News & Events
Intersil’s New Manufacturing Process Optimized for Building Wireless Communications Chips

— Process geared toward making faster, smaller wireless chips for Intersil’s popular PRISM WLAN and CommLink fixed wireless portfolios

IRVINE, CA, July 12, 2000 — Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), the world's leading developer of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), today announced that a new manufacturing process optimized for building highly integrated wireless communications chips is now fully qualified and in production. This new capacity will help Intersil satisfy rapidly building demand for wireless chips, including Intersil’s award-winning PRISM^® WLAN chip set.

The new process is called UHF-2 since it is capable of building ultra-high-frequency circuits. Intersil will use the process to make high-integration, high-performance, low-power and low-cost integrated circuits (ICs) for wireless applications including wireless local area networking (WLAN) systems for homes and offices and the fixed wireless systems necessary for build-out of the wireless data infrastructure in public buildings, airports, hotels and shopping malls.

"With this process, we can integrate RF circuits, traditional analog and digital circuits and other passive devices – such as inductors, capacitors and resistors – on a single small chip," said Larry Ciaccia, vice president and general manager of Intersil’s PRISM Wireless Products business. "Packing more functions into smaller chips is important in helping our customers meet market demands for smaller, lighter, and less costly battery-powered wireless products."

According to Ciaccia, having this strategic technology also has other important advantages. "It adds capacity for products in very heavy demand and provides us with in-house process technologies that are complimentary to our outside foundries" Ciaccia comments. "As the wireless market continues to segment, it will become increasingly important to have products that are optimized in cost, performance and feature set for particular applications. Having the UHF-2 process as part of our technology portfolio allows us to develop highly optimized products for each segment. It also allows our team to have control over wafer costs, yields and cycle time."

About the UHF-2 Process
The new UHF-2 process is a 0.6 micron RF BiCMOS technology that integrates a 25 GHz (fT), 40 GHz (fMAX) NPN transistor and high quality passive components into an existing 0.6 micron CMOS process. The new process provides higher performance transistors, lower power consumption, and robust compliance to key parameters allowing for improved receiver sensitivity and range. It employs a "trench isolation" technique that provides a buffer space around transistors, allowing denser packing of transistors on the chip.

The UHF-2 process includes a suite of high-quality passive components that can be integrated on-chip, rather than being bought separately and residing off-chip. This suite includes high quality spiral inductors and metal-oxide-metal capacitors and an excellent low-temperature-coefficient, precision RF resistor. This integration of previously off-chip passive components offers performance and reliability advantages along with reduction of the total wireless system cost by reducing the bill-of-materials cost.

Adoption of PRISM WLAN Technology
Since introducing the PRISM WLAN chip set in 1996, over fifty companies have incorporated PRISM chips in more than 100 product designs. In a May 2000 report, the Cahners In-Stat Group called Intersil "the dominant force in the WLAN chip set marketplace with their PRISM chipsets holding the majority of market share." PRISM technology is designed to comply with the IEEE’s 802.11 global standard, and Intersil is a founding sponsor of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), whose Wi-Fi™ brand is a mark of compatibility for 802.11-based systems. PRISM chips are used in WLAN systems from industry-leading companies including Alcatel, Cisco, Nokia, Siemens, Compaq, 3Com, Dell, Nortel, Samsung, SpectraLink, Symbol, and Zoom.

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 and mixed-signal 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.

This press release contains information relating to certain projections and business trends in the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) market that are forward looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward looking statements are based upon management’s current expectations, estimates, beliefs, assumptions, and projections about our business and industry. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will" and variations of these words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward looking statements. Furthermore, any forward looking statements and projections made by others in this press release are not adopted by Intersil and Intersil is not responsible for the forward looking statements and projections of others. These forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict.

Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward looking statements as a result of various risk factors. Important risk factors that may cause such material differences for Intersil in connection with WLAN market include, but are not limited to, the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s wireless technologies and products; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; the loss of a key customer; the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; silicon wafer pricing and the availability of foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; intellectual property disputes; as well as other risk factors detailed from time to time in Intersil’s filings with the U.S. 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 these forward looking statements.

PRISM is a registered trademark and CommLink is a trademark of Intersil Corporation.