VOICE 2015 Attracts Over 400 Attendees on Two Continents

Advantest made its VOICE 2015 Developer Conference a truly international forum in May by holding the event in both Santa Clara, Calif., and Shanghai, China – the first time that this annual gathering of test equipment users, suppliers and partners has been held outside the United States. More than 400 people attended the events, which featured 79 technical papers on May 12-13 in Silicon Valley and 24 presentations on May 22 in Shanghai.

In addition to its geographic growth, VOICE 2015 also set a new record for international speakers with presenters coming from 14 countries, up from 11 last year. The conference continues to expand by including new companies and new ideas. Of the 134 abstracts submitted this year, more than 41 percent came from authors who had not presented at any prior VOICE conferences. Among those candidates trying to become first-time presenters at VOICE, more than 78 percent were from Advantest customers, an indicator of the high value that chipmakers place on this annual forum.

The sessions were packed with technical talks on topics such as the latest testing capabilities enabled by Advantest’s V93000 and T2000 platforms, production test cells, product engineering and emerging test technologies. In addition, attendees benefited from multiple networking opportunities at both events.

VOICE in Silicon Valley

In Silicon Valley, VOICE began with a welcome address by Advantest America, Inc. President and CEO Doug Lefever. Technical product highlights were presented by Andree Weyh, Amit Monga and Zain Abadin of Advantest. Then global adventurer and award-winning author Paul Deegan gave an inspirational keynote address called “Breathless: Embracing Uncertainty at 29,000 Feet.” On the second day, many attendees spoke directly with Advantest test experts at on-site kiosks. After the two-day conference, a supplemental day of workshops was offered at Advantest’s San Jose headquarters for customers wanting more detailed, hands-on training.

VOICE in China

The inaugural VOICE in Shanghai, which was completely filled several weeks before the event, opened with a welcome speech by Yong Xu, CEO of Advantest China Co., Ltd. The keynote speaker was Dr. Jonathan Sang, senior director of the Testing & Outsourcing Unit from HH Grace, who spoke on “Diversified Technologies for the Wearable Market.”

Best Paper Awards

With technical presentations at its core, VOICE recognizes the best paper at each conference with an award judged by attendees. This year’s winners at the Silicon Valley event were Luis Neria Govea of Qualcomm and Frank Dollendorf of Advantest for their talk on “Different Methods for Run-Time Vector Manipulation and Their Test Time Impacts.” In Shanghai, the best paper award went to Michael Min and Liang Ge of Advantest for their presentation entitled “Examining a Sequencer-Controlled Search-Trimming Solution with Conditional Jump.” VOICE 2015 attendees may obtain instructions on how to get the published proceedings on the conference website at www.advantest.com/voice

Thank You to the VOICE 2015 Supporters & Sponsors

For the first time, the 2015 conference was supported by four industry organizations: SEMI, the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), VLSIresearch and IC Insights. Advantest also extends a special thank you to the 14 companies who sponsored VOICE 2015:

VOICE 2016

In 2016, the Advantest VOICE Developer Conference will mark its tenth anniversary. Program details will be posted online in the coming months.

VLSIresearch Names Advantest to Its 10 BEST List for 27th Successive Year

Leading semiconductor market-research firm VLSIresearch recently revealed the results of its annual Customer Satisfaction Survey. The responses provided by global customers placed Advantest Corporation on the esteemed VLSIresearch 10 BEST List for the 27^th consecutive year. In 2015, Advantest surpassed its personal best scores from prior years, achieving its highest customer ratings in the areas of recommended supplier and technical leadership.

The findings from the survey cited Advantest’s improved ratings in 14 of the 15 categories, landing the overall score above 9.0 for the first time. The company ranked high among THE BEST suppliers of test equipment in 2015, and was also one of the 10 BEST large suppliers of chip making equipment.

More than 96 percent of the chip market provides feedback to the survey, which rates equipment suppliers across 15 categories based on three key factors: supplier performance, customer service, and product performance. “Earning a top ranking in the VLSIresearch Customer Satisfaction Survey underscores Advantest’s core commitment to serving our customers,” stated Shinchiro Kuroe, Advantest Corporation president and CEO. “Across the organization, we remain focