For Immediate Release

Five Star Semiconductor Equipment Suppliers

Media Release

Santa Clara, CA November 30, 2011: Fourteen semiconductor equipment companies qualified for VLSIresearchs five star rating in 2011. These five star suppliers, drawn from VLSIresearchs 2011 customer satisfaction survey, garnered the highest ratings from their customers and performed exceptionally across all rating categories in customer service, supplier and equipment performance.

Charts, graphs, and text extracted from this press release must be accompanied by a statement clearly identifying the VLSIresearch 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey on Chip Making Equipment as the source. No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in this release or VLSIresearch 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey results without the express prior written consent of VLSIresearch.

The new five star semiconductor equipment suppliers in 2011 are ASML, Hitachi High Technologies, Nissin Ion Corporation, Plasma-Therm, Rite Track, and Tokyo Electron. These equipment suppliers have improved their performance from the previous year, showing that there is plenty of opportunity to improve customer satisfaction among semiconductor equipment users. The five star metrics are designed to capture companies that have superior ratings for customer service, organizational performance, and equipment performance. Companies and organizations excelling in all metrics are rare and deserve public recognition for their achievement. Because of this the five star companies represent the top performers among semiconductor equipment companies. They are exemplary performers and highly valued by their customers in key customer satisfaction metrics.