Vistec Semiconductor Systems GmbH Will Be Under One Roof Beginning January 2007

Wetzlar, Germany - As of January 2007, Vistec Semiconductor Systems GmbH (previously Leica Microsystems Semiconductor GmbH) will be located solely in Weilburg, Germany.

"This is a unique opportunity to bring the whole company together under one roof," explains Gerhard Ruppik, General Manager at Vistec.

Previously, company headquarters were located in Wetzlar with a production site of 80 employees in Weilburg. About 160 marketing, administrative and R&D employees will now move to Weilburg by the end of January 2007.

The Weilburg facility has been expanded to 132,000 sq. feet (12,000 m^²) in a €5M investment program. Highlights include the introduction of a new IT infrastructure, new clean rooms (enlarging the total area to 18,700 sq. feet/1,700 m^²) using the latest technology and a 2,750 sq. feet (250 m^²) demo clean room to exhibit the newest generation of wafer process control systems and mask metrology systems.

Gerhard Ruppik expects "optimized processes by concentrating our activities in a single site and we can now easily expand to accommodate future growth in demand."

This expansion is the latest stage in the investment strategy implemented by Golden Gate Capital, a US capital investment company that purchased Vistec Semiconductor Systems from Leica in 2005. Vistec develops and produces process control systems used by semiconductor manufacturers, including inspection and review systems, defect detection and classification systems and mask metrology systems.

SOURCE: Vistec Semiconductor Systems GmbH