Jobin Yvon acquires Philips' ellipsometry business unit

October 2002

Royal Philips Electronics of The Netherlands and Jobin Yvon of France announce today that they have finalised an agreement for the transfer of the Ellipsometry business line of the former Philips Analytical business unit to Jobin Yvon. The transaction includes metrology tools such as the table top PZ laser ellipsometer, which Philips had previously acquired from Plasmos (Munich, Germany), and the PQ Ruby fully automated 200mm wafer platform, to determine thickness of thin film.

Philips is pleased that a continuation of its activity is thus achieved and that service and support commitments to the installed base will be met.

Jobin Yvon complements its pioneering spectroscopic ellipsometer product line with an excellent laser technology and will benefit from the past five years of investment at Philips to develop the PZ/PQ tools.

With more than 15 Thin Film Characterisation PhDs in its R&D department and its application labs worldwide, Jobin Yvon positions itself as "The Ellipsometry Specialists" offering a comprehensive product line and a unique capacity to help customers select the metrology best adapted to their needs.

Jobin Yvon is a member company of the Horiba Group of Kyoto Japan.

Contacts :

Philips : Andre.Manning@Philips.com

Jobin Yvon : jy@jyhoriba.co.uk

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of EUR 32.3 billion in 2001. It is a global leader in colour television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 184,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.

Jobin Yvon of France is a multinational organisation that has supplied instrumentation for optical spectroscopy and light investigations since the year 1819. With sales of EUR 90 million in 2001 and more than 500 employees in France, the USA, Germany, UK, China and Italy, Jobin Yvon is a leader in diffraction gratings, raman spectroscopy, spectrofluorimetry and the analysis of thin film. Jobin Yvon is a member of the Horiba Group (3500 employees, sales of $650 million in 2001), one of the largest analytical instrument manufacturers in the world.