April 25, 2006 – Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd., Rehovoth, Israel, a provider of metrology and process control systems, has agreed to acquire the assets of HyperNex for approximately $4.5 million in an all-stock transaction. The former wholly owned subsidiary of ATMI has developed a wide-angle X-Ray Diffraction (“XRD”) standalone metrology system for 65nm-and-below semiconductor manufacturing. The technology, in production since 2004, targets characterization of microstructures to enable quality control for thin metal layers such as copper, tungsten, seed, and barrier layers.

The added business likely will account for about 10% of Nova’s revenue this year. Once completed, the transaction is expected to be accretive to full-year earnings on a pro-forma basis (excluding nonrecurring acquisition-related charges).

The HyperNex purchase “will strengthen our offering in the high-end standalone metrology market and expands our array of process control solutions,” stated Giora Dishon, Nova president and CEO. “HyperNex’s X-ray-based process control capabilities complement our spectrophotometry and scatterometry based solutions, which will enable us to provide complete metrology solutions for critical steps such as gate structures and copper interconnect.”