CARSEM CONTINUES TO EXPAND MLP (QFN) CAPACITY

Scotts Valley, CA- September 8, 2004-Carsem, a leading provider of turnkey packaging and test services to the semiconductor industry, announced today that they will increase their capacity for the MLP (Micro Leadframe Package) family to a total of 155 million units per month. In September last year Carsem had a monthly capacity of 50 million in their Malaysian factories. Since then it has been increased to a current capacity of 90 million and by November this year the capacity will be ramped to 135 million. In addition, another 20 million is being added in the new Carsem-Suzhou factory, which is in the province of Jiangsu 50 miles (80 km) west of Shanghai. The total capacity is a combination of both saw and mechanical singulation technologies.

According to Paul Smith, Carsem's Director of Marketing, "Although this package still represents less than 5% of the IC packages assembled world wide it continues to be a very popular choice for many of the new generation devices, especially in the area of RF applications." Smith further stated, "The popularity is enhanced because of our ability to quickly provide new package designs utilizing our sister company Dynacraft, which is a major supplier of leadframes. This, combined with our saw singulation technology, allows us to significantly shorten the lead time in producing prototype parts and drastically reduces our customer's time to market."

David Comley, Group Managing Director, stated, "We will continue to make major investments in our MLP package capacity including our turn key test solutions. We feel we are the leader in the saw singulation technology that is used to produce the MLPQ (Quad) and MLPD (Dual) versions. In addition, by the end of the year, we will begin shipping production volumes using our new High-Density approach. We are committed to assuring our customers that we will fully support their MLP needs well into the future."

Carsem MLPQ's are QFN (Quad Flat No-lead) type packages that are compliant to JEDEC's MO220 and MLPD's are SON (Small Outline No-lead) type packages that are MO229 compliant.

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.