ANNOUNCEMENT, [Posted 1/30/2004 12:00:00 PM EST]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

NEW YORK - Jan. 29, 2004 - The electrical and electronics (E/E) industry turns out next-generation products perhaps faster than any other segment in the world. This rapid proliferation is due to intense, ever-increasing consumer demand and to the successful penetration of electronics technologies into virtually every other major sector, such as automotive, healthcare, converged devices, telecommunications, computers, and more. As such, constant change is the byword. Thus, suppliers of materials, equipment, and other products to the E/E industry must constantly innovate faster than the manufacturing curve in an effort to bring their customers leading-edge technologies that can add value and provide differentiation in a crowded field. One such company is GE Advanced Materials that today introduced several new product families for the growing E/E industry.

GE Advanced Materials is a newly organized GE business, officially formed on Jan. 1, 2004 and consisting of GE's three former materials businesses: GE Plastics, GE Silicones, and GE Quartz. GE Advanced Materials, headed by President and CEO John Krenicki, and headquartered in Pittsfield, Mass., is now in a position to bring together an array of proven E/E technologies and help customers develop meaningful, cost-effective product solutions. All three former GE businesses had a proven industry track record, and the combined product portfolio now offered under the GE Advanced Materials umbrella is extensive. This offering ranges from quartz crucibles used to grow silicone ingots; to heat-dissipating, interface-management materials to protect delicate integrated circuits (ICs); to connector materials that can survive high-temperature infrared (IR) reflow soldering; to silicone-based gels, coatings, and encapsulants; to high-performance polycarbonate and polyetherimide films; to wire coatings for plugs and direct current (DC) power cords.

Says Greg Adams, general manager, Global Marketing, GE Advanced Materials - Plastics, "Over the past two-plus years, while the materials industry was in a downturn, we didn't sleep. We repositioned, focusing on global E/E as one of our priorities. Now we're able to serve this sector better than in the past. GE Advanced Materials can touch almost every major segment of the industry," Adams said, "which is why we view ourselves as not just any materials supplier, but as a strategic, wing-to-wing, fully integrated supplier that can offer broad coverage virtually anywhere our customers need it."

GE Advanced Materials, Quartz - a leading producer of high-purity quartz and boron nitride for the semiconductor, electronics, fiber optic, lighting, and cosmetic sectors - is a major supplier of quartz and pyrolytic boron nitride (PBN) growth vessels. The quartz crucibles, which can be as large as 32 inches in diameter, are used to grow silicon ingots from polysilicon chunks, which are subsequently sliced into the wafers on which circuitry is formed. These vessels are also used to grow silicon wafers for photovoltaic cells used in producing solar-power. Normally the crucibles are single-use consumables because the surface of the crucible deteriorates under the heat stresses. However, in a joint development program with a leading wafer manufacturer, GE has developed a protective coating for the surface of the crucible, extending the life of crucibles and allowing for "re-charge" with polysilicon, thus significantly increasing output and single-crystal yield. PBN crucibles are used to grow gallium arsenide (GaAs) and other compound semiconductor ingots for higher frequency chip applications used in the telecommunications and optoelectronics segments.

According to Jeff Davis, vice president of Marketing & Sales, GE Advanced Materials - Quartz, "GE Advanced Materials' technology starts at the beginning. If we look at semiconductor production, the wafer is born in quartz crucibles, chips are processed in quartz chambers, and our technology helps the chips reach their full potential through thermal-management materials that pull the heat out so integrated circuits can operate properly. We can leverage years of quartz and ceramic material experience to support this segment in a number of critical ways."

These can include electrically fused quartz tubing (up to 650 mm) and rods (up to 55 mm), also produced by GE Advanced Materials - Quartz, that can be used to form the semiconductor equipment chambers, in which a wafer is subsequently treated to form IC chips. Additionally, GE can supply the industry's largest solid quartz ingots - now weighing up to four tons - which are machined down to form windows, boats, wafer carriers, plates, disks, flanges, and other components for supporting wafers or containing advanced processes.

