SIGMA-C Names Thomas Blaesi Vice President of Marketing and Business Development and General...

MUNICH, Germany -- SIGMA-C GmbH, a leading provider of applied-simulation software for the semiconductor industry and photomask makers, today announced that Thomas F. Blaesi has joined the company as vice president of marketing and business development. He also was named general manager for SIGMA-C's

Blaesi has more than 15 years of global strategic-marketing experience in electronic design automation and semiconductors with startups as well as leading companies such as Cadence Design Systems Inc., Synopsys Inc. and LSI Logic Corp. Most recently, he was vice president of marketing and business development for Pact XPP Technologies Inc., a fabless semiconductor maker and IP-licensing company in Santa Clara, Calif. Prior to that, Blaesi served as vice president of marketing and business development and senior vice president and general manager for design services at Silicon Design Systems Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.

"Thomas Blaesi brings deep and broad experience in business development, product and strategic-marketing and engineering management to SIGMA-C," said Dr. Christian Kalus, president and CEO of SIGMA-C. "He is a proven leader and team player whose international expertise in global EDA and chip design will be crucial to our strategy of being a world leader in design-for-manufacturability (DFM) software."

"These are exciting times for SIGMA-C, which has the technology, the team and the vision to be a leading international force in the DFM market," Blaesi added. "I am very excited to join SIGMA-C and be a part of this effort."

From 1997 to 2001, Blaesi worked for Cadence Design Systems. He joined Cadence as director of business development and later was named director of system-chip design services. Blaesi started with LSI Logic in 1991 as product marketing manager/design methodology and tools in Munich. In 1994, LSI Logic moved Blaesi to its corporate headquarters in Milpitas, Calif., where he was product marketing manager/ASIC design methodology.

Blaesi began his career as an application engineer for Valid Logic Systems of Munich. He has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Furtwangen, Germany.

About SIGMA-C

SIGMA-C is a leading provider of applied simulation software that models semiconductor fabrication from design to manufacture. SIGMA-C's product portfolio includes engineering tools, such as optical lithography simulation software, as well as production tools for full-chip data preparation, e-beam lithography, optical proximity correction and data analysis. The company's advanced simulation software allows users to optimize processes prior to actual production. This can significantly improve product yields, cycle times and equipment utilization rates. All leading-edge semiconductor manufacturers use SIGMA-C's tools. Founded in 1987, SIGMA-C is headquartered in Munich, Germany, with a U.S. subsidiary in Santa Clara, Calif. The company maintains a Web site at www.sigma-c.com.