October 9, 2001 – Fremont, CA – Brad Mattson, founder and CEO of Mattson Technology, is retiring and has resigned as CEO of the company.

Mattson will relinquish his operating responsibilities of Mattson Technology, a supplier of advanced process equipment used to manufacture semiconductors, but will remain as vice chairman of the company’s board of directors and will continue to work with the company on strategic issues.

The board of directors has appointed seven-year Mattson veteran David Dutton, president of the company’s plasma division, as acting CEO until the board appoints Mattson’s successor. Dutton was COO of pre-merger Mattson Technology and has served as acting president during Brad Mattson’s recent sabbatical.

Brad Mattson stated, “I’ve been very pleased to lead this company to become one of the top semiconductor equipment companies. Now it is time to turn over operating responsibility to the new management team we’ve put in place over the last year so that I can spend my efforts to focus on strategic issues and pursue outside personal goals that I’ve delayed for so long. I remain very excited about the company’s future. In fact, though I am already a major shareholder of the company, I recently purchased an additional 100,000 shares of stock in the open market.”

Jochen Melchior, chairman of the board of directors stated, “Brad Mattson is an industry visionary. We appreciate all that he has done in helping build the company to what it is today and look forward to his continued contributions in his new role.”