Veeco Instruments Inc., 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.