Tessera Announces Licensing Agreement with Cochlear

From: Business Wire (press release) - Oct 6, 2003

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 2003--Tessera, Inc. today announced that Cochlear Limited (ASX:COH) and Tessera have signed a licensing agreement. Under this agreement, Cochlear has licensed Tessera's semiconductor packaging technology for use in Cochlear's Nucleus implant system, which includes implantable hearing devices designed to allow individuals with severe to profound hearing loss to perceive sound.

Cochlear plans to incorporate Tessera's MicroBGA(R) technology into its Nucleus(R) cochlear implant systems. Tessera's MicroBGA technology, which enables highly reliable, small form factor electronic products, is a logical fit for medical applications where reliability and compact size are key requirements.

"Tessera's technology has been integrated into a range of consumer electronic products such as cellular phones, personal computers, and gaming stations," said Nicholas Colella, Tessera's senior vice president of operations. "This agreement underscores our commitment to the medical electronics segment. We look forward to supporting the important work Cochlear is performing to improve the hearing of children and adults around the world."

Included in Tessera's license with Cochlear are over 150 patents covering Tessera's Compliant Chip(R) technology. This technology covers a broad range of chip-scale and multi-chip package types, including integrated circuit devices packaged in "face-down," "face-up," "fold-over," "stacked," and "system-in-package" (SiP) formats. These package types are marketed by Tessera as MicroBGA for face-down orientations, MicroBGA-F for face-up orientations, and MicroZ(TM) for multi-chip solutions. Tessera's intellectual property is utilized in many forms of advanced packaging, covering a wide range of materials and assembly processes.

About Tessera, Inc.

Tessera develops semiconductor packaging technology that meets the demand for miniaturization and increased performance of electronic products. The company holds several hundred patents worldwide covering chip-scale and multi-chip packages (CSPs and MCPs). Tessera's licensees include some of the world's largest semiconductor and assembly manufacturers, such as AMD, Amkor, ChipPac, Hynix, Intel, Renesas, Sharp, Siemens, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Toshiba. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Tessera can be found on the World Wide Web at www.tessera.com .

Tessera, MicroBGA, Compliant Chip and the Tessera logo are registered trademarks and MicroZ is a trademark of Tessera, Inc. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Contacts

Tessera, Inc.
Joyce Smaragdis, 510-338-0377
jsmaragdis@tessera.com
or
MCA PR (for Tessera)
Lisa Gillette-Martin, 650-968-8900
lgmartin@mcapr.com

© Business Wire 2003