Other GE ceramic-based products include heaters and electrostatic chucks for semiconductor wafer processing. They are available as fully dense ceramic "sandwiches" of both PBN and pyrolytic graphite (PG), which are uniform, offer fast response and excellent thermal shock resistance, and typically have very low outgassing, thanks to production via chemical-vapor deposition (CVD). Many alternatively available materials produced via sintering are often not as dense, potentially generating particles and outgassing impurities during IC manufacturing. Additionally, GE Advanced Materials produces PolarTherm® thermally conductive boron nitride fillers for adhesives, coatings, resins, and the epoxy laminates for the printed wiring board (PWB). These thermal-management additives can help pull heat away from the chip. For applications requiring the highest performance, GE's encapsulated TPG® thermal pyrolytic graphite can be used to solve hot-spot problems in heat spreaders, thermal cores in PWBs, and laser-diode mounts.

"The high-tech processes we use to produce our quartz and boron nitride materials not only make the materials work harder for customers," continues Davis, "but can also provide superior results. That means more reliable electronics for the ultimate customer - the consumer."

At this stage in the process, products from GE Advanced Materials - Plastics are often employed. Here, the company's special grades of low-ionic, high-purity LEXAN® resins - which also offer excellent impact strength and dimensional stability - are used to mold front-opening shipping boxes (FOSBs) that transport bare wafers from the ingot grower to the wafer fabs. The valuable wafers are then transported from one production step to another at the fab in front-opening unified pods (FOUPs) as they are systematically processed and loaded with intricate circuitry. FOUP shells molded from ULTEM® or LEXAN resins, and frames molded from ULTEM resin or carbon-fiber-filled polyetheretherketone compounds from LNP Engineering Plastics, help protect up to 25 wafers from bumps, contaminants, static discharge, outgassing, and other hazards as they move robotically through the semiconductor processing room.

Once dies or chips have been produced and cut from the wafer, GE Advanced Materials' silicone products begin to play the role of attaching and protecting the integrated circuitry and surrounding components on the board.

"We look at our role as one of safeguarding both the chip and board-level components; we make them more rugged and resistant to their environment," said Wayne Hewett, vice-president, general manager, GE Advanced Materials - Silicones."This is the domain of silicones.Here we provide thermal-interface products that pull heat from the chip; gels and elastomers for encapsulating and potting semiconductors; adhesives and sealants that attach components and seal out contaminants; and, conformal coatings that protect the printed-
circuit board itself. Almost everywhere in electronics, GE's silicone products add performance and value.

"One of our specialties is tailoring products to meet the needs of our customers," Hewett added. "With the fast growth of personal devices such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones, as well as the rapid miniaturization of medical diagnostic and other devices, we're seeing more of a demand for high-performance silicones than ever.The portable device segment is exactly the type of application area where, for example, our conformal coatings and vibration damping gels can really shine. They help to protect high-value electronics from contamination, electrical shock, and mechanical shock from rough handling," Hewett said.

One powerful trend affecting virtually any material used at the board level or below is the rapid and steady increase in thermal management. In fact, thermal-interface management is an estimated $3.7 billion segment, experiencing an average six-percent annual growth rate, which makes it one of the fastest-growing segments of the semiconductor industry. The rapid increase in electrical density on circuit boards directly translates into higher heat loads. "Everybody's bumping up against the thermal barrier," notes Hewett."You could say the electronics industry is waging a war with heat these days as devices get smaller and circuits
run faster and with more functionality. The trick is to figure out how to get the heat out quickly and efficiently. While effective design will help, the thermal budget is in the interface.The key has to be to move those BTUs somewhere else; that means developing better thermal-interface management products that form a bridge between the heat source and the heat extraction materials."

GE Advanced Materials' silicones business is responding to this challenge through its family
of low thermal resistance (LTR) die-attach adhesives and greases.The company plans to unveil a new line of LTR materials in 2004, which, vs. currently available products, will enable use of a thinner bond line between the semiconductor and heat spreader and improve the thermal pathway.

Another GE family of high-performance silicone products is currently being used to meet increasing thermal demand in applications where the trend is toward using longer-lasting gallium-nitride LEDs with higher brightness and greater resolution for displays and various types of lighting.These new-generation LEDs run at higher power and temperatures and require a brighter, more reliable white light source than in the past. This, in turn, necessitates that the materials that protect them shift to higher performance silicone polymers, as well. The epoxy encapsulants that were used for older LEDs often yellowed and lacked the optical efficiency and lifespan for use on the newer style gallium-nitride lights. High-clarity, non-yellowing silicone gel from GE Advanced Materials can provide a more robust solution for the new LED emitters, helping protect components from moisture, shock, and temperature extremes.

