Founded in 1984 by Norbert Nold, Omicron started business by introducing the SPECTALEED and the legendary Ultra High Vacuum STM 1 as their first and highly successful products. The STM 1, which still delivers state-of-the-art performance even by today's standards in nearly 200 laboratories worldwide, firmly established Omicron's present position as the world market leader in UHV scanning probe microscopy.