FORWARD INQUIRIESTO:

Dr. Geoff Irvine

VP, Business Development
SAFC Hitech
+1 978.374.5200 Ext. 287

MEDIA INQUIRIES TO:

Mark Button
Impress Public Relations
+1 503.616.3817
mark@impress-pr.com

NEW SAFC HITECH® PRODUCT ROADMAP PLOTS ROUTE

FOR FUTURE GENERATION SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS

ST. LOUIS, MO./SEMICON West, San Francisco, CA. – July 15, 2009 – SAFC Hitech®, a
business segment within SAFC®, a member of the Sigma-Aldrich® Group, today announced
details of its new materials roadmap for Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD)
and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) processes on silicon semiconductor substrates. The
roadmap outlines the development paths across current and future advanced memory and
logic devices, which includes barrier layers, interconnects, dielectrics and metals, that the
company expects to see play out between now and 2014.

SAFC Hitech last reviewed its semiconductor materials roadmap in mid-2007. However,
regular monitoring is required in order to ascertain whether the market for semiconductor
materials has evolved as expected. “There are numerous variables that can affect the
selection, timing of insertion point and volume demand for electronic materials,” commented
Dr. Geoff Irvine, SAFC Hitech’s Vice-President of Business Development. “SAFC Hitech
routinely analyzes external guidelines such as the ITRS roadmap, trends in device
development and economic conditions, and performs evaluations of our own research and
development programs, allied to what we are seeing in our partnerships with customers.
Through assessment, for example, if there are certain materials that have been adopted
more rapidly than anticipated or adapted for an alternative application and, conversely, if
there are some that may have seen a delay or reconsideration in use, our review process
enables us to recast the materials requirements of the semiconductor industry and revise
our roadmap accordingly.”
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While so-called ‘traditional’ semiconductor materials, such as the commonly used dielectric
silicon dioxide, are still found in high volume applications, the pace and breadth of new
materials exploration and adoption beyond these traditional materials is occurring at a rate not
seen before in the industry: “Historically, the lifecycle of materials for semiconductors on a per
unit process basis extended across multiple technology nodes,” continued Irvine. “What we are
experiencing now is a shortening of the lifespan of materials used across node generations as
progress in the development of next generation devices demands integration of new materials
to meet performance criteria. The rapid adoption of materials such as aluminum, hafnium and
zirconium oxides, and mixed silicates, in production processes for both memory and logic
applications, is one such example.”

“This rapid adoption and developmental trend is perfectly illustrated by deposition materials and,
the rate of adoption and subsequent change of materials employed for dielectric materials for
metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors in the manufacture of DRAM devices,” expanded Ravi
Kanjolia, SAFC Hitech’s Chief Technology Officer. “Precursor chemistries have transitioned
rapidly from providing solutions for growing high quality conformal amorphous films of Al2O3 to
HfO2 followed by ZrO2. Similar trends regarding timescales for the adoption and integration of
new materials in other functional layers of the devices are now also being seen.”

Looking ahead, SAFC Hitech is continuing its focus on next generation high-K for gate
applications, high-K and ultra high-K dielectrics for capacitor applications, the further
development of metal gates, new electrode materials for DRAM and materials for copper barrier
and copper seed, amongst areas of interest. The company has also made significant progress
in developing germanium antimony telluride (GST) precursors for use in high volume phase
change memory (PCM) applications. PCM, a non-volatile computer memory that allows for the
scaling of ultimate feature size further than is possible with conventional Flash memories, offers
greater storage capacity and superior performance for memory devices and is a technology
widely viewed as a strong replacement candidate for NAND Flash.

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For further information, visit SAFC Hitech during Semicon West at booth 5465 in the North Hall,
or go to www.safchitech.com.

About SAFC: SAFC® is the custom manufacturing and services business unit within Sigma-Aldrich that
focuses on high-purity inorganics for high technology applications, cell culture products and services for
biopharmaceutical manufacturing, biochemical production and the manufacturing of complex, multi-step
organic synthesis of APIs and key intermediates. SAFC has manufacturing facilities around the world
dedicated to providing manufacturing services for companies requiring a reliable partner to produce their
custom manufactured materials. SAFC has four business segments – SAFC Pharma®, SAFC Supply
Solutions®, SAFC Biosciences®, and SAFC Hitech® – and had annual sales of over $620 million in 2008.
SAFC is considered a top 10 fine chemical company. For more information about SAFC, visit
www.safcglobal.com.

About SAFC Hitech: SAFC Hitech provides a unique chemistry service translating application
understanding into performance materials worldwide. Through collaborative partnerships and an
integrated approach from research and development, process development and scale up to commercial
manufacturing, SAFC Hitech invests in innovation and manufacturing enabling current and future
technology needs. Further information can be found at http://www.safchitech.com.

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Its
biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific research, including genomic
and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development and as key components in
pharmaceutical, diagnostic and other high technology manufacturing. The Company has customers in life
science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry. Over one million
scientists and technologists use its products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 38 countries and has 7,800
employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to Accelerating Customer
Success through Innovation and Leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more
information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning Web site at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

Cautionary Statement: This release contains forward-looking statements relating to future strategic
actions and initiatives and similar intentions and beliefs and other statements regarding the Company's
expectations, beliefs, intentions and the like, which involve assumptions regarding the Company's
operations and conditions in the markets the Company serves. The Company does not undertake any
obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Sigma-Aldrich®, SAFC®, SAFC Supply Solutions® SAFC Pharma®, SAFC Biosciences® and SAFC Hitech® are registered
trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology L.P. and Sigma-Aldrich Co.

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