News Release

Opening of Hitachi High-Technologies' Metrology and Inspection Center Inside Dainippon Screen

Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (TOKYO: 8036, Headquarters: Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan; President: Masao Hisada; Hitachi High-Tech) and Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 7735, Headquarters: Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto, Japan; President: Masahiro Hashimoto; Dainippon Screen) today announced the opening of Hitachi High-Tech's Metrology and Inspection Center Hikone (MIC Hikone) inside the Process Technology Center of Dainippon Screen's Hikone Plant (Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture). The center was opened to continuously meet customer's semiconductor manufacturing equipment needs, as well as to develop new technologies and applications for the industry.

Until recently, most of Hitachi High-Tech's demonstrations and operational training for customers around its mainstay semiconductor metrology and inspection equipment took place at the Global Application Center Process Evaluation Laboratory (GAC), located near the Naka Division (Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture), Hitachi High-Tech's key design and development base.

A portion of the demonstration and operational training functions formerly at GAC will now be transferred to the newly established MIC Hikone. This move will enable continued efforts to meet customer needs even during emergencies, reflecting lessons learned from the experience of the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. At the same time, the new center is designed to enhance customer convenience by offering a fuller demonstration environment for both companies.

Dainippon Screen, for its part, is seeking to create added value in the development of next-generation equipment technology and applications, as well as boost development speed, by realizing synergies through partnerships between its own surface treatment systems in the fields of cleaning and lithography, and Hitachi High-Tech's semiconductor metrology and inspection equipment.

Hitachi High-Tech and Dainippon Screen view the establishment of MIC Hikone as an opportunity to contribute to the further development of the semiconductor industry through technological innovation in the semiconductor manufacturing process.

Overview of Metrology and Inspection Center Hikone (MIC Hikone)

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