Hewett says the success of GE Advanced Materials' silicones business is the result of being in touch with customer needs."This industry moves very fast and requires suppliers to be close to their customers - it's necessary if you want to stay in the game. We always push ourselves to be where our customers need us," he added.

Underscoring this commitment is GE Advanced Materials' Electronic Materials Technical Center in Gotemba, Japan, that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2004. At this center, staffed by 20 GE scientists, the company plans to offer customers full-scale characterizations of a broad range of electronic materials, employing state-of-the-art equipment, product and processing guidance, and testing expertise. The Technical Center will also feature a full flip-chip assembly line, as well as failure- and reliability-analysis equipment. "We're making a significant investment in this facility to drive our electronic materials business forward everywhere we can," Hewett said.

Thermal challenges are also pushing performance requirements higher for insulation films used in capacitors, bobbins, conductive-ink substrates, shielding films, tapes, flexible heaters, bar-code labels, wire and cable jacketing, and flexible circuits.In many applications, such films are now being pushed into performance ranges that exceed the thermal performance of traditional polyester and polycarbonate resins.In this demanding category, GE's ULTEMT polyetherimide (PEI) films are being viewed as cost-performance alternatives, offering a number of potential benefits over more costly polyimide- (PI) based film products. For instance, PEI is self-sealing and also seals to other materials. It can also be metalized and offers good, broad chemical resistance; high thermal and low dielectric performance; and good dimensional stability.

New ULTEM 1000B film, for example, offers VTM-0 flame retardancy across a range of gauges. ULTEM 5000B film, also just recently introduced, offers excellent thermal performance, a glass-transition temperature (Tg) of 225C, and good resistance to chemicals. A third new grade, ULTEM EXSP0023 high-heat film, offers 20C higher thermal performance than ULTEM 5000B film and is designed for applications requiring 200C temperature exposure. GE scientists are working hard to drive ULTEM film performance even higher.

The use of GE's ULTEM film is also being driven by the growth of flexible printed circuits, thanks largely to the rapid expansion of displays for cell phones, flat-panel screens, optical drives, and more.Many of these devices are now moving from two to five or six flexible circuits/unit, which is fuelling growth and leading some OEMs to look carefully at areas where flex circuits may be over-specified in PI - a trend that may lead to new opportunities for the new ULTEM films. These materials are also being viewed as potential replacements for polyimide in pressure-sensitive tapes and solder-mask tapes for electronics processing.

Another area where GE Advanced Materials' innovation may help customers advance circuit technologies is in higher-temperature connector materials for IR reflow soldering. New legislation in Europe and Asia is restricting the use of certain chemicals and heavy-metal compounds in manufacturing processes, including the E/E industry. Lead, used in conventional wave soldering processes, is one of the materials being phased out under RoHS registration. This same legislation is also starting to restrict the use of brominated flame retardants and heavy-metal pigments, driving the development of polymers with new eco-sensitive, flame-retardant technologies that also have the high thermal stability. Additionally, the WEEE waste and recycling regulation of 2006 will require brominated compounds - in waste streams from segments such as computing, business equipment, and cell phones - to be separated from non-brominated polymers during collection and recycling. Since OEMs are actively searching for ways to proactively address these changes, they are increasingly looking to their suppliers for materials that can meet these standards. Fortunately, GE Advanced Materials' technologies are already available to meet these demands in, for example, LNP's new THERMOCOMP® HT Solder composites. These products, developed for the lead-free solder process, are excellent potential FR candidates for use on a variety of eco-label applications, offering higher thermal performance for reflow soldering vs. many commonly used alternative materials.

GE Advanced Materials' technology is also gaining ground in the optical films arena in such rapidly growing application areas as liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). These displays are found most prominently on computer monitors, notebook PCs, and televisions, with more-diminutive versions being added to cell phones, PDAs, automotive displays, GPS navigation units, cameras, portable DVD players, and medical monitoring units.

The rapid growth of this segment - greater than 25 percent last year alone - has left the industry facing capacity constraints, supply-chain consolidation, and the need to gain productivity and push down costs. At the same time that new plants are ramping up, there are major efforts to push the technology to brighter, larger screens.

