Basis of Presentation (Policies)	3 Months Ended
Basis of Presentation (Policies)	Mar. 31, 2015
Basis of Presentation
Revenue Recognition	Revenue recognition Veeco sells systems, maintenance, service, components, and spare parts. Veeco recognizes revenue when all of the following criteria have been met: persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists with a customer; delivery of the specified products has occurred or services have been rendered; prices are contractually fixed or determinable; and collectability is reasonably assured. Revenue is recorded including shipping and handling costs and excluding applicable taxes related to sales. Contracts frequently contain multiple deliverables. Judgment is required to properly identify the accounting units of the multiple-element arrangements and to determine how the revenue should be allocated among the accounting units. Veeco also evaluates whether multiple transactions with the same customer or related parties should be considered part of a single, multiple-element arrangement based on an assessment of whether the contracts or agreements are negotiated or executed within a short time frame of each other or if there are indicators that the contracts are negotiated in contemplation of one another. Moreover, judgment is used in interpreting the commercial terms and determining when all criteria have been met in order to recognize revenue in the appropriate accounting period. When there are separate units of accounting, Veeco allocates revenue to each element based on the following selling price hierarchy: vendor-specific objective evidence (“VSOE”) if available; third party evidence (“TPE”) if VSOE is not available; or the best estimate of selling price (“BESP”) if neither VSOE nor TPE is available. BESP is used for the majority of the elements in Veeco’s arrangements. The maximum revenue recognized on a delivered element is limited to the amount that is not contingent upon the delivery of additional items. Veeco considers many facts when evaluating each of its sales arrangements to determine the timing of revenue recognition including its contractual obligations, the customer’s creditworthiness, and the nature of the customer’s post-delivery acceptance provisions. Veeco’s system sales arrangements, including certain upgrades, generally include field acceptance provisions that may include functional or mechanical test procedures. For the majority of the arrangements, a customer source inspection of the system is performed in Veeco’s facility or test data is sent to the customer documenting that the system is functioning to the agreed upon specifications prior to delivery. Historically, such source inspection or test data replicates the field acceptance provisions that are performed at the customer’s site prior to final acceptance of the system. When Veeco objectively demonstrates that the criteria specified in the contractual acceptance provisions are achieved prior to delivery, revenue is recognized upon system delivery since there is no substantive contingency remaining related to the acceptance provisions at that date, subject to the retention amount constraint described below. For new products, new applications of existing products, or for products with substantive customer acceptance provisions where Veeco can not objectively demonstrate that the criteria specified in the contractual acceptance provisions have been achieved prior to delivery, revenue and the associated costs are fully deferred and recognized upon the receipt of final customer acceptance, assuming all other revenue recognition criteria have been met. System sales arrangements, including certain upgrades, generally do not contain provisions for the right of return, forfeiture, refund, or other purchase price concession. In the rare instances where such provisions are included, all revenue is deferred until such rights expire. The sales arrangements generally include installation. The installation process is not deemed essential to the functionality of the equipment since it is not complex; it does not require significant changes to the features or capabilities of the equipment or involve constructing elaborate interfaces or connections subsequent to factory acceptance. Veeco has a demonstrated history of consistently completing installations in a timely manner and can reliably estimate the costs of such activities. Most customers engage Veeco to perform the installation services, although there are other third-party providers with sufficient knowledge who could complete these services. Based on these factors, installation is deemed to be inconsequential or perfunctory relative to the system sale as a whole, and as a result, installation service is not considered a separate element of the arrangement. As such, Veeco accrues the cost of the installation at the time of revenue recognition for the system. In many cases Veeco’s products are sold with a billing retention, typically 10% of the sales price which is payable by the customer when field acceptance provisions are completed. The amount of revenue recognized upon delivery of a system or upgrade, if any, is limited to the lower of i) the amount billed that is not contingent upon acceptance provisions or ii) the value of the arrangement consideration allocated to the delivered elements, if such sale is part of a multiple-element arrangement.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements	Recent accounting pronouncements In May 2014, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2014-09: Revenue from Contracts with Customers (the “Update”). The Update requires an entity to recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The Update outlines a five-step model to make the revenue recognition determination and requires new financial statement disclosures. Publicly-traded companies are required to adopt the Update for reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016; however the FASB recently proposed a one-year deferral of the Update. Currently, companies may choose among different transition alternatives. Veeco is evaluating the impact of adopting the Update on its consolidated financial statements and related financial statement disclosures and has not yet determined which method of adoption will be selected. Veeco is also evaluating other pronouncements recently issued but not yet adopted. The adoption of these pronouncements is not expected to have a material impact on Veeco’s consolidated financial statements.

Disclosure of accounting policy for revenue recognition. If the entity has different policies for different types of revenue transactions, the policy for each material type of transaction is generally disclosed. If a sales transaction has multiple element arrangements (for example, delivery of multiple products, services or the rights to use assets) the disclosure may indicate the accounting policy for each unit of accounting as well as how units of accounting are determined and valued. The disclosure may encompass important judgment as to appropriateness of principles related to recognition of revenue. The disclosure also may indicate the entity's treatment of any unearned or deferred revenue that arises from the transaction.

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