Significant Accounting Policies - Accounting for Share-Based Compensation (Details)	Dec. 31, 2019 item
Significant Accounting Policies
Number of awards with which entity has elected to treat awards with only service conditions and with graded vesting	1

Number of awards with which entity has elected to treat awards with only service conditions and with graded vesting.

No definition available.

Name:	veco_ShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardServiceConditionsAndGradedVestingNumberOfAwards
Namespace Prefix:	veco_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant