A NEW DIMENSION IN MOCVD PROCESS CONTROL - AIXTRON LAUNCHES EPITUNE® II IN-SITU MONITORING

!!! Press Release !!!

A NEW DIMENSION IN MOCVD PROCESS CONTROL -
AIXTRON LAUNCHES EPITUNE® II IN-SITU MONITORING

As a result of continuous efforts to push the performance of AIXTRON's MOCVD systems, now the EpiTUNE® II in situ monitoring tool for individual wafer measurements has been launched. Originating from a joint development between Luxtron and AIXTRON, this novel tool opens a new era of precise process control.

Based on Luxtron proprietary Ripple® technology, EpiTUNE® II allows measurement of the reflectivity of growing wafer surfaces as well as true surface temperature with an unrivalled precision. Each wafer in AIXTRON's Planetary Reactors® can be monitored individually. A powerful software package - integrated into the well established CACE V3 control environment - allows data analysis and processing. EpiTUNE® II has been designed to monitor processes at temperatures between 400° C and 1600° C. Thus all III-V processes such as GaAs, InP or GaN based ones can be real time monitored. Monitoring of semi-transparent substrates is also possible. The high sampling rate (20 Hz) allows true temperature maps of each wafer. The accuracy of the tool - well below 1°C - is high enough to control the most challenging processes such as VCSEL, InP laser or GaInAsN processes.

EpiTUNE® II is designed to provide highest control of such processes. Its development was driven by the requirements of future products to be manufactured with MOCVD. In addition to the existing in-situ tools such as EpiRAS™ and together with unrivalled thermal stability of AIXTRON's MOCVD reactors, EpiTUNE II® enables improvements in yield, stability and reproducibility of many critical applications. Small changes of the surface temperatures of the growing wafers, induced e.g. by changes in thermal conductivity of the epilayers, can now be compensated to maintain constant growth conditions.

AIXTRON AG (FSE: AIX ISIN DE0005066203) is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World and the MSCI World Index. As the world leading supplier of semiconductor epitaxy equipment with an installed base of well over 650 systems worldwide, according to VLSI Research Inc. AIXTRON is the forth largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer in Europe. AIXTRON is represented with an extensive service and support network in over 15 countries and has been rated once more among the 2001 10 BEST in its category in VLSI Research Inc's Customer Satisfaction Survey. Its equipment is used by a diverse range of customers worldwide to manufacture the critical, advanced components such as HBTs, PHEMTs, MESFETs, Lasers, LEDs, Detectors and VCSELs used in fibre optic communications systems, wireless and mobile telephony applications, optical storage devices, illumination, signalling and lighting, and a range of other leading edge technologies. AIXTRON's many customers include Agere, Alcatel, Anritsu, ATMI, Avalon, AXT, Epson, Honeywell, Infineon, IQE, IQE Silicon Compounds, ITT, JDS-Uniphase, Kopin, LumiLeds, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nortel, Optospeed, Osram, Procomp, Samsung, Showa Denko, Siemens, ST Microelectronics, Sumitomo, Thales, UEC, VPEC as well as numerous Japanese corporations. AIXTRON systems have also been installed in the most renowned research institutes worldwide, including CNRS, Fraunhofer Institute, ITRI-OES, JPL, Meijo University, Research Center Jülich, RIKEN, Sandia Nat Lab and the University of Tokyo. AIXTRON is very active in advancing MOCVD technology through collaborations and joint R&D projects with major partners worldwide.

About Luxtron Corporation:

Luxtron Corporation is a leading supplier of optical thermometry and metrology solutions for the semiconductor and optoelectronics industries. Its products give users the ability to measure temperature in harsh environments with extraordinary accuracy. Luxtron's yield-enhancing products fall into three categories: temperature measurement, end point process control, and deposition rate monitors. Fiber optic temperature sensors are used in plasma etch, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), epitaxy, rapid thermal processing (RTP) and diffusion processes. In situ endpoint monitors detect process endpoints in plasma etch, wet etch and chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) systems. Luxtron's Atomicas deposition rate monitor uses its highly discriminating nature to measure deposition rate with absolute material specificity, allowing precise composition control in multi-source and co-evaporation or co-sputtering processes. Luxtron is a wholly owned subsidiary of Spectris plc. Headquarters are located at 2775 Northwestern Parkway, Santa Clara, California 95051-0941; 1-800-627-1666; www.luxtron.com.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Claus Ehrenbeck
Head of Investor Relations and
Corporate Communications
AIXTRON AG
Kackertstr. 15 - 17
D-52072 Aachen, Germany
Phone:+49 241 8909 444
Fax: +49 241 8909 445
E-mail: invest@aixtron.com