ASM International N.V. ships Levitor® RTP system to Korean DRAM manufacturer

BILTHOVEN, The Netherlands - October 12, 2006 --- ASM International N.V. (NASDAQ: ASMI and Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today announced that its subsidiary, ASM Europe B.V., has shipped a Levitor® 4300 Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) system for 300 mm wafers to a Korean DRAM manufacturer. The customer will use the system for high temperature annealing for junction formation and for low temperature annealing for silicidation to form contacts.
“This order once again confirms the advantages of the Levitor’s process capability meeting today’s requirements in both high temperature and low temperature regimes,” commented Jaap Beiersbergen, ASM’s Levitor business unit manager. “Additionally, we are seeing that the Levitor’s competitive advantages are becoming more critical as the industry scales to lower temperatures at the newest technology nodes”
The Levitor single-wafer RTP tool is based on a unique conductive heating technology that distinguishes this system in the market with respect to process performance, flexibility, low cost-of-ownership and extendibility. In the Levitor, the wafer floats on a very thin cushion of gas between two massive blocks. The gas layer between the wafer surface and the reactor blocks, which enables ultra-fast heating, self-centers the wafer and keeps it floating without any support at the desired process temperature. The result is very precise wafer heating, which is totally insensitive to the type of film on the wafer and known as emissivity independence.

About ASM International
ASM International N.V. and its subsidiaries design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. The company provides production solutions for wafer processing (Front-end segment) as well as assembly and packaging (Back-end segment) through facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International’s common stock trades on NASDAQ (symbol ASMI) and the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASMI’s web site at www.asm.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: All matters discussed in this statement, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions and trends in the semiconductor industry generally and the timing of the industry cycles specifically, currency fluctuations, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, litigation involving intellectual property, shareholder and other issues, commercial and economic disruption due to natural disasters, terrorist activity, armed conflict or political instability, epidemics, and other risks indicated in the Company’s filings from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the Company’s reports on Form 20-F and Form 6-K. The Company assumes no obligation nor intends to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future developments or circumstances.

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Willem Vermeulen

Corporate Marketing

ASM International N.V.

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