BELMONT, Calif. Effective March 1, 2003 -- Nikon Corporation of Japan has promoted both Mr. Geoff Wild and Dr. Gil Varnell to CEO of their respective Nikon companies, NPI (Nikon Precision Inc.) and NRCA (Nikon Research Corporation of America) Both NRCA and NPI are headquartered in Belmont, CA.

Geoff Wild came to NPI as President and COO in January of 2002, and serves on NPI's Board of Directors. With over 20 years in the semiconductor and electronics industries, Mr. Wild has held a number of executive positions. Prior to joining Nikon in 2002, he was CEO of "TheSupply", an e-commerce provider of supply chain services, and was president of both Allied Signal Electronics and Johnson Matthey Electronics.

Nikon Corporation, is the world leader in lithography equipment for the microelectronics manufacturing industry with more than 7,000 exposure systems installed worldwide. These products serve the wafer, photomask, flat panel display (LCD) and thin-film magnetic head (TFH) industries. Nikon Precision Inc. provides service, training, applications and technical support, as well as sales and marketing for Nikon lithography equipment in North America.

Dr. Varnell began his work at Nikon in 1984 as Vice President of Technology and Research and Development for NPI. He previously worked at Texas Instruments from 1968 – 1984 involved in lithographic system development for semiconductor device fabrication. In February 1996 NRCA was formed, as a separate company. At that time Dr. Varnell became President, COO and a Board Member of NRCA. He will retain these two titles.

Dr. Varnell recently stated that NRCA would continue to aggressively pursue lithography systems for fabrication of semiconductor devices. These include KrF, ArF, F2 excimer laser lithography scanners as well as EPL (Electron Projection Lithography) and EUVL (Extreme Ultra Violet Lithography) Scanners. In addition, development of lithography systems for fabrication of display systems will continue. NRCA will also develop certain applications of Nanotechnology Imaging as time and resources permit.

NRCA has recently opened a branch office in East Fishkill, N.Y. to support EPL Development. Plans are to open another branch office in Tucson, Arizona in the near future to support Optics Development.
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Contact:
Susan Bernardi
MARCOM Manager
Nikon Precision Inc.
(650) 508-3819
sbernardi@nikon.com