Advanced Photonix® (NYSE MKT: API), the leading supplier of terahertz systems, announced today that it has built and shipped a record number terahertz systems in December 2012. Of the four systems shipped, two of the systems were part of a three system order previously announced for the Japanese market. The other two systems were part of the Appleton Paper strategic alliance, also announced earlier.

On August 1, 2012, Advanced Photonix® announced the sale of three T-Gauge® systems to the Company's Japanese distributor for deployment on a manufacturing line providing 100% inspection and quality control of packaged products. This is the first industrial deployment of terahertz in Japan. The T-Gauge® systems will inspect individual packages for contaminates or anomalies in a powder. This high-speed application was jointly developed by API and our distributor. The system will scan each individual package in five seconds using both imaging and waveform analysis to determine product quality.

On September 5, 2012, Advanced Photonix® announced a strategic alliance and the sale of two systems to Appleton Paper, a specialty coating developer and manufacturer of thermal, carbonless, security and specialty papers. Appleton will utilize terahertz energy to perform various critical measurements in order to provide inspection and quality control of current and newly developed coated products. The ability of terahertz energy to penetrate non-conducting materials allows for the inspection of solid and liquid products that have already been packaged. The wide frequency content and high precision of the T-Gauge® system provides sensitivity to both physical and chemical changes. Measurement of thickness, density, and certain material properties can be used to monitor the quality of the manufactured product.

“I would like to congratulate the Terahertz manufacturing team for building and shipping a record four systems in a single month," commented Richard Kurtz, Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Photonix. "This milestone achievement is indicative of our team's ability to accommodate growth expectations. As our work on the F-35 program is expected to conclude in the coming quarters, we will continue our transition from contract revenues to product revenues. We will always explore government contract work opportunistically, but believe it will become a smaller portion of our Terahertz revenue as our commercial business increases.”

About Advanced Photonix, Inc.

Advanced Photonix, Inc.® (NYSE Amex: API) is a leading supplier with a broad offering of optoelectronic products to a global customer base. We provide optoelectronic solutions, high-speed optical receivers and terahertz instrumentation for telecom, homeland security, military, medical and industrial markets. With our patented technology and state-of-the-art manufacturing we offer industry leading performance, exceptional quality, and high value-added products to our OEM customer base. For more information visit us on the web at www.advancedphotonix.com.

The information contained herein includes forward looking statements that are based on assumptions that management believes to be reasonable but are subject to inherent uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, unforeseen technological obstacles which may prevent or slow the development and/or manufacture of new products; potential problems with the integration of the acquired company and its technology and possible inability to achieve expected synergies; obstacles to successfully combining product offerings and lack of customer acceptance of such offerings; limited (or slower than anticipated) customer acceptance of new products which have been and are being developed by the Company; and a decline in the general demand for optoelectronic products. API-G