GRAND OPENING OF AIXTRON TAIWAN CO., LTD.

!!! Press Release !!!

Grand Opening of AIXTRON Taiwan Co., Ltd.

Aachen / Hsinchu, 10 April, 2003 - AIXTRON Taiwan Co., Ltd. will celebrate its official Grand Opening Ceremony on April 15, 2003 in its new facilities in the Science Based Industrial Park (SBIP) in Hsinchu, Taiwan. This R&D subsidiary of AIXTRON had been registered in 2002 and will focus on advanced Research and Development in CVD related technologies - the key technologies for the Taiwanese optoelectronic industry.

The scope of AIXTRON Taiwan Co., Ltd. is to perform production oriented joint research, together with its Taiwanese customers and to provide the well established AIXTRON world class local support. Dr. Christian Geng, General Manager of AIXTRON Taiwan comments: "The opportunity to perform joint Research and Development with our customers will create a win-win situation. Our customers will directly profit from our product, which is "technology". It gives AIXTRON the chance to optimize its equipment and process, directly focused to its customers needs. Whereas our other laboratories world-wide are aiming more at fundamental research, the clear orientation on production in Taiwan gives us the chance to concentrate our development work on manufacturing aspects."

The importance of this technology is endorsed by an R&D grant from the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs. The Taiwanese government supports AIXTRON Taiwan's R&D efforts through funding a joint research project with OES/ITRI (Opto-Electronics & Systems Laboratories / Industrial Technology Research Institute) in which, among other topics, technology to boost the performance of Taiwan's GaN based optoelectronics for white lighting and UV lasers will be developed. Among AIXTRON's Taiwanese customers are UEC, Epistar, Arima, VPEC, Procomp, Highlink, Epitech, Tekcore, OIC, SEC, LEDEX, CSIST, FOREPI, Unilight, NCU, Nan Ya, Advanced Epitaxy, OES, Kingmax, Chia Ta and Kopin Taiwan.

AIXTRON Taiwan Co. Ltd. is part of AIXTRON's Global Service Operation Unit combining AIXTRON's Technology Transfer, Service, Parts Logistics and Corporate Training into one operational unit, that professionally services the entire AIXTRON group product range. The opening of AIXTRON Taiwan Co. Ltd., AIXTRON K.K, Japan, and AIXTRON cshs, Korea further underlines AIXTRON's strengthened local support to customers in Asia. Customers benefit from this decentralized organization which ensures an 'on-site' support network.

AIXTRON is, as verified by VLSI Research Inc., the world leading supplier of equipment for semiconductor epitaxy. 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 fiber 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. AIXTRON AG (FSE: AIX ISIN DE0005066203) is listed in the Tec-DAX of the German Stock Exchange (Deutsche Börse) and 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