TRW and RFMD Announce Expansion of Strategic Relationship

TRW and RFMD Announce Expansion of Strategic Relationship

REDONDO BEACH, Calif./GREENSBORO, N.C. TRW (NYSE:TRW) and RF Micro Devices (Nasdaq:RFMD) announced jointly today the expansion of their strategic relationship through several agreements that license RFMD to use TRW s patented gallium arsenide heterojunction bipolar transistor (GaAs HBT) technology to manufacture products for commercial coaxial and other non-fiber wire applications, including the broadband wired market. Products serving this fast growing market include cable television distribution amplifiers, cable modems, digital television converters and television tuners, both analog and digital. "The agreements underscore the strong, ongoing relationship between TRW and RFMD," said Timothy W. Hannemann, executive vice president and general manager of the TRW Space & Electronics Group. "Together, we have successfully penetrated the wireless telecommunications market, and we are just as optimistic about these new products for wired telecommunications. TRW is very pleased to expand our strategic technology relationship with RFMD." TRW further committed to a continued equity position in RFMD, agreeing to maintain stock ownership of at least 10 percent of current outstanding RFMD stock until at least May 1, 2001. In exchange for the expanded license, RFMD granted TRW warrants for the purchase of 750,000 RFMD shares, which become exercisable in 2001 and are subject in part to the achievement of certain milestones. In addition, the parties agreed to enter into negotiations with each other regarding additional license arrangements and an extended GaAs HBT supply agreement. "The expansion of our GaAs HBT license opens the possibilities of significant additional products for RFMD," said David Norbury, president and chief executive officer for RFMD. "We believe that the Broadband Product Line, announced earlier today, will immediately utilize this license expansion." In 1996, TRW and RFMD announced their first strategic alliance, a license for RFMD to build commercial wireless products using TRW s GaAs HBT technology. Since then, RFMD has focused its business on developing and manufacturing RFICs for wireless applications such as cellular and PCS phones. Following RFMD s secondary offering in January of this year, TRW s equity ownership in RFMD was approximately 27 percent. Since that time, TRW has reduced its ownership in RFMD to approximately 20 percent, raising proceeds to pay off debt incurred to finance its acquisition of LucasVarity. Subject to market conditions, TRW intends to reduce its holdings in RFMD further to continue its debt reduction efforts, but has agreed to hold a minimum of 7.94 million shares of RFMD stock until at least May 1, 2001. "Despite the need to reduce debt, TRW continues to see a substantial value creation opportunity with RFMD, as evidenced by our investment of additional intellectual property to address new markets under this agreement," added Hannemann. In today s announcement, the two firms reaffirmed and expanded their ongoing cooperative relationship. TRW and RFMD agreed to continue the exchange of technical information regarding HBT technology, regular consultation on new technologies applicable to RFMD s markets, negotiation of further expansion of existing licenses to new applications or fields of use, and the discussion of additional licenses of new technologies. William J. Pratt, RFMD s chairman and chief technical officer said, "This new agreement with TRW, which binds our companies together, is important to continue the success already demonstrated through our existing cooperation. We see TRW as a technology partner that will give us a significant edge on our competition in the future."

RF Micro Devices, Inc., an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer, designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary RFICs for wireless communications applications such as cellular and PCS phones, cordless phones, wireless LANs, wireless local loop handsets, industrial radios, wireless security systems and remote meter readers. RFMD offers a broad array of products -- including amplifiers, mixers, modulators/demodulators, and single-chip receivers, transmitters and transceivers -- that represent a substantial majority of the RFICs required in wireless subscriber equipment. RFMD s strategy is to focus on wireless markets by offering a broad range of standard and custom designed RFICs in order to position itself as a "one-stop" solution for its customers RFIC needs. RF Micro Devices, Inc. is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol RFMD. RF Micro Devices(R) and RFMD(TM) are trademarks of RF Micro Devices, Inc. All other tradenames, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about RFMD can be found at http://www.rfmd.com. TRW Space & Electronics Group is an operating unit of TRW Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, which provides advanced technology products and services for the global automotive, aerospace and information systems markets. The company s 1998 sales totaled nearly $12 billion. TRW news releases are available on the corporate Web site: www.trw.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to RFMD s plans, objectives, estimates and goals. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes " and "estimates," and variations of such words and similar expressions, identify such forward-looking statements. RFMD s business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including probable variability in RFMD s quarterly operating results, manufacturing capacity constraints, risks associated with RFMD s operation of its current wafer fabrication facility and the construction of an additional facility, dependence on a limited number of customers, variability in production yields, RFMD s ability to manage rapid growth, dependence on third parties and risks associated with doing business in Asia and other areas of the world. These and other risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in RFMD s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, could cause actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any of these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:
TRW Dan McClain
310/812-4702
dan.mcclain@trw.com

RFMD
Jerry D. Neal
336/664-1233
jneal@rfmd.com