Kulicke & Soffa Further Expands Advanced Packaging Presence through Strategic Lithography Acquisition

Kulicke & Soffa Acquires Liteq BV; Introduces the First Lithography Tool
Developed Specifically for Advanced Packaging

SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: KLIC) (“Kulicke & Soffa”,
“K&S” or the “Company”), today announced it has acquired a 100% equity
stake of privately held Liteq BV.

Liteq, founded in 2014, has developed the first dedicated
step-and-repeat tool serving the unique and broad-ranging requirements
of Advanced Packaging lithography. Liteq’s modular offerings of
high-throughput, modular i-line steppers uniquely utilize a laser-light
source, as opposed to more commonly used mercury-vapor-lamp sources.
This forward-looking approach drives best-in-class cost-of-ownership to
competitively serve existing and next-generation production requirements
for fast-growing advanced packaging processes such as System-in-Package,
Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging, Through-Silicon-Via in addition to
traditional Flip-Chip.

VLSI research, a leading technology research and advisory company,
anticipates the advanced packaging lithography market to grow to $296
million in 2021, from $186 million in 2016, providing K&S an additional
long-term growth opportunity and expanding its offerings within the
advanced packaging market. Over the past several years, K&S has
continued to aggressively develop several other advanced packaging
related tools.

“We are very pleased to welcome Liteq’s employees, customers and supply
chain partners into the K&S family,” remarked Fusen Chen, Kulicke &
Soffa’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “This highly
complementary investment emphasizes our strategic and opportunistic
capital deployment approach by further extending the Company’s presence,
strength, and value proposition within advanced packaging.”

Gerrit van der Beek, Liteq’s Chief Executive Officer stated, “Liteq has
tremendous growth potential and collectively we are much better
positioned to provide innovative solutions and services addressing the
advanced packaging market. Leveraging on the extensive sales and
distribution network; strong customer base and proven interconnect
expertise of K&S, in addition to the committed support from our business
partners, we are well positioned to address the industry’s next set of
challenges.”

Centrally Located in Europe’s Brainport Eindhoven

Liteq is located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the heart of Europe’s
Brainport Eindhoven. This innovative area offers a dense concentration
of technology-centric customers, strategic suppliers and highly-skilled
employees. Kulicke & Soffa’s existing Netherlands facility, housing a
workforce of over 200 employees is also based in Eindhoven.

Liteq’s technologies were developed through close cooperation of several
technology, financial and developmental organizations within the region
including ASML Netherlands BV, Beltec Holding BV, the Brabant
Development Agency (BOM), Sioux, Random Capital BV and Torrente BV.

Paul van Attekum, ASML CSVP of Corporate Strategy & Marketing said:
“ASML was an early investor in Liteq and has supported the company in
the development of the advanced packaging lithography tool. We believe
the tool is ready for evaluation by customers. While ASML is selling its
stake as part of this transaction, we will continue to provide specific
development support to Liteq over the next few years within the
framework of a support agreement.”

Arnoud de Geus, Sioux’s Director of New Business Development said,
“Sioux is a long-term strategic supplier of K&S and has supported Liteq
from inception. K&S will strengthen Liteq’s market channels and global
commercial reach tremendously. Sioux remains fully committed to support
Liteq during and after this transition.”

Miriam Dragstra, Capital Director of Brabant Development Agency (BOM)
said, “Recognizing the strong Noord Brabant supply base and local
presence of K&S, BOM is convinced that another innovative company will
continue to flourish, adding to the growing eco-system of high-precision
equipment companies. We are proud to have contributed to this successful
venture, which highlights the incubation power of the Noord Brabant
Province.”

Advanced Packaging: Driving a New Generation of Opportunities

As traditional front-end production improvements fail to deliver the
same historic cost and performance benefits, the semiconductor industry
is evolving by seeking out new packaging techniques to deliver form
factor, power efficiency and performance to mobile, cloud and
internet-of-things driven applications. This changing landscape has
provided a new set of industry challenges and opportunities. K&S is
increasingly well positioned and continues to respond to these new
challenges by delivering innovative equipment solutions through close
customer engagement, operational excellence, acquisitions, and a
long-term commitment to research and development.

About Kulicke & Soffa

Kulicke & Soffa (NASDAQ: KLIC) is a leading provider of semiconductor
packaging and electronic assembly solutions supporting the global
automotive, consumer, communications, computing and industrial segments.
As a pioneer in the semiconductor space, K&S has provided customers with
market leading packaging solutions for decades. In recent years, K&S has
expanded its product offerings through strategic acquisitions and
organic development, adding advanced packaging, electronics assembly,
wedge bonding and a broader range of expendable tools to its core
offerings. Combined with its extensive expertise in process technology
and focus on development, K&S is well positioned to help customers meet
the challenges of packaging and assembling the next-generation of
electronic devices. (www.kns.com)

About Liteq

Liteq BV is an innovative company based in the Brainport Eindhoven
region, the Netherlands. It is the first company to develop a dedicated
lithography solution for the advanced packaging of microchips. Liteq’s
solution is based on a high productivity stepper which supports multiple
packaging platforms and achieves optimal cost of ownership. Liteq
originates from 2014. ASML Netherlands BV, Beltec Holding BV, the
Brabant Development Agency (BOM), Sioux, Random Capital BV and Torrente
BV were shareholders of Liteq. A unique feature of the Liteq stepper is
the use of a laser light source instead of a mercury-vapor lamp. This
enables Liteq to deliver excellent throughput and imaging performance.

Contacts

Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc.
Marilyn Sim
Public
Relations
P: +65-6880-9309
F: +65-6880-9580
[email protected]
or
Joseph
Elgindy
Investor Relations & Strategic Initiatives
P:
+1-215-784-7500
F: +1-215-784-6180
[email protected]