Zygo history

In 1973 Zygo moved its 16 employees into a new 10,000-square-foot facility in Middlefield, where it would eventually become the town's largest employer and taxpayer.

In 1978 Zygo introduced the Mark II, the first interferometer suitable for industrial use.

To keep up with growth, Zygo expanded to a 100,000-square-foot facility in 1981.

1983: Zygo goes public.

In 1984 Zygo introduced the Production Test Interferometer, a smaller and less expensive device that could be used for online production testing.

Also in 1987 Zygo introduced the Mark IVxp interferometer and the Maxim 3D interference microscope.

By 1989 the Mark-IV laser Fizeau was fully automated, with computer control of data acquisition and analysis using the HP-windows based MetroPro™ software.

The early 1990's represented an exciting time in the development of interference microscopy.

Fedor resigned in June 1991, replaced by Forman who had been serving as chairman of the company.

As part of the effort to restructure the company, Forman hired Gary K. Willis to replace Fodor in February 1992.

Both Forman and Laufer, who had become vice-president of the optics group, announced they would retire from Zygo on June 30, 1994.

By 1995 the company was entering a growth phase; investors recognized this and began to bid up the price of Zygo stock to the point that management authorized a three-for-two split.

Zygo's first effort to grow externally came in 1996 when it made two acquisitions.

Zygo grew rapidly through fiscal 1998.

The hope was that the company could save as much as $3 million in fiscal 1999.

The company reported fiscal 2000 revenues of $87.2 million, a significant improvement over the previous year, but it lost $16 million as it changed the emphasis of its business.

Another initiative aimed at front-end semiconductor wafer metrology confronted the worldwide financial crisis of 2008, when capital equipment purchases in the sector fell precipitously, and ZYGO scaled back this aggressive initiative to a modest OEM business.