Nova Ltd. — Regulatory Filings 2006

Jul 10, 2006

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Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. Weizmann Science Park, Bldg. 22 P.O. Box 266, Rehovot 76100, Israel

T: +972-8-938-7505 F:+972-8-940-7776 info@nova.co.il www.nova.co.il

Company Contact: Investor Relations Contacts: Dror David, CFO Ehud Helft / Kenny Green Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. GK Investor Relations Tel: 972-8-938-7505 Tel: +1-866-704-6710 E-mail: info@nova.co.il E-mail : Ehud@gkir.com; Kenny@gkir.com http://www.nova.co.il

Nova Introduces an Advanced Scatterometry Modeling and Application Development Tool

NovaMARS[TM] supports the industry’s move to 3D and in-die measurements

Rehovot, July 10, 2006 - Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVMI), the market leader in integrated measurement and process control for the semiconductor industry, today launched NovaMARS[TM] , an advanced Scatterometry modeling and application development tool.

Scatterometry and Optical CD have become the fastest growing equipment segment in the process control of semiconductor manufacturing. The NovaMARS (Metrology Analysis & Recipe Setup) provides a solution for the latest industry requirements for advanced structure modeling. This is done by enabling the definition of complex 2D and 3D structures along with their interfaces, for different layers and parameters. NovaMARS is designed to work with the NovaScan[] 3090 and NovaScan[] 3090Next metrology systems, available as integrated or standalone systems.

The NovaMARS system optimizes metrology tool performance and significantly shortens the application development cycle. An automatic or semi-automatic optimization of library parameters helps reduce the time-to-solution and maintain solution robustness for production environments. The flexible and intuitive user interface allows the creation of any 2D/3D and in-die models, and maximizes metrology tool capabilities for fast measurements. NovaMARS supports consistency for optimized solutions, which allows for reduced variability between users, and enables recipe and model template creation for fast and robust recipe design.

NovaMARS is supported by NovaHPC[TM] (High Power Computation) for effective and timely results. It is also available under a scalable and user configurable infrastructure with Nova’s proprietary task management software, which accelerates recipe set-up and library building.

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NovaMARS’s modularity also enables customers to purchase a low-cost entry-level system, using grid computing with the user's existing computation resources.

Bents Kidron, Nova’s Director of Marketing, said, “We anticipate that the NovaMARS[TM] system will enable us to maintain our leading position for high-end metrology solutions. It meets today's and the future’s process control needs. We are seeing the industry trending towards new, more complex designs, with new materials and tighter design rules. This is forcing higher sampling of more complex structures with a clear trend for direct in-die measurements on the actual device. During the past few years, the optical Scatterometry method has built itself as a powerful technology used in production control by providing profiling and measurement of critical dimensions. According to Dataquest it is one of the fastest growing segments of process control equipment, expected to grow from $65M in 2005 to $170M in 2010. To exploit these capabilities, process engineers need to carefully model the desired structure to be measured, and this is where NovaMARS[TM] is an invaluable tool. We believe that “if you can’t model it, you can’t measure it”.

About Nova : Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. develops designs and produces integrated process control systems in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Nova provides a broad range of integrated process control solutions that link different semiconductor processes and process equipment. The Company's website is www.nova.co.il

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to future events or our future performance, such as statements regarding our anticipated market position Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those forward-looking statements. These risks and other factors include but are not limited to: changes in customer demands for our products, new product offerings from our competitors, changes in or an inability to execute our business strategy, unanticipated manufacturing or supply problems, changes in tax requirements or the applicability of those requirements to Nova and changes in customer demand for our products. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties summarized under the heading "Risk Factors" in Nova's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2005 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 29, 2006. These factors are updated from time to time through the filing of reports and registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

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