JMAR X-ray Lithography Advancements Could Enable Faster, More Efficient Gallium Arsenide Chip Production

Source: JMAR Technologies Inc.

- Patented Table-Top X-Ray Sources Now Generating 18 Watts, A 500% Improvement Since Previous Status Announcement

- Push By Wireless and Optical Telecom Industries for Broader Bandwidth Spurs the Need for High-Speed Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Semiconductors

- Sub-0.13 Micron X-Ray Lithography Offers Substantial Performance and Cost Advantages to Manufacturers of High-Bandwidth GaAs Chips

San Diego, CA. JMAR Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq NM:JMAR), announced today that a series of major technological advances in its Picosecond X-ray Light Source (PXS) program now qualify the Company s proprietary semiconductor lithography product as the enabling technology for a faster, more cost-effective alternative to the direct-write, electron beam sources currently used to produce advanced, sub-0.13 micron gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor integrated circuits used in the highest bandwidth communications network links.

JMAR reported that the key advance achieved during the past several months by its laser plasma X-ray source development team, headed by Dr. Cel Gaeta at JMAR Research, Inc. (JRI) in San Diego, was the production of a highly reliable laboratory prototype "soft" X-ray point-source system capable of generating 18 watts of one-nanometer wavelength X-rays on demand. JMAR believes that X-ray sources with these performance characteristics will enable cost-effective, high-volume production of the high-frequency gallium arsenide semiconductors needed to support the push to higher bandwidth (eg, 40 gigabit/sec switches and 30+ gigahertz wireless lines) by the rapidly expanding wireless and optical telecom industries for next generation voice and data communications.

"The capacity to move more data is called "bandwidth", explained JMAR Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John S. Martinez, Ph.D., "Whatever the transmission media, whether copper wires, optical fibers or wireless radio, the demand for increased network bandwidth is continuing to grow rapidly. However, the rate at which data can move through the network is ultimately limited by the network s lowest capacity links."

Dr. Martinez noted, "The bandwidth of the network links is frequently limited by the electronics at either end of the link. For example, the data rate through a fiber optic cable depends on the speed of operation of the senders and receivers at either end of the cable that supports data transmission. The electronics which provide these send/receive functions often are the network "bandwidth limiters." Most of today s fastest network links use send/receive semiconductor circuits fabricated from gallium arsenide rather than silicon because of the former material s higher-speed properties," Dr. Martinez noted. "The speed of these circuits is governed by a circuit element called a `gate which, as it is shortened, creates higher frequencies that in turn allow higher data transfer rates.

"Almost all of the high-speed, short-gate circuits now in use are being made with direct-write electron beam nanolithography processes," commented John Carosella, President of JMAR s NanoLight(TM) Division. "These processes are very slow and, as a result, the chips they produce are very expensive. In turn, this speed/price barrier is slowing the market penetration by the advanced telecommunications and other electronic products that industry and the general public are demanding," he said.

"We believe our X-ray source technology can effectively remove this roadblock to progress," Mr. Carosella said. "Our performance test results indicate that a point source X-ray lithography system using JMAR s current PXS and collimator technology - combined with X-ray stepper systems currently offered by SAL, Inc. in Vermont or Canon, Inc. in Japan - provides the basis for manufacturing high-speed gallium arsenide circuits at production rates many times faster than current electron beam lithography systems, and at a much lower per-unit cost. Unquestionably, our product will be highly attractive to any manufacturer of high-performance gallium arsenide chips desiring to reduce the cost of and expand the market for its products."

"This represents a tremendous market opportunity for JMAR," Dr. Martinez said. "According to "The Information Network", a semiconductor industry market research organization, the market for gallium arsenide chips is expected to grow 30% per year through 2004, when it will exceed $6 billion. That market is driven by the demand for high frequency circuits operating in excess of 10 gigahertz."

Dr. Martinez said that the key X-ray production advancements at JRI were achieved by improving the optical components in the Britelight(TM) laser system used to produce the X-rays; re-engineering the PXS X-ray generation chamber; and by further refining the positioning of the laser beams, thereby increasing the conversion efficiency of laser light to X-rays produced by the system s four Britelight(TM) laser modules.

He reported that, during the past 18 months, JMAR s PXS system has evolved from the original 2.5 to 3.0-watt single-laser module system the Company announced in March 1999, to an integrated pair of two-laser module systems that produced more than 14 watts of lithography-quality X-rays in early October of this year. He noted that those results were certified on-site by an independent, nationally known X-ray diagnostician. Since that certification, Dr. Martinez said, further refinements to the system have produced approximately 18 watts of one-nanometer X-rays from a single four-overlap laser beam system with reasonable expectations for exceeding 20 watts by year-end.

"I commend the outstanding accomplishments of JRI s X-ray source program," Dr. Martinez said. "Dr. Gaeta s team has taken the leading-edge, patented Britelight(TM) laser technology created at JMAR by Dr. Harry Rieger and combined it with the laser/plasma source technology developed both at JMAR and at England s Rutherford Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Edmond Turcu, now JMAR s Chief Scientist, to produce what we believe is the prototype of a practical point X-ray source for a range of commercially-viable, soft X-ray lithography and metrology applications. This is an important milestone in JMAR s NanoLight(TM) product development program. "But even with these recent breakthroughs, the full potential of this technology has yet to be unleashed," he added.

"Our current goal is to integrate JMAR s PXS sources into one or more available X-ray steppers for commercial and military GaAs producers in 2001. In parallel with that effort we plan to continue to scale-up the PXS to produce higher wafer throughput lithography systems for both GaAs and silicon semiconductor processing applications.

"We believe that there is a very substantial upside to the wafer processing potential of this "table-top" PXS X-ray source that goes far beyond its ability to impact the gallium arsenide market." Dr. Martinez added, "Our scale-up plan involves five parallel technology development efforts, each of which could significantly increase PXS wafer processing throughput capacity. First, we can increase X-ray output by boosting the repetition rate of the Britelight(TM) laser energy pulses. Second, we can increase the amount of laser light that is converted to X-rays by optimizing our laser beam overlapping techniques. Concurrently with these two steps, we intend to expand our joint industry and National Laboratory collimator development programs to produce a variety of devices that optimize the direction and the amount of PXS source X-rays that strike the lithography mask.

"The next major power-scaling step," Dr. Martinez explained, "will be to combine and focus the outputs of two four-beam laser modules into a single X-ray generation chamber. And finally, subject to the availability of additional financing, JMAR plans to collaborate with leading semiconductor industry photoresist-makers to develop practical, higher-sensitivity resists to reduce wafer X-ray exposure time periods, thereby further increasing X-ray lithography throughput. As we increase the X-ray power on the lithography masks and improve the sensitivity of the photoresists to the X-rays, the semiconductor wafer production rate of the point-source lithography system should increase well-beyond currently achievable levels, thereby further lowering manufacturing costs."

JMAR Technologies, Inc., a semiconductor industry-focused company, is a leading developer of proprietary advanced light sources for high-value microelectronics manufacturing and metrology. It is also a fabless provider of high performance integrated circuits for the rapidly growing broadband telecommunications market and other microelectronics applications. In addition, JMAR manufactures precision measurement, positioning and optical-based manufacturing systems for inspection and repair of semiconductors and continues to play an important role in adapting its precision semiconductor manufacturing technology to the fabrication of advanced biomedical and optical communications products.

The statements regarding JMAR s expectations for the successful development and introduction of new x-ray products and future sales and potential business opportunities are forward-looking statements based on current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. These risks include the failure of future orders to materialize as expected, delays in shipment or production, cancellation of orders, failure of acceptance of new products, failure of advanced technology and new intellectual property to perform as predicted, the failure of pending patents to be issued, and the other risks detailed in the company s Form 8-K filed on February 15, 2000, its 1999 Form 10-K and other reports filed with the SEC.

Contact: JMAR Technologies Inc. Dennis E. Valentine, CFO Tel: 760/602-3292 http://www.jmar.com