Press Release

Santa Barbara, CA, USA (May 18, 2004) – MultiProbe, Inc. is pleased to announce new distribution relationships with Toyo Corporation and Synatron GmbH. Toyo will act as MultiProbe’s official distributor in Japan, while Synatron will represent MultiProbe in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Benelux. Both will offer MultiProbe’s full line of ultra-high resolution nanoprobing tools to nanotechnology and semiconductor manufacturing companies in these important markets.

“Our relationships with Toyo and Synatron are off to a fantastic start,” says MultiProbe’s president, Andy Erickson. “Both companies have already placed a full MultiScan™ Atomic Force Probe (AFP) system with one of their region’s largest semiconductor companies. We anticipate Toyo and Synatron’s highly professional sales and service organizations will continue to build MultiProbe’s presence in the Japanese and European markets.”

“MultiScan™ is effectively the only nanoprobing tool which directly probes contact pads (100nm or less in dia.) of gate, drain and source of transistors in an SRAM array for the 90nm process node, so as to measure the electric characteristics. This marks an important turning point for failure analysis in the semiconductor industry,” observes Toyo’s director, Masaru Suzuki, who oversees nanotechnology operations at Toyo. “It is indeed a pleasure for us to have an opportunity to distribute MultiScan systems in Japan. Our experienced engineers will ensure that MultiScan systems installed in Japan will perform under the best conditions.”

Peter van Geijn, president of Synatron remarks, “We are delighted that we can distribute MultiProbe’s AFP products in our territory. You don’t come across cutting edge technology from new start up companies too often. We have already received many positive reactions from our customers at the prospect of having this tool. It is exciting to be working with a young team of excellent engineers and scientists.”

MultiProbe develops and manufactures the world’s highest resolution nanoprobing tools. Companies use our instruments to characterize the smallest, high performance semiconductor devices on integrated circuits. MultiProbe is located in Santa Barbara, CA, USA. www.multiprobe.com

Toyo Corp. has been importing various kinds of electronic measurement equipment to Japan from overseas since 1953, and its operations in nanotechnology date back to the 1980’s. In addition to distributing such equipment in Japan, Toyo Corp. provides technical support and maintenance services to its customers. Toyo Corp. is based in Tokyo, Japan and is listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE code: 8151). www.toyo.co.jp

Synatron is one of the leading distributors of high-tech systems for testing, quality assurance and instrumentation in the semiconductor industry. Synatron is headquartered in Munich, Germany. www.synatron.de

MultiProbe develops and manufactures the world’s highest resolution nanoprobing tools. Companies use our instruments to characterize the smallest, high performance semiconductor devices on integrated circuits. MultiProbe is located in Santa Barbara, CA, USA. Visit our website at www.multiprobe.com or email us at info@multiprobe.com and change the way you look at transistors for generations to come.