Licensing Agreement Signed

Transense Technologies PLC 5 July 2000 Transense signs world-wide Licensing agreement with Atmel. Transense Technologies has signed an exclusive world-wide licensing agreement with Atmel Grenoble, which was formed as a result of the merger between the Atmel Corporation (Atmel) of America and Thomson Semiconducteurs Specifiques, part of the giant French defence group. Under terms of the agreement 60% of the new company is owned by Atmel and 40% by Thomson-CSF. Atmel is quoted on NADAQ and at the close last night had a market capitalisation of $8.6 billion and is one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world. Under terms of the agreement Atmel will fund the development and manufacture of the Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), which will form the electronic core of Transense's patented Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology. Transense will receive a royalty on sales of all the licensed devices to the application licensees of its technology. Each SAW sensor requires one ASIC. Transense's SAW sensors are used to measure torque, strain and pressure in applications such as electric power steering, driveline and tyre pressure monitoring. These devices can measure minute changes in many automotive applications and require no power source as they are interrogated through a non-contact wireless technology. With vehicle sales running at 50 million a year and the potential of 25 SAWs or more per vehicle, the market potential for these devices is considerable. Jim Perry, Chief Executive of Transense said this morning, 'Last month I reported that we had signed an exclusive license agreement with Sawtek, to manufacture the SAW devices that are the core to our technology. This agreement with Atmel completes the jigsaw of who will manufacture the electronics that are vital to interrogate and extract the information measured by the SAW sensors. We chose Atmel as our most suitable partner because of their expertise in mixed signal ASICs. The Transense technology enables you to interrogate and read the SAW sensor in a non-contact way. This is achieved by sending a specific radio frequency wave (RF) at the SAW and listening to the return signal. Any change in the RF will be proportional to the strain or pressure on the device. Atmel is one of the world's leading specialists in the field of RF circuits and as such, success can be assured in the manufacture of our devices. What we have now successfully achieved, by signing these two licence agreements, are effective partnerships, with two of the most dynamic companies in the world, in SAWs and ASICs, without any of the constraints and financial problems that a joint venture could bring. The savings that can be attributed to such arrangements are considerable for Transense shareholders because the Company will not be burdened with the large costs associated with designing and manufacturing such highly sophisticated devices. It is also very important that we can now show the automotive industry that two major component manufacturers believe in our technology enough to commit to the mass production of devices based on our patented technology. Now that we have such commitments, I have every confidence that more application licenses will follow'. Jean Vaylet, Chief Executive of Atmel Grenoble said this morning, 'The most innovative part of the Transense concept is that all applications of it are based on the same ASIC core. As such many high volume application products can be developed and produced within a short lead-time. This includes the RF and digital building blocks of the ASIC and the handheld interrogation unit proposed for some applications. Large automotive end users are also very enthusiastic in developing tyre pressure monitoring, EPAS and drive line sensing systems with this new sensing technology which gives us a high level of confidence'. For further information, please contact: Jim Perry Chief Executive, Transense Technologies plc 01869 238 030 John Coyle Clerkenwell Communications 020 7713 0900 07770 687 370 07699 727 796 (pager) Graeme Bayley Manager Growth Companies Team. HSBC 020 7336 9000