Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq:VECO) announced today that Epistar Corporation (TSE:2448) has successfully evaluated and accepted the new TurboDisc® EPIK700™ Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) system for the production of light emitting diodes (LEDs).

“As the leader in LED technology and commercialization, it is vital that we continue to push our roadmap to reduce solid state lighting costs with the most innovative and efficient production solutions available,” said Dr. MJ Jou, President, Epistar Corporation. “EPIK’s performance, reliability and production readiness, as well as the support we received from Veeco during the beta testing phase, fully met our high manufacturing standards. The seamless recipe transfer from our installed base of Veeco K465i™ and MaxBright® systems to the EPIK700 is allowing us to quickly produce production-quality LED devices. In addition, the EPIK700’s cost of ownership advantage will help reduce our cost per wafer, making it a highly attractive platform for our future capacity expansions.”

Based on Veeco’s proven TurboDisc technology, the newly launched EPIK700 MOCVD system enables customers to achieve a cost per wafer savings of up to 20 percent compared to previous MOCVD systems through improved wafer uniformity, reduced operating expenses and increased productivity.

“Given Epistar’s position as one of the world’s top LED manufacturers, we are excited to have achieved this significant milestone and look forward to supporting future Epistar expansions in Taiwan and China,” said Jim Jenson, Senior Vice President, Veeco MOCVD Operations. “Our goal at Veeco is to help customers further accelerate the solid-state lighting market by driving down LED manufacturing costs and increasing productivity. We are gratified by this strong endorsement of EPIK700’s production-readiness.”

About TurboDisc EPIK700 GaN MOCVD SYSTEM

Veeco’s new breakthrough EPIK700 MOCVD system is the LED industry’s highest productivity MOCVD system that reduces cost per wafer by up to 20 percent compared to previous generations. Available in one-and two-reactor configurations, EPIK700 features breakthrough technologies including the new IsoFlange™ and TruHeat™ technologies that provide homogeneous laminar flow and uniform temperature profile across the entire wafer carrier. These technological innovations produce wavelength uniformity to drive higher yields in a tighter bin. EPIK700 offers a 2.5x throughput advantage over other systems due to its large reactor size. Designed for mass production, EPIK700 accommodates 31x4”, 12x6” and 6x8” wafer carrier sizes. Customers can easily transfer processes from existing TurboDisc systems to the new EPIK700 MOCVD platform for quick-start production of high quality LEDs. Because of the flexible EPIK700 MOCVD platform, more upgrades, added benefits and future enhancements will continue to differentiate this world-class system.

About Epistar Corporation

Epistar Corporation, located in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, Taiwan, is a premier manufacturer of high brightness LEDs for lighting, backlighting, mobile and other applications. Its common stock is traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 2448. Visit this link for more information: http://www.epistar.com.tw/index_en.php.

About Veeco

Veeco’s process equipment solutions enable the manufacture of LEDs, flexible OLED displays, solar cells, power electronics, hard drives, MEMS and wireless chips. We are the market leader in LED, 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, 2013 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.