Cascade Microtech Co-Founders Eric Strid and Reed Gleason Win Southwest Test Workshop Lifetime Achievement Award

BEAVERTON, Ore., June 21  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cascade Microtech, (NASDAQ:CSCD), a worldwide leader in precise electrical measurements on small structures, today announced that Eric Strid and Reed Gleason, co-founders of Cascade Microtech, have received the Southwest Test Workshop (SWTW) Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 25 years of outstanding technical contributions to the field of radio frequency (RF) wafer level measurements, including the development of the Pyramid probe, a unique production probe card technology that enables highly accurate and reliable at-speed production tests on high performance, high speed and high density semiconductor and related devices.

Strid and Gleason were recognized at SWTW 2006, a research forum sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society that focuses on all the aspects associated with microelectronic wafer and die level testing.  The annual event was held in San Diego, California on June 11-14, 2006.

"I'm honored that we have been selected for this lifetime achievement award, though I feel like we still have another lifetime worth of ideas to implement," said Eric Strid, CEO, Cascade Microtech.  "As bandwidths rise and speeds of computing and communications increase the industry has more opportunities than ever to provide new and innovative solutions."

Together Strid and Gleason invented the world's first 18 GHz RF probe in 1984.  It has since become an industry standard for production probing technology and is used to measure the majority of chips for wireless local area networks (LAN), Bluetooth, and other wireless technologies.  The business partners also pioneered a unique probe card technology called the Pyramid probe, which enables high performance, high speed and density wafer level measurements for production testing and probing.

"Teamwork has always been critical to us," said Reed Gleason, vice president, Advanced Development, Cascade Microtech.  "Eric and I will often brainstorm and build on each other's ideas, testing and challenging each other until we come up with a winner."

About Eric W. Strid

Eric Strid co-founded Cascade Microtech and has served as chairman and chief executive officer since Cascade Microtech's inception in 1983.  He also served as president from 1984 to January 1997.  Prior to 1984, Eric served as a principal engineer with Tektronix, Inc. and with TriQuint Semiconductor, where he designed and evaluated high-frequency gallium arsenide integrated circuits.  Eric holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

About K. Reed Gleason

Reed Gleason invented the first high-frequency wafer probes with Eric Strid in 1980 and co-founded Cascade Microtech in 1983.  Reed provides leadership to Cascade Microtech's advanced probe technology developments. Prior to founding Cascade Microtech, Reed was a senior physicist with Tektronix, Inc. in Beaverton, Ore., conducting research in gallium arsenide devices and integrated circuits.  He began his career as an electronic engineer for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. where he spent 11 years in semiconductor device development and analysis.  Reed has been awarded six patents with two pending.  His work has been published in more than 20 professional publications.  In 1991, he received the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Recognition Award for Development of Microprobe Technology.  Reed holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

About Southwest Test Workshop (SWTW)

The 16th annual SWTW was held in San Diego, California on June 11-14, 2006.  SWTW is a research forum sponsored by IEEE Computer Society and is the only IEEE/CS sponsored event that focuses on all the aspects associated with microelectronic wafer and die level testing.  The conference has a mixture of manufacturer and vendor presentations.  It is not a sales show, nor an academic or theoretical conference.  It is a probe technology forum where attendees come to learn about recent developments in the industry and exchange ideas.  Since 1991, SWTW has grown to almost 500 attendees with more international visitors each year. For more information, visit http://www.swtest.org/.

About Cascade Microtech

Cascade Microtech, Inc. is a worldwide leader in the precise electrical measurement and test of integrated circuits (ICs) and other small structures. For technology businesses and scientific institutions who need to evaluate small structures, Cascade Microtech delivers access to, and extraction of, electrical data from wafers, integrated circuits (ICs), IC packages, circuit boards and modules, MEMS, biological structures, electro-optic devices and more.  Cascade Microtech's highly reliable production wafer test solutions provide the semiconductor industry with leading-edge probe cards that reduce manufacturing costs of complex semiconductors.  Information about Cascade Microtech can be found on the Web at http://www.cascademicrotech.com/. 

DATASOURCE: Cascade Microtech, Inc.



CONTACT:  Debra Seifert of McClenahan Bruer Communications,

[phone], or , for Cascade Microtech, Inc.; or Junko

Nakaya of Cascade Microtech, Inc., [phone], or





Web site:  http://www.cascademicrotech.com/

http://www.swtest.org/

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