verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message zygo corporation type public traded as nasdaq zigo headquarters middlefield connecticut usa key people keith kowalski ceo interim tony allan coo revenue 149.395 million fy 2013 operating income 12.113 million fy 2013 net income 7.851 million fy 2013 total assets 218.220 million fy 2013 total equity 185.884 million fy 2013 number of employees 637 as of june 30 2013 website zygo.com zygo corporation is a company that specializes in optical systems & equipment for areas such as optical metrology . zygo s metrology systems are based on optical interferometry measuring displacement surface figure and optical wavefront . metrology and optical markets for end user and oem applications include semiconductor capital equipment aerospace defense automotive and research . zygo corporation is listed on nasdaq and traded under the symbol zigo . it is headquartered at middlefield connecticut and has 484 employees worldwide . early history edit zygo was founded in 1970 by paul forman carl zanoni and sol laufer with financial support from canon inc. japan and wesleyan university ct usa . an initial priority for the company was to build a world class optical fabrication facility for producing optics with the highest precision plano surfaces and angles . it was recognized that in order to achieve such a goal practical and easy to use interferometry would have to be a standard part of the fabrication process . while there were several interferometers available on the market at that time none had all the flexibility or features zygo considered important to their goal . so the decision was made to design an interferometer for in house use . however as the concepts for this new interferometer began to develop zygo recognized that others might have a similar need and the in house breadboard interferometer was soon converted to a program to develop zygo s first product ; the model gh interferometer named for zygo s first non founding employee george hunter . in 1972 zygo introduced the model gh 1 interferometer system at the annual meeting of the optical society of america . the gh was the first commercial interferometer to incorporate an alignment system that enabled an operator to quickly obtain a fringe pattern . the system was modular in design and incorporated the ability to use bayonet mounted transmission elements to enable the construction of various configurations for testing different kinds of optics . transmission elements such as transmission flats and transmission spheres was a new concept based upon a fizeau unequal path configuration . this construction greatly simplified the optics required for the interferometer and significantly increased the accuracy to which an interferometer could be made to operate . in conjunction with a patented quick fringe acquisition system and alignment scheme this provided a flexible rapid to change and easy to use instrument . in 1973 with 16 employees zygo moved into a new 10 000 square foot 930 m2 facility in middlefield connecticut . in 1981 with a growth rate averaging about 50 % per year zygo expanded to a 100 000 square foot 9 300 m2 facility also in middlefield ct. in december 1983 zygo completed its initial public offering . acquisition by ametek edit on april 11th 2014 ametek announced that it agreed to buy zygo corp. the ceo and main shareholders of zygo have approved officially the acquisition . 1 references edit ametek to buy zygo for about 364 million in wall street journal . http www.opnmagazine digital.com opn 201011 pg 16 magazine article detailing zygo s founding and early years . http stocks.us.reuters.com stocks fulldescription.asp rpc 66 & symbol zigo.o retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title zygo corporation & oldid 689569958 categories middletown connecticutcompanies based in middlesex county connecticutinstrument making corporationshidden categories articles needing additional references from march 2010all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 8 november 2015 at 01 17 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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