FEI COMPANY ANNOUCES $1.65 MILLION/TENTH ORDER FOR 8-INCH DUALBEAM SYSTEM HILLSBORO, Ore. May 27/PrNewswire-Asianet/-- FEI Company (Nasdaq: FEIC) today announced it had received its tenth "DualBeam" order for its 8-inch focused ion beam/scanning electron microscope (FIB/SEM) workstation for delivery in 1997. The $1.65 million order brings to $12.1 million the total of the ten orders received. "We booked more orders for our 8-inch DualBeam in the first four months of 1997 than we shipped in the whole of 1996," said William A. Whitward, FEI's Chief Executive Officer. "We believe these orders demonstrate that new markets are now opening for FEI's FIB/SEM tools, especially the in-line version." Five of these orders are for FEI's DualBeam 820, a laboratory-level tool with eight-inch wafer handling capability for use in advanced semiconducter industry process technology. The other five orders are for the DualBeam 825i, a cleaning compatable in-line system with robotics for automatic wafer handling and alignment. The most recent of the 825i orders is for an application in the thin-film head industry. Founded in 1971, FEI Company is a leading manufacturer of focused ion beam instruments, transmission electron microscopes, scanning electron microscopes and components for submicro-level observation analysis and manipulation. In 1997 FEI tripled in size when it combined operations with Philips Electron Optics. Philips Industrial Electronics owns 55% of the new company's common stock. FIB workstations are used primarily in the new company's common stock. FIB workstations are used primarily in the semiconducter industry for design modification, failure analysis and process analysis. Major users of transmission electron microscope and scanning electronic microscopes are research institutions, hospitals, universities and industrial customers in semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, metal and mining. FEI Company has approximately 800 employees worldwide, with manufacturing in the US and Europe. Except for the historical statements contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release, including market, resources allocation and intergration expectations, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to: difficulties encountered in the integration of the operations of FEI Company and Philips Electron Optics; business conditions and growths in the electonics, life sciences and material sciences industries and general economy , both domestic and international; lower than expected customer orders; competitive factors, including pricing pressures, technological developments and products offered by competitors; technological difficulties and resources constrants encountered in developing new products; and the timely flow of competitive new products and markets acceptance of those products. SOURCE FEI CO.CONTACT: William langley, Chief Financial Officer of FEI Company, 503-640-7537/