JMAR to Upgrade Collimated Laser Plasma Lithography System

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 1 -- JMAR Technologies Inc., a developer of collimated laser plasma lithography systems, announced it received $7.7 million in funding to demonstrate its integrated NanoPulsar semiconductor lithography stepper system and its evaluation by GaAs end users. This program is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The new funding is part of an incremental $34.5 million award JMAR received from the U.S. Army in February.

Under the new contract, JMAR will increase the processing throughput of its CPL system by increasing the laser source power output, develop advanced collimators to provide higher intensity light on the semiconductor wafer targets and optimize the throughput levels of the stepper. Over the next few years, JMAR's business plan calls for further improvements in the CPL system to meet the higher processing throughput requirements of the much larger silicon semiconductor market.

In February, JMAR announced its receipt of an incrementally-funded $34.5 million award from the U.S. Army. In June, 2002, JMAR reported that $5.3 million of that contract had been funded from the FY 2001 Congressional Appropriations Bill. Today's announcement heralds the addition of another funding increment of $7.7 million.

Joseph G. Martinez, JMAR's Interim Chief Executive Officer, said, "With this current round of DARPA funding, along with our previously announced contract with IBM for x-ray photomasks, we believe JMAR is positioned to provide high-speed gallium arsenide chip producers with a more cost-effective lithography process for making their high-performance military and commercial products."

For more information, visit: www.jmar.com