$4M DOE funding for LED manufacturing teams Veeco with Kyma

Plainview, NY--Veeco Instruments (Nasdaq: VECO), a provider of equipment for manufacturing light-emitting diodes (LEDs), was awarded $4 million in R&D Matching Funds by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to lower the manufacturing costs and improve the brightness and efficiency of LEDs by utilizing novel materials, substrates, and deposition technologies. Kyma Technologies (Raleigh, NC), a provider of crystalline nitride semiconductor materials, will be supplying material and services to Veeco as part of this development project.

In early June 2011, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced nearly $15 million to support eight new research and development projects that will accelerate the development and deployment of high-efficiency solid-state lighting technologies like LEDs and organic LEDs (OLEDs). The projects selected are located in four states across the country and are focused on advancing core R&D goals, developing new products, and expanding domestic manufacturing capacity to help the U.S. remain competitive in this growing technology market.

U.S. Congressman Steve Israel, (2nd District of New York), said, "Right here on Long Island we have clean technology companies like Veeco leading the way to manufacture lighting that can be ten times more efficient than conventional lighting and can last up to 25 times as long. This is exactly what we need to reduce our energy bills and strengthen Long Island's manufacturing base. I commend Veeco for their innovative work on LEDs that earned them a $4 million Department of Energy grant."

Robert Oates, executive VP of Veeco, said, "Veeco is excited to receive this DOE endorsement and R&D funding to supplement our already aggressive programs to help lower the cost and improve the efficiency of LEDs. This new project has been launched in our Plainview, NY R&D site where we are specialists in depositing novel materials and designing equipment that provides our customers with tools that enable the lowest cost-of-ownership. Veeco's R&D efforts are focused on dramatically reducing the cost of LEDs and accelerating their adoption into the general lighting market." Veeco employs approximately 300 people at its Plainview site.

Keith Evans, CEO of Kyma, said, "Kyma is focused on creating and supplying high performance crystalline materials that enable energy efficient lighting and electric power management. We are pleased to be supporting Veeco on this project, which will now be accelerated with DOE funding."

SOURCE: Veeco; http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=111487&p=NewsArticle&ID=1573018