10 May 2011

Veeco opens Shanghai customer support & training center

As part of its significant expansion in Asia announced last Fall, epitaxial deposition and process equipment maker Veeco Instruments Inc of Plainview, NY, USA has officially opened its new China Training Center (CTC) in Shanghai in order to better support the rapid growth of the LED industry and the needs of its customers. The grand opening was attendance by guests including local government officials and several of Veeco’s key Chinese LED customers.

Picture: Veeco's new China Training Center in Shanghai.

“China is making an enormous investment to become a world-leading manufacturer of LEDs, both for its own domestic consumption and to export. In fact, China has stated targets to convert 30% of the domestic lighting market to LEDs by 2015,” commented CEO John R. Peeler at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. China represented nearly 30% of Veeco’s 2010 revenue ($267m, up from $30m in 2009), and Chinese firms will potentially represent more than half of its $1 billion-plus revenue forecasted for 2011. “We shipped MOCVD tools to 20 customers last year, including existing LED manufacturers, joint venture companies as well as some new start-up enterprises,” he adds.

“Many of our customers are building or significantly expanding factories, often in new ‘LED/green energy’ parks,” says Peter Collingwood, senior VP, sales & service. “Our training center in Shanghai was therefore developed specifically to help our Chinese customers ‘go faster’ to ramp production of LEDs.”

About 1700m2 in size and housing about 40 Veeco employees, the CTC site is equipped with three classrooms as well as Veeco’s TurboDisc K465i MOCVD system. Training will include TurboDisc MOCVD system introduction, epitaxial process characterization, and more advanced hands-on training classes in hardware maintenance and trouble-shooting.

Picture: Veeco's CEO John Peeler at the China Training Center's official opening.

“This training center is the first of its kind to be established for the LED industry in China,” says Justin Wang, general manager, Veeco Greater China region. “Our goal is to train hundreds of engineers to use our MOCVD tools in the next 12 months,” he adds.

“Veeco will invest over $30m in 2011 to dramatically expand its Asia footprint to help customers continue to accelerate the pace of adoption of LEDs for consumer electronics and solid-state lighting, including additional new R&D/demo and process support sites in Hsinchu, Taiwan (opening in August) and Seoul, Korea (opening early 2012),” says Peeler.

See: Veeco Company Profile

Tags: Veeco MOCVD MBE

Visit: www.veeco.com