sorters, which are an important process tool in semiconductor manufacturing. Sorters perform random sampling of wafers for statistical process control routines, which when coupled with metrology inspection, help assure the quality of the process tool and the materials used in the fabrication process. Adding Irvine Optical Company sorters to a fabrication process is a major step in overall yield improvement.

Irvine Optical was founded in 1975 by the late Richard R. Schram, a former sales engineer with Zeiss and Vickers, who foresaw a need for specialized silicon wafer handlers. Within one year, he had built a line of microscope stands and stages for wafer inspection. In 1979, he patented the first non-TV based line width measurement system. This was eventually licensed to Nanometrics, Inc. under the trade name Nanoline.

In the early 1980's, IOC expanded its product line to include an ink-based reticle repair system and the firm's first automated wafer-handling system, the Ultraspec III. This prototype eventually evolved into the Ultrastation 3 and became the core of Irvine Optical's product line.

In 1989, Irvine Optical Company became a pioneer in the automated wafer sorting process with the introduction of its first Ultrasort model for use with Bar Code and Optical Character Recognition systems. This product line has grown over the years, and the new two, three and four-cassette sorting systems (available with SMIF) represent the cutting edge in wafer management.

In 1994, Ron McIntyre, a twenty-year veteran of General Signal, moved into IOC's President's chair after serving the firm as Chief Operation Officer. Ron's expertise and experience has enabled Irvine Optical to clearly define its business strategy. He has also initiated a global product "roadmap" that offers cost-effective solutions to its customers. Under his leadership, the company continues to develop and improve its products to meet the automation needs of the semiconductor industry. The firm has also maintained OEM agreements with companies like ADE, Hologenix and Nanometrics Systems to custom-develop wafer handling robots, stands and stages which integrate with their existing equipment.

Brooks Automation, Inc.
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May 5, 2000

"We are delighted to be part of the growing Brooks family of integrated solutions providers focused on semiconductor fab automation," said Ron McIntyre, President of Irvine Optical Company. "IOC and Brooks share a common goal of providing more complete and integrated fab automation solutions that mitigate risk, are quicker to deploy, easier to maintain, lower the cost per wafer and reduce the need for professional product deployment services. Like Brooks, we believe in solving wafer-handling problems by working directly with customers to develop effective solutions."

"We are proud to have the leader in sorters be part of the Brooks team," said Robert J. Therrien, President and CEO of Brooks Automation Inc. "With IOC's installed base of elevators/indexers, end effectors, robots and sorters, their longevity in the field, the customer relationships they bring, and their commitment to reducing the cost of ownership of their equipment at customers' sites, they are a good fit with Brooks. We expect that the acquisition will be immediately accretive to our combined earnings and will be another driver of Brooks' growth in this cycle."

Brooks Automation, Inc.
Brooks Automation, Inc. is a leading supplier of integrated automation solutions for the global semiconductor, data storage and flat panel display manufacturing industries. As an established market leader in hardware and software automation, Brooks continues to pioneer "Best-in-Class" technologies that outperform their competitors – from vacuum and atmospheric robots, cluster tool platforms and modules, ultra-clean mini-environments for isolating processing equipment and wafers – to factory and tool automation software and integration services. Both OEM and fab customers leverage Brooks Automation's products and services to optimize total fab performance in dynamic manufacturing environments. The Company has ISO 9001 certification, is headquartered in Chelmsford, MA and has direct operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Brooks' web-site is www.brooks.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The foregoing discussion contains forward-looking statements related to future financial results. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, risks relating to the Company's dependence on the cyclical semiconductor industry, the Company's dependence on relatively few customers for a significant portion of its revenues, the Company's reliance on sales to OEM customers and the lengthy sales cycles of those customers, the ability of the Company to continue to successfully develop and market new products and product enhancements on a timely basis, the ability to integrate recent acquisitions into the Company, the highly competitive nature and rapid technological change that characterize the industries in which the Company competes, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, there can be no assurance that the Company's future results will not be materially different than those projected. The Company also operates in an industry sector where securities' values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond the Company's control. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only of the Company's expectations as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Brooks Automation, 15 Elizabeth Drive, Chelmsford, MA 01824. Tel: 978-262-2400; Fax: 978-262-2500.