As part of the new technologies introduced today, GE Advanced Materials has unveiled a new, high-performance optical film line for the LCD segment. Based on the company's LEXAN polycarbonate resin, the new LEXAN ILLUMINEXT diffuser films are designed to diffuse and transmit the backlit light source via both resin additive technologies and engineered surfaces created during the optical film manufacturing process. Polyester films use polymeric beads and coatings to diffuse light. LEXAN ILLUMINEX films, however, feature built-in optical performance and are much more durable, helping to eliminate coating failures and defects, reducing scrap, and increasing the potential for greater yields. The new GE films can also increase display brightness and uniformity, reduce image blur, and improve view-angle optics.

New electrocoating products - called the XE 11 Series - from the company's silicones business can be used to coat the electrode itself on plasma displays. For higher voltage applications, TSE 944 electrocoatings have recently been developed. Adds Hewett, "Displays are a good example of the breadth of technology GE Advanced Materials can bring to bear on a challenge. Here we have our former GE Plastics and GE Silicones technologies being combined under the new organization to provide customers with a comprehensive display solution."

Other materials solutions for the E/E industry can be found in the wide array of additional polymers, films, and compounds that GE Advanced Materials manufactures and supplies. From use in impact-resistant covers for cell phones, to high-stiffness and UV-resistant chassis for computers and printers, to soft-touch elastomers that make handling and carrying electrical devices more slip-proof and comfortable, the company's products are widely in use. The same is true in wiring applications where GE's new NORYL® WCD910 and WCP860 resins are being used for wire jacketing and plugs on DC power cords in a range of electronic devices such as cell phone and PDA chargers, and CD players.These materials have been formulated to be free of the halogenated flame retardants and heavy-metal pigments that are raising environmental concerns.

Also introduced today by GE Advanced Materials are new grades of LEXAN EXL and LEXAN SLX resins. The former is a polycarbonate/siloxane resin that provides various levels of flame retardancy, broad chemical resistance, and enhanced weatherability for applications in areas such as portable electronics, converged devices, telecommunications, and handheld computer products. The new LEXAN SLX resins are opaque, highly weatherable products that were developed to address environmental issues and the costs associated with painting plastic parts in applications that require long-term retention of color and gloss in demanding outdoor use. Among the potential application areas for these new injection-molding products are outdoor telecommunications equipment.

"The global E/E industry is increasingly recognizing GE Advanced Materials for the tremendous synergies we can bring to problem-solving and product differentiation, beyond just exterior housings," Adams added. "Drawing from our wide-ranging plastics, silicones, and quartz technologies, we can deliver meaningful, cost-effective solutions to some of the most challenging and high-tech applications the industry has to offer. We are firmly committed to E/E, which is why we've invested resources in a down cycle and aligned ourselves with key OEMs around the world to lead the industry's materials technology march into the future."

GE Advanced Materials is a world leader in providing materials solutions through engineering thermoplastics, silicon-based products and technology platforms, and fused quartz and ceramics. Headquartered in Pittsfield, Mass., GE Advanced Materials is the combined entity of GE's former Plastics, Silicones, and Quartz businesses. Its offerings include:

• Silanes, specialty silicones, urethane additives, adhesives, sealants, caulks, resins, and elastomers for a variety of vertical markets such as personal care, automotive, tire and rubber, construction, healthcare, electronics, household and institutional, agriculture, textiles, appliances, bedding and furnishings, and foam control, as well as the consumer "do-it-yourself" market (www.gesilicones.com);
  
• Engineering thermoplastics resins serving customers in a variety of industries including aerospace, appliances, automotive, building and construction, data storage and optical media, medical, electrical and electronics devices, telecommunications, computers and peripheral devices, outdoor vehicles and devices, and packaging (www.geplastics.com);
  
• High-purity quartz and advanced ceramic materials for the semiconductor, telecommunications, lighting, electronics, personal care, and water purification industries. GE Advanced Materials is a leading supplier of quartz materials to the semiconductor industry (www.gequartz.com).
  

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PolarTherm, TPG, LEXAN, ULTEM, THERMOCOMP, and NORYL are registered trademarks of General Electric Company.
ILLUMINEX is a trademark of General Electric Company.