AZZURRO Semiconductors Chooses Veeco MOCVD For GaN-on-Silicon Epiwafer Production

Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: VECO) announced today that AZZURRO Semiconductors AG, a pioneer in GaN-on-Si technology headquartered in Germany, has recently placed into production the TurboDisc® K465i™ gallium nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System. The MOCVD system is used to make gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers for power semiconductors, LED wafers and LED template wafers that enable customers to leverage the technology advantage of the GaN-on-Si technology themselves.

Dr. Markus Sickmöller, Vice President Operations of AZZURRO, commented, “Our technology provides high-quality, crack-free GaN layers on 150mm standard silicon wafers with very good crystal quality and extremely low bow values. We chose Veeco’s K465i to produce these high efficiency GaN-on-Si stacks because of its performance, process stability, and high throughput. We believe our GaN-on-Si technology will trigger a new wave of highly efficient and cost-optimized components for the LED and power semiconductor industry.”

Jeff Hawthorne, Veeco’s Senior Vice President, MOCVD, commented, “The power electronics device market is forecasted by Yole Développement to be $25B by 2015, and GaN has the ability to make devices with higher efficiency and switching speed than traditional Si devices. Further, LEDs made with GaN-on-Si technology will enable lower LED costs. We anticipate that the demand for MOCVD tools for these GaN-on-Si applications will grow as technology moves from R&D into production. Veeco’s K465i systems offer key advantages for GaN-on-Si production, including low particle count and excellent yields, and we’re looking forward to continuing to support AZZURRO’s growing GaN-on-Si business.”

About AZZURRO Semiconductors

A strongly growing semiconductor company that has pioneered the growth of gallium nitride on silicon substrates (GaN-on-Si), AZZURRO supplies customers worldwide with their next generation of epitaxial wafers for LED and power semiconductor applications. Comparing to current generation wafers, the use of AZZURRO’s large diameter GaN-on-Si-wafers allows the industry to facilitate standard semiconductor production sites to allow massive cost savings. For additional product and company information please refer to the company’s website: www.azzurro-semiconductors.com.

About Veeco

Veeco’s process equipment solutions enable the manufacture of LEDs, power electronics, hard drives, MEMS and wireless chips. We are the market leader in MOCVD, MBE, Ion Beam and other advanced thin film process technologies. Our high performance systems drive innovation in energy efficiency, consumer electronics and network storage and allow our customers to maximize productivity and achieve lower cost of ownership. For information on our company, products and worldwide service and support, please visit 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, 2011 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.

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