AUSTIN, TEXAS, MAY 21, 2001-Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL), was today presented a Supplier Excellence Award from Texas Instruments (TI) in their Dallas headquarters office. The award, presented annually since 1983, is presented to less than one percent of TI's supplier base.

TEL's Etch Systems B.U. received the Supplier Excellence Award for overall customer satisfaction, improved cost-of-ownership, excellent support during 300mm start-up and local sales and service support. K. Bala, TI Executive Vice President, presented the award to Mitsuru Onozato, TEL's Group General Manager for the Litho-Cell group. Other members of the TI and TEL executive staff were also present to witness the award presentation. This is the third time TEL has received a Supplier Excellence Award from TI.

"TEL and TI have a very long standing relationship as partners, and we are very proud that our etch team has made such strides in customer service and product reliability." said Tetsuro Higashi, C.E.O., President of Tokyo Electron Limited "We are committed to continuously improving upon our customer relationships as the industry changes to meet the emerging technologies."

"Tokyo Electron's Etch Business's outstanding commitment to continuous improvement, overall quality, and excellent process performance made them an obvious choice for our most prestigious award. TEL was the benchmark equipment supplier for the startup of TI's state-of-the-art 300mm production facility, DMOS 6. Using their recommended procedures, installation time was reduced by up to sixty percent. TEL was, and continues to be, a critical partner for TI.", said Rob Simpson, Director, Wafer Fabrication Equipment Procurement at TI.