Two Former Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. Employees To Be Inducted Into National Inventors Hall Of Fame

Worcester, MA ¨C February 11, 2009 ¡ª Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. announced today that two former employees would be honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. for their contributions in the development of the first commercially viable method of ion implantation. Along with fifteen other inventors, Kenneth Manchester and John Macdougall will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame at a formal reception in Silicon Valley in May. The Hall of Fame is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the invention of the integrated circuit.

In the late 1960s, Manchester and Macdougall, together with their colleagues, built one of the first ion implantation machines. At the time they were employed at Sprague Electric in North Adams, MA. They designed the first apparatus for producing integrated circuits on a commercial scale for a start up company, MOSTEK, in which Sprague was an investor. This first commercialization process took place in Worcester, MA at what is now the headquarters of Allegro, MicroSystems, Inc. (formerly Sprague Electric). This process, discovered by Manchester and Macdougall, is widely used today in the development of integrated circuits for applications such as cell phones, computers, printers, digital cameras and automobiles.

Ion implantation is a process that changes the conductivity of areas of a silicon wafer ¡ª or ¡°dopes¡± them ¡ª by bombarding them with ionized atoms. When the wafer is heated, each implanted atom replaces a silicon atom. This permits very precise construction of different areas of conductivity. When linked together, these form the components of an integrated circuit.

About Allegro

Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. is a leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing high-performance power integrated circuits and integrated Hall-effect magnetic sensors. Allegro¡¯s innovative solutions serve high-growth applications within the automotive, communications, computer/office automation, consumer and industrial markets. Allegro is headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA) with design and applications centers located in North and South America, Asia, and Europe. Further information about Allegro can be found at www.allegromicro.com.

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