AACHEN PIONEERING LED-TRAFFIC-LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY

!!! Press Release !!!

Aachen pioneering LED-traffic-lighting technology
Following a successful trial period 111 traffic lights within Aachen will be equipped with LEDs

Aachen, 16 March, 2004, - The city of Aachen has decided to retrofit 111 city traffic lights with LEDs. Delivering very favorable power consumption, durability and safety, LEDs are the state-of-the-art technology in traffic lighting which can be seen in many locations worldwide. The implementation of LED technology into traffic lights is already widespread outside of Germany. According to market analysts 1.6 million LED traffic lights were in use in 2002, equivalent to an installation share of 5%.

The Purchase Order for the installation of the LED traffic lights in Aachen was awarded to Siemens. In the framework of a joint project between Siemens, the city of Aachen and AIXTRON, the first LED traffic lights had already been installed in 1998 at the junction of Roermonder Str. / Kackertstr in Aachen. Based on the complaint free and excellent performance of this initial test site over five years, Aachen officials decided to launch two further pilot projects with LED traffic lights within the limits of the city, shortly afterwards. Since then 5 further LED traffic lights were put into operation in Aachen. Compared to alternative traditional incandescent and halogen lamps, LEDs offer clearly visible and convincing advantages, such as, remarkably low maintenance costs, significantly less power consumption and a long life cycle of more than 10 years. These benefits could help to considerably reduce municipal operating budgets. The higher production cost of LEDs could, according to specialists, be offset within only three years by savings in electric power consumption and maintenance costs. Prominent examples can be seen in cities like Zurich, in Switzerland and Las Vegas in the USA.

LED technology also has significant safety benefits: both the speed and the intense brightness of LEDs ensure that the traffic lights can be easily seen in bright sunlight and that phantom light reflections will not occur any more, because reflectors become superfluous.

Countries such as the USA, Japan, Taiwan, England, France and Belgium are already using LED traffic lights to ensure greater road traffic safety, to improve the environment and to give relief to municipal operating budgets. This increasing adoption of energy-saving LED technology is particularly evident in the U.S. where, recently they have faced significant energy shortage problems. Over the last few years, California has already converted 10% of its traffic lights to LEDs.

The most important component of a LED is the tiny semiconductor chip which serves as light source. AIXTRON AG, which is based in Aachen, provides MOCVD equipment representing the key technology for the production of these compound semiconductors. AIXTRON is the worldwide leader in the provision of advanced MOCVD production equipment with a market share of ca. 60%.

For further information please contact:

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