CHIP INDUSTRY'S FIRST ALD PRODUCT ROADMAP STRENGTHENS GENUS MARKET LEADERSHIP

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - April 17, 2002 - Reinforcing its market leadership in atomic layer deposition (ALD), market leader Genus (NASDAQ: GGNS) passed another milestone today by unveiling the market's first product roadmap for ALD.

During a presentation here today at Semicon Europa 2002, Genus highlighted that traditional deposition technologies fail to meet material properties, conformality, uniformity, process cleanliness and extendibility, and that these characteristics are the key drivers for ALD's adoption. According to Genus and others, ALD is set to become a $1 billion market in the next few years. The company also accepted the emergence of significant new entrants into the market as a natural progression and further validation that ALD is the deposition tool of choice at 0.13-micron production and below.

"Genus has been leading R&D efforts in ALD for a number of years and we transformed this technology leadership into commercialization last year," said company founder and CEO, Bill Elder. "As we see continued market validation, we are in the leadership position and will continue to leverage this window of opportunity for the benefit of Genus and its customers."

"Process extendibility is one key reason for the acceptance of ALD in the semiconductor industry," commented Werner Rust, Genus' executive vice president of sales and marketing. "For established device structures such as trench capacitors in DRAM manufacturing, ALD is already meeting DRAM return on investment (ROI) pressures with accelerated device shrinkage. The second half of 2002 is the timeframe for full commercialization of the technology and we believe that it will yield substantial market share from traditional furnace and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) applications at 0.13-micron and below."

ALD started to realize production revenue for Genus in 2001 in the thin film head (TFH) market. Because of its superior film qualities, ALD continues to replace the physical vapor deposition (PVD) process in TFH manufacturing by offering improved yield and process extendibility for gap dielectrics.

During the presentation Rust highlighted the market's estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 107 percent between 2001 and 2006, and that dielectrics, not metals, are driving ALD commercialization. According to VLSI Research data, gap dielectrics (TFH), capacitor dielectrics (DRAM) and gate dielectrics (Logic) will have a combined ALD market value of approximately $800 million by 2006.

Additionally, Rust was not surprised by ASML's entry into the ALD market and indeed the move is the strongest possible endorsement of Genus' efforts and overall validation of the ALD market.

About ALD
Both the semiconductor and data storage industries continue to migrate toward products with higher density and higher topology. As a result, conformality of deposited films has also become a critical factor. With current technology unable to meet the degree of conformality required to manufacture today's leading-edge technology, the use of Genus' ALD technology in the data storage market has been adopted. ALD enables manufacturers to extend current semiconductor and data storage manufacturing processes by offering greater deposition conformality in smaller feature components with higher aspect ratios.

About Genus
Founded in 1981, Genus, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets capital equipment and deposition processes for advanced semiconductor manufacturing as well as for other, emerging non-semiconductor applications. Genus offers various thin film deposition modules using its own production-proven equipment and processes for both chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD). The deposition processes are used to manufacture integrated circuits for the computer, communications, medical, military, transportation and consumer electronics industries. Genus' customers include semiconductor manufacturers located throughout the United States, Europe and the Pacific Rim including Korea and Japan. Company headquarters are in Sunnyvale, California. For additional information visit Genus' web site at www.genus.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding the company's future financial and business performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These contingencies include but are not limited to: actual customer orders received by the company, the extent to which ALD technology is accepted by the marketplace, the timing of final acceptance of products by customers, and general conditions in the semiconductor equipment market and the economy in general. Genus assumes no obligation to update this information. Additional risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Results of Operations contained in Genus' Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2000 and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.