MCA Clients Capture Editor and Analyst Honors in 2005

For clients of MCA, a leading Silicon Valley high-tech public relations agency specializing in semiconductor, flat-panel display and microelectronics technologies, 2005 was a very good year. A number of these firms were honored by influential industry publications and analysts for outstanding achievements in technology, customer satisfaction and leadership initiatives. The awards publicly recognize these companies' innovative spirit and continuous focus on excellence-characteristics that are part of MCA's core values as well, according to agency CEO Jean LeMoin.

"These awards provide validation for our clients' ongoing efforts to develop exciting new products and technologies, while deepening customer relationships and strengthening corporate capabilities worldwide," LeMoin said. "For MCA, they represent an important component of increasing mindshare for these clients, and tangibly reflect the breadth of our client portfolio, both technologically and geographically."

MICRO magazine cited five MCA clients in its annual "Greatest Hits of 2005," which highlights some of the most compelling, advanced and useful products from those published throughout the year in its Product Technology News section. Companies recognized included: Advanced Energy Industries (Fort Collins, Colo.), for its Aera PI-980 pressure-sensitive mass-flow controllers (MFCs); Metara (Sunnyvale, Calif.), for its Sentry advanced in-line chemical metrology platform; KLA-Tencor Corp. (San Jose, Calif.), for its Puma 9000 series of patterned wafer-inspection tools targeted at 65-nm and smaller devices; Soitec (Bernin, France), for its line of strained silicon-on- insulator (sSOI) wafers; and Gigaphoton (Oyama, Japan), for its GT40A 4-kHz argon fluoride (ArF) excimer laser lithography light source.

SEMICON West conference attendees selected the Da Vinci series of single-wafer wet processing tools from the SEZ Group (Villach, Austria) for Solid State Technology's third annual Attendees' Choice Award. The products were named "Best Solution to a Problem" in the Wafer Processing Products category. The Da Vinci series was also the recipient of a 2005 Editors' Choice Best Product Award from Semiconductor International, which annually solicits nominations for products that demonstrate proven excellence in the advancement of wafer processing, chip assembly or packaging, and process testing capabilities. Another Editors' Choice honoree was the Surfscan SP2 unpatterned wafer-inspection tool from KLA-Tencor.

In addition to being recognized for the excellence of its products, KLA-Tencor scored corporate honors from several leading business publications. Forbes, in early 2005, ranked it as one of the best-managed companies in America, while Institutional Investor named former CEO Kenneth Schroeder America's Best CEO of a Semiconductor Capital Equipment company for 2005. The company was also named in Training magazine's Top 100 list, ranking fifth overall and first in Silicon Valley, for the fourth consecutive year, due to its unwavering commitment to learning and employee development.

KLA-Tencor and the SEZ Group were also named to industry-analyst firm VLSI Research Inc's venerable yearly "10 BEST" ranking of semiconductor- manufacturing suppliers, based on customer satisfaction. KLA-Tencor was among the "10 BEST" suppliers of process diagnostics equipment, while SEZ was one of the "10 BEST" small suppliers of wafer-processing equipment.

Last year's VLSI Research Customer Satisfaction Report also broke out ratings by Best Platform for the first time, recognizing those platforms customers rated most highly. Winners among MCA clients included ESI (Portland, Ore.), for its 9300 and 9800 laser-repair platforms; KLA-Tencor, for its 2300 and 2100 defect-inspection platforms and TeraScan reticle- inspection platform; Ultratech, Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), for its Saturn Spectrum wafer-exposure platform; and the SEZ Group, for its Da Vinci platform. VLSI Research further recognized SEZ Chairman and CEO Egon Putzi, naming him to its prestigious Chipmaking Industry Hall of Fame for having successfully made SEZ a consistently profitable single-wafer wet-processing company.

Longtime client Motorola Inc., Embedded Communications Computing (Tempe, Ariz.) received two editorial awards for its contributions to the growth of voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. Internet Telephony magazine named Motorola's first-generation VoIP Open Application-Enabling Platform (OAEP) a Product of the Year, while VoIP Magazine, just after the close of the year, cited Motorola as one of its 20 Companies to Watch in 2006.

On the emerging technologies front, EE Times included Applied Microstructures, Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) and Luminescent Technologies, Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) in its annual "Silicon 60" Emerging Start-ups list. Editors select companies based on a mix of criteria, including technology, intended market, maturity, financial position and investment profile. Applied Microstructures' molecular vapor deposition (MVD) technology also won the company one of Nanotech Briefs' first annual Nano 50 Awards, which highlight the innovative people and companies that are advancing the state of the art in nanotechnology.

About MCA

For more than two decades, technology and market leaders in the semiconductor, flat-panel display and microelectronics industries have relied on MCA's strategic public relations, investor relations and interdisciplinary communications counsel to successfully drive sales, increase valuation and build global brand. The Mountain View, Calif.-based firm counts among its clients some of today's hottest start-ups as well as established industry leaders, for whom MCA designs and delivers a full spectrum of business-to-business communications programs by translating the language of technology into the language of business. Visit http://www.mcapr.com for more information.

NOTE: All product, technology, publication and award names are property of their respective owners.

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