News Details

Veeco MOCVD Tools Selected for Continued Capacity Expansion at Seoul Optodevice of Korea

April 26, 2010

PLAINVIEW, N.Y., Apr 26, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: VECO), announced today that Seoul Optodevice Co., Ltd. (SOC) of Korea has selected Veeco's TurboDisc(R) K465i(TM) gallium nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System to expand their manufacturing capacity of high brightness light emitting diodes (HB-LEDs). In addition to orders placed in 2009, SOC placed a multi-tool order during the second quarter of 2010, with all tools currently scheduled for shipment during 2010.

Seyong Oh, Ph.D., CEO of SOC, commented, "We have been using Veeco's high productivity MOCVD systems in our manufacturing facilities with great success. This new order ensures that we can continue to increase output of our market-leading HB LEDs with the industry's highest yields. We have positioned our Company to be a world-class LED provider focused on growing our business in LEDs for displays, automotive, mobile and general illumination applications. We believe that Veeco's MOCVD systems offer the lowest cost-of-ownership tools on the market, and their support is excellent."

Bill Miller, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, General Manager of Veeco MOCVD commented, "We are pleased that SOC will ramp their HB-LED capacity with our MOCVD systems, continuing our long-standing partnership. This recent order from a top LED manufacturer is further evidence of Veeco's growing market share, particularly in Korea where we are the leading provider of MOCVD tools."

With superior wavelength uniformity and excellent run-to-run repeatability, the production-proven K465i extends Veeco's lead in capital efficiency - the number of good wafers per day for each capital dollar - for high volume LED manufacturers. The K465i provides ease-of-tuning for fast process optimization on wafer sizes up to 8 inches and fast tool recovery time after maintenance.

About Seoul Optodevice Co., Ltd

Since its foundation in 2002, Seoul Optodevice has been focused on development of LED Epitaxy, Fabrication, and UV LEDs. As a result of its constant effort, it has developed the first AC LEDs in the industry, and is now supplying Deep UV LEDs. Seoul Optodevice is a division of Seoul Semiconductor. For further information, please visit http://www.socled.com

About Veeco

Veeco Instruments Inc. designs, manufactures, markets and services enabling solutions for customers in the HB-LED, solar, data storage, semiconductor, scientific research and industrial markets. We have leading technology positions in our three businesses: LED & Solar Process Equipment, Data Storage Process Equipment, and Metrology Instruments. Veeco's product development, marketing, engineering and manufacturing facilities are located in New York, New Jersey, California, Colorado, Arizona, Massachusetts and Minnesota. Global sales and service offices are located throughout the U.S., Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. http://www.veeco.com/

To the extent that this news release discusses expectations or otherwise makes statements about the future, such statements are forward-looking and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. These factors include the risks discussed in the Business Description and Management's Discussion and Analysis sections of Veeco's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 and in our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and press releases. Veeco does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances after the date of such statements.

SOURCE: Veeco Instruments Inc.

Veeco Instruments Inc.
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