For more information, contact:

Richard Beck Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. 970.407.6204 dick.beck@aei.com

Marna Shillman Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. 970.407.6280 marna.shillman@aei.com

Advanced Energy's Tower Electronics Announces New Business with Spectra-Physics Lasers

FORT COLLINS, CO (April 19, 2000) - Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: AEIS) today announced that its subsidiary Tower Electronics, Inc., has received an order from Spectra-Physics (Nasdaq: SPLI) for power conversion products. The order follows full qualification of Tower's products on Spectra-Physics' lasers. The qualified products are designed to meet Spectra-Physics' stringent demands for quality, reliability, and cost of ownership.

 

"Our technical expertise allows us to meet Spectra-Physics' requirements while improving power density by about one third," said Chris Fergen, Vice President and General Manager of Tower. "We are pleased to be chosen by Spectra-Physics for this application and feel we have developed a true partnership with their engineering and business teams, which will lead to more applications of this type over time."

Tower Electronics, Inc. was founded in 1978 and acquired by Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. in August 1997. Tower designs and manufactures power supplies for such diverse applications as lasers, night-vision systems, medical instrumentation, computer peripherals, networking systems, telecommunications, semiconductor equipment, and others.

Founded in 1961, Spectra-Physics is a leader in design, development, manufacture, and distribution of lasers and laser systems for a broad range of markets. The company offers a diverse line of laser products backed by a sales, service and support organization located in more than 35 countries. Spectra-Physics is a publicly held company traded on Nasdaq under the symbol SPLI.

About the Company
Founded in 1981, Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of power delivery systems that are critical in the manufacturing of semiconductors, data storage media, flat panel displays, and other products using thin-film technology. Within its comprehensive product portfolio of direct current (DC), low/mid-frequency and radio frequency (RF) power solutions, the Company sells products critical in applications ranging from compact disks, digital video disks, flat panel displays, the most popular logic semiconductor devices, among other applications. The Company's stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol AEIS.

Safe Harbor Statement
Except for any historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including the achievement of goals established by the Company to improve revenue, continued sales growth in non-semiconductor areas such as revenue from customers of Tower Electronics, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including the Company's Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q. The Company continues to be susceptible to fluctuations in quarterly and annual revenues and operating results and the volatility of the semiconductor and semiconductor capital industries. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information in this release.

For more information, access Advanced Energy's web site at www.advanced-energy.com or for more information via fax (at no cost), dial 1-800-PRO-INFO, code AEIS.