ETH ZÜRICH AND FIRST CENTER FOR MICRO- AND NANOSCIENCE SELECT AIXTRON MOCVD FOR PRODUCTION OF INP BASED HBTS AND HEMTS

!!! Press Release !!!

ETH ZÜRICH AND FIRST CENTER FOR MICRO- AND NANOSCIENCE SELECT AIXTRON MOCVD FOR PRODUCTION OF INP BASED HBTS AND HEMTS

Aachen/Zurich October 7th, 2002, The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland, has recently received their first AIX 200/4 system for the development and production of epitaxial compound semiconductor layer structures for various applications, such as InP-based HBT and HEMT high speed electronics, lasers and optical amplifiers in the 1.3 and 1.55µm windows integrated with passive optical waveguides, and GaAs based Bragg mirrors and VCSELs. The purchased system has been installed in the FIRST Center for Micro- and Nanoscience, inaugurated officially on July 5th 2002, at the ETH in Zurich.

Dr. Emilio Gini, from ETH comments "We chose this system for its well designed flexibility and we are confident that this production tool will represent a milestone in our various R&D programs". Dr. Bernd Schulte, Executive Vice President and COO of AIXTRON adds, "We are happy to provide FIRST, Center of Micro- and Nanoscience at ETH Zurich with this state-of-the-art system for obtaining highest quality material at high yield, reproducibility and low operation costs."

The many advantages of the AIXTRON R&D Reactors as well as the volume production Planetary Reactor® are well known world-wide. In addition to their user friendly operation and excellent process stability, the Planetary Reactor® principle combines successfully very high precursor efficiencies with world best uniformities. Together with excellent reliability and high throughput, all these properties lead to a valuable device yield.

With an installed base of well over 650 systems world-wide, AIXTRON is, as verified by VLSI Research Inc., the world leading supplier of equipment for semiconductor epitaxy and has been rated once more amongst the 2002 10 BEST in its category in the most recent VLSI Customer Satisfaction Survey. Its equipment is used by a diverse range of customers worldwide to manufacture 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, signaling and lighting, as well as a range of other leading edge technologies. The company has an extensive service and support network in over 15 countries. 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, NDL Taiwan, Research Center Jülich, RIKEN, Sandia Nat Lab, Tsinghua University and the University of Tokyo. AIXTRON is very active in advancing MOCVD technology through collaborations and joint R&D projects with major partners worldwide. AIXTRON AG (FSE: AIX ISIN DE0005066203) is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World and the MSCI World Index.

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