Presto Engineering Offering Semiconductor Test And Analysis Services in New European Hub

Company Brings Labless Business Model to Europe Via Acquisition of Equipment and Infrastructure from NXP

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Feb. 26, 2010 — Presto Engineering Inc., a pioneer of the labless business model for bringing semiconductor products into volume production, announced today the opening of its new services hub in Caen, France. The new hub, which includes equipment and infrastructure acquired from NXP Semiconductors’ facility in Caen, offers comprehensive failure analysis and reliability testing for semiconductor companies in Europe and Israel.

The hub will be operated by Presto Engineering Europe. The recently formed subsidiary has named Patrick Poirier director of operations at the new facility and Neji Sanaa director of sales.

Presto’s state-of-the-art capabilities include enhanced RF and 3D-integration expertise and advanced test, reliability, fault-isolation and failure-analysis services. By outsourcing these steps, chip companies are able to cut costs and free resources for their core business.

Bringing an advanced chip design into silicon requires a variety of advanced test and analytical techniques. Presto’s Design Success Analysis™ offering eases this process by providing first-silicon validation, as well as characterization of new processes, new designs, and process transfers. Capabilities include comprehensive custom ATE hardware interfaces (such as load modules, probe cards, DUT cards and thermal interfaces) and product-engineering services.

More broadly, Presto can proactively and reactively address a variety of design-to-manufacturing challenges. Presto’s product debug services include ATE-coupled in-silicon analytical capabilities, with extensive backside silicon analysis; additional release-acceleration offerings include reliability services. The company’s hubs can also maximize the utility of expensive test chips and engineering, validating simulation results and characterizing timing, power, leakage, and other parameters.

“This new facility is the springboard for Presto’s expansion into Europe and our introduction of the labless model to that key market, which includes some of the world’s top fabless design houses, fab lines, and other members of the semiconductor community,” said Michel Villemain, CEO of Presto Engineering. “For the first time, European chip companies have access to a state-of-the-art lab with a staff of highly skilled engineers and technology specialists offering advanced outsourced test and analysis capabilities,” said operations director Poirier. “We are open for business and we invite Europe’s diverse chip companies to meet with us and see how we can help assure the success of their next product.”

Poirier has more than 20 years of experience in the electronics and microelectronics industries, including management positions with Philips/NXP. From 2005 to 2010, he oversaw the NXP Semiconductors reliability and failure analysis lab. At NXP, he and Jean-Noël Palazin led the lab externalization project that resulted in the acquisition by Presto. Palazin, with 33 years experience at various management positions with Philips and NXP, will continue to serve Presto Engineering Europe as a consultant in charge of External relations and Partnerships.

Sanaa, director of sales for Presto Engineering Europe, has more than 21 years of management experience in ATE. In more than a dozen years at Schlumberger, he worked with all the company’s ATE products. In 2000, Sanaa was named head of Schlumberger’s services and DCG application business unit. In 2005, he headed the combined service business units of NPTest and Credence, which had annual revenue of $20 million from business in Europe, North America and Asia.

Meet with Presto Engineering Europe at DATE2010 Conference in Germany

Presto Engineering Europe will exhibit at the Design, Automation & Test in Europe (DATE) conference in Dresden, Germany, March 8-12. Attendees are invited to visit Stand No. 8 to meet with Presto personnel for an in-depth technical discussion of the services available at its European hub.

About Presto Engineering

Presto Engineering introduced the labless business model to the semiconductor industry in 2007 when it acquired Cypress Semiconductor’s product-engineering lab. The company helps IDMs and fabless customers improve new device predictability and speed to market by complementing their internal resources with comprehensive chip test and analysis. Supported by unique technical skills and extensive industry experience, Presto’s product-engineering services include RF and 3D integration and state-of-the-art ATE, reliability testing, failure analysis and fault isolation. The company recently expanded into Europe by acquiring lab infrastructure of NXP Semiconductor in Caen, France, and establishing a subsidiary Presto Engineering Europe. Presto Engineering, an ISO 9001 company, is based in San Jose, Calif. Additional information is available on the company’s website at www.presto-eng.com.