FT. COLLINS, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 1, 1999--Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) announced today that its subsidiary, Ion Tech, Inc., received over $6 million in orders for SPECTOR(TM) optical coating ion beam deposition systems from three leading manufacturers of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) filters. This equipment is currently expected to be shipped during the second and third quarters of 2000.

Gerald Isaacson, Ph.D., President of Ion Tech, commented, "We are pleased to receive these orders, which are indicative of the growing acceptance of our ion beam deposition systems by DWDM filter manufacturers. The SPECTOR system, with its precise control of deposition rates and uniformities, is able to produce high yields of 0.8nm bandwidths and below - making it ideally suited for DWDM manufacturers' next-generation filter requirements."

"By joining forces with Veeco, a proven ion beam industry leader, we expect to be able to further capitalize on the opportunities in the DWDM ion beam filter market," added Dr. Isaacson. "Our current plans include a plant expansion and increased personnel to meet growing market demand."

Veeco's merger with Ion Tech closed on November 5, 1999. Under the terms of the agreement, Ion Tech shareholders received approximately 1.5 million shares of Veeco common stock. The transaction will be accounted for as a pooling-of-interests.

Ion Tech, based in Ft. Collins, CO, is a leading supplier of ion beam deposition systems used to manufacture precise multi-layer optical filters critical to extending "bandwidth" of fiber optic telecommunications networks. DWDM technology increases the capacity of optical fibers by allowing hundreds of signals to be simultaneously transmitted across a single optic fiber, and then separated by individual wavelengths.

Veeco Instruments Inc., headquartered in Plainview, New York is a worldwide leader in metrology tools for the data storage and semiconductor industries, and process equipment etch and deposition tools for the data storage and opto-telecommunications industry. Manufacturing and engineering facilities are located in New York, California, Colorado, and Arizona. Global sales and service offices are located throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific.

To the extent that this news release discusses expectations about market conditions or about market acceptance and future sales of the Company's products, 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 cyclical nature of the industries Veeco serves, risks associated with the acceptance of new products by individual customers and by the marketplace, and other factors discussed in the Business Description and Management's Discussion and Analysis sections of the Company's most recent Report on Form 10-K and Annual Report to Shareholders.

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