Cascade Microtech Receives Equity Financing From HP And Maristeth

Cascade Microtech (Beaverton, OR) announced today the closing of a new round of $3 million equity financing from Hewlett-Packard and Maristeth Ventures Fund of Tacoma, WA. The funds will be used to expand manufacturing capacity and to fund working capital growth, required by increasing demand for Cascade's Pyramid Probe Cards and automatic parametric and RF probing systems.

HP, which owns a minority equity position in Cascade Microtech, has increased its investment in Cascade, strengthening their relationship as strategic partners in the development and production of semiconductor test solutions.

The Maristeth Ventures, LLC through its Fund I is part of the Carlson Group of Tacoma, WA. The Carlson Group specializes in ventures operating in the technology industry, including venture capital markets. The focus within this venture group is the creation of funds for investments in emerging and developmental stage companies.

To fund its growth and investments, Cascade Microtech also continues to use Silicon Valley Bank.

"The timing of this investment is very opportune," says Bruce McFadden, president and COO, "since our last-quarter bookings very nearly reached record levels. Cascade's leadership in on-wafer measurement technology, product quality and a worldwide presence helped us grow through a very tough semiconductor capital equipment industry cycle. Strong technology and worldwide market-share leadership in our analytical probes and probe station segments has enabled us to benefit from what demand existed in different geographies. Our growth came from our new Pyramid Probe and PS21 automatic wafer probers developed for production probing applications."

Another application for the new funding is to further advance the development of Cascade's PS21 automatic wafer prober. The PS21 automatic prober brings the high-accuracy, high-performance capabilities of Cascade's research and development probers into the production environment. Cascade's ultra low-capacitance, low-noise probe card allows faster measurement settling times with ultra-low leakage.

Cascade Microtech, Inc., Phone: 503-601-1672