New Unified Atmospheric Tool Front-End Offers Industry-Leading Performance, Low Cost-of-Ownership

FREMONT, Calif.—July 14, 2003 — Answering the semiconductor industry’s need for wafer handling solutions that combine high performance with low cost of ownership, Asyst Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASYT) today introduced the Spartan™ Portal, a revolutionary unified atmospheric equipment front-end module (EFEM).

Traditional EFEMs are produced through the highly labor- and time-intensive integration of off-the-shelf components, including atmospheric wafer-handling robotics, loadports, wafer ID and tracking readers, mini-environments, and control software. This union forms a complex front-end solution that frequently results in problems with interoperability, fault detection and handling, and supplier accountability.

As the pioneer in SMIF technology with two decades of engineering and support experience in all aspects of atmospheric wafer handling, Asyst has worked with fab customers and equipment manufacturers to resolve the complex interoperability and other issues inherent in multivendor automation environments. Informed by this experience, Asyst has been at the forefront of the movement toward fully integrated EFEMs such as its Plus™ Portal and Plus™ Portal XT.

With the Spartan Portal, Asyst has taken a revolutionary step forward to create a platform designed from the outset as a unified atmospheric wafer handling solution. Spartan offers higher throughput and reduced particle levels, and is less complex, more reliable, more interoperable, easier to integrate, smaller, lighter, and more energy efficient than any functionally equivalent system.

“Chipmakers today are planning next-generation fabs that will use an unprecedented level of automation to reduce costs and increase productivity,” said Wayne Nobles, vice president and general manager of Asyst’s Systems Division. “They are concerned about total cost of ownership, which includes not only acquisition cost, but also the time and cost of installation and setup, planned and unplanned service and maintenance, and lost production due to failures and interoperability issues. OEMs are expected to address these issues in the design and delivery of their tools, including the automated wafer handling solution. Because the Spartan Portal offers a truly unified architecture, it embodies the absolute minimum scale and complexity necessary to accomplish its core job of transferring wafers from the carrier to the tool and back again as cleanly and as quickly as possible. This reduces cost and increases reliability, while delivering industryleading throughput and particle performance. For all these reasons, we believe that the Spartan Portal is the right solution for both equipment makers and their fab customers.”

The Spartan Portal is available to OEM customers with competitive lead times based on configuration. The Spartan Portal comes with Asyst’s industry-leading warranty and performance specifications guarantee. Typical specifications include:

• ISO Class 1 or better compact mini-environment
• Active edge grip wafer contact
• Complete SEMI compliance
• One to four FOUP inline configuration
• Control by host computer or system controller
• Optional wafer pre-aligner and OCR capabilities

About Asyst Technologies
Asyst Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated automation solutions that enable semiconductor manufacturers to increase manufacturing productivity and protect investments in silicon wafers during the manufacture of integrated circuits, or ICs. The company offers a broad range of 200mm and 300mm solutions that enable the safe transfer of wafers and information between process equipment and the fab line throughout the IC fabrication process, while reducing IC damage caused by human, environmental, mechanical and chemical factors. Encompassing isolation systems, work-in-process materials management, substrate-handling robotics, automated transport and loading systems, and connectivity automation software, Asyst’s modular, interoperable solutions allow chipmakers and original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, to select and employ the value-assured, hands-off manufacturing capabilities that best suit their needs. Asyst’s homepage is http://www.asyst.com

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes statements that are forward-looking, such as statements regarding future product development plans and anticipated product opportunities. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. These factors include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions, semiconductor industry cycles, risks and uncertainties associated with the development of new technology and the acceptance of new products and product capabilities and other factors more fully detailed in the Companies’ most recent 10-K and 10-Q reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

CONTACT:
Investor Contact
John Swenson
Asyst Technologies, Inc.
(510) 661-5000
(510) 661-5166 (fax)
jswenson@asyst.com

Media Contact
Pamela Mah
Asyst Technologies, Inc.
510/661-5000
pmah@asyst.com