PLAINVIEW, N.Y., July 28 -- Veeco Instruments Inc., manufacturer of metrology tools and other equipment used in the fabrication of microelectronic components, reported record second quarter sales for 2000. Sales for the second three months of fiscal 2000 ended June 30 were $93.6 million, a 21 percent increase over the $77.1 million reported in the second quarter of 1999. The company's Process Equipment sales equaled last year's sales at $47.6 million, while Metrology sales were a record $43.1 million, a 69 percent increase over the $25.5 million reported in the same 1999 period. The growth in Metrology sales came from increased sales of atomic force microscopes to the semiconductor market, and sales of Veeco's new optical metrology products for the data storage industry. Veeco's Ion Tech subsidiary, which manufactures optical coating ion beam deposition systems used by manufacturers of dense wavelength division multiplexing filters, reported a 227 percent increase in second quarter bookings to $38.9 million compared with $11.9 million for the same 1999 period. Veeco's record second quarter orders of $132.4 million and record sales of $93.6 million reflect the strength of our optical telecommunications deposition equipment, said Edward H. Braun, the company's chairman and CEO , semiconductor metrology products and new data storage products, and the overall growth of these information age markets. All of Veeco's Process Equipment and Metrology product lines experienced order increases.