Press Releases
Intersil Fabrication Facility Expands IGBT Capability

— Increased output to meet soaring demand for SMPS Series IGBTs

PALM BAY, FL, May 11, 2000 — Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL), a leading provider of power management solutions for today’s integrated communications applications, today announced that its Mountaintop, Pennsylvania fabrication facility will begin producing Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS) Series IGBTs. The second Intersil facility qualified to manufacture SMPS insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), the Mountaintop plant is expected to help meet the increasing demand for the devices that address the 24 X 7 power management demands of today’s Internet infrastructure.

Intersil’s SMPS IGBTs are tailored for the high current power densities and high frequency switching requirements of power supplies and telecom switches that comprise the backbone of today’s Internet. Since the introduction of Intersil’s SMPS IGBT last year, order demand has increased every quarter. The Mountaintop facility will join the current plant located in Findlay, Ohio in manufacturing IGBTs in an effort to satisfy market demand.

"We are pleased to bring the Mountaintop facility on line for SMPS IGBT production," said Paul Leonard vice president of Industrial and Automotive power products at Intersil. "The positive and dramatic market response to Intersil’s SMPS IGBTs is a testament to the company’s engineers and to the Findlay facility. As demand continues to escalate, Intersil’s fabrication facilities will operate in concert to produce the high quality Discrete Power devices that are so highly regarded by customers."

Intersil’s Mountaintop SMPS IGBT manufacturing process occurs on a six-inch wafer that significantly improves throughput. This process improvement ensures efficient manufacturing, resulting in low cost, high performance SMPS IGBTs that greatly improve the performance of power systems supporting integrated communication applications. Both Intersil SMPS IGBT fabs employ state-of-the-art stepper lithography technology in the production of silicon wafers. Unlike projection lithography which reproduces individual surface layers of circuitry at once, stepper lightography reproduces surface layers much more accurately, and one circuit at a time. The result is a more reliable form of wafer manufacturing that ensures the critical detail needed for accurate circuit reproduction. Both fabs feature class 10 clean room facilities that ensure high quality and low defect density for the entire SMPS IGBT product line.

Intersil’s SMPS IGBT production facilities have earned industry-standard ISO9001 and ISO9002 certifications. Additionally, they are QS9000 certified for the fabrication of automotive devices.

About Intersil SMPS IGBTs
Intersil’s SMPS IGBT devices are MOS gated, high voltage switching devices combining the best features of MOSFETs and bipolar transistors. The devices deliver the high input impedance of a MOSFET and the low on state conduction loss of a bipolar transistor. The family is designed for high voltage switching applications where high operating frequencies and low switching/conduction losses are essential, including AC/DC switch mode power supplies, high voltage DC/DC, power factor correction (PFC) stages and uninterruptible power supplies UPS).

About Intersil
Intersil uses its semiconductor expertise to enable highly integrated voice, data and video communications. Intersil's integrated communications portfolio includes PRISM^® Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) chip sets that enable mobile connectivity products for the home and office; analog, mixed-signal and digital integrated circuits for broadband access to wireless and wired Wide Area Networks (WANs); and power management products that enable 24x7 reliability in network servers, next generation PCs and information appliances. For more information about Intersil, visit the company's Internet homepage at www.intersil.com.

PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Corporation.

This press release contains information relating to certain projections and business trends, that are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to global and market conditions as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in Intersil's filings with the Securities Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and Intersil undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Specific risk factors can be found in Intersil’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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