CARSEM'S MATURE LEAD-FREE SOLUTION

City of Industry, CA- February 20, 2001- Carsem, a leading provider of turnkey packaging and test services to the semiconductor industry, announced today they offer 100% tin (Sn) plating as a lead(Pb)-free solution for standard leaded products.

According to Gerry Blackholly, Carsem's Vice President of Sales & Marketing, "we began working on a lead free program more than two years ago based on a global demand that the industry move towards lead free packaging beginning CY 2001. Working in conjunction with some of our key customers, and based on standards established by Japan's Electronic Industry Association and Europe's Waste in Electrical and Electronic legislation, Carsem chose pure tin plating as our standard lead-free option. The results of the plating development program are outstanding and are supported with over 28 months of long-term storage and associated reliability data. Carsem has tin plate capability for the majority of packages being assembled by our factories and to date we have built more than 10 million parts using pure tin plating."

GREEN INITIATIVE
"Carsem is committed to the support of industry ÔGreen' initiatives and will we continue our efforts to provide environmentally friendly products and process options to our customers. We have several ongoing programs to not only eliminate lead from all of our package offerings but we are also working with key customers and suppliers to eliminate both antimony and bromine as well. This effort includes board level reliability studies as well, " stated David Comley, Group Managing Director of Carsem Malaysia.

About Carsem
Carsem is a leading provider of turnkey packaging and test services to the semiconductor industry, and offers one of the widest ranges of package & test portfolios in the world. To meet the growing demands of the telecommunications and wireless markets for smaller, faster, thermally-efficient devices, Carsem's portfolio includes several advanced technologies, such as the Micro Leadframe Package (MLP), Small Scale Ball Grid Array (SSBGA), Flip Chip On Leadframe (FCOL), and a SiP (System-in-Package) capability. Carsem also offers a full range of turnkey test services for RF, mixed-signal, linear, digital and power devices. Our factories maintain world-class quality standards having achieved SAC Level 1, ISO-9001, ISO-14001, QS-9000, TS16949 certifications, and are supported with a global network of sales and engineering support offices. Carsem is a member of the Hong Leong Group with factories located in Ipoh, Malaysia, Suzhou, China and sales offices across the USA, plus the UK. Carsem, Inc. sales headquarters is located at 269 Mt. Hermon Road, Suite 104, Scotts Valley, CA 95066, phone (831) 438-6861, fax (831) 438-6863, web site: www.carsem.com.