December 10, 2001 — PALM-BACH, Germany — NanoAutomation/MicroPositioning company PI (Physik Instrumente),

Germany has built a new 140,000 square foot factory to meet an increased demand for its ultra-precision products in industries such as bio-technology, fiber optics, semiconductors, data storage and aerospace engineering.

The new factory in Palm-Bach provides R&D and

manufacturing with increased cleanroom capacity and a

metrology lab, for testing and calibrating the company’s

precision-positioning products to sub-nanometer accuracy.

PI pioneered piezoelectric (PZT) Nanopositioning Technology in the

early 1970’s, when applications could only be found in university- and

government funded research labs.

Today, many high-tech industries require controlled motion on a

nano-meter scale, to produce, test or inspect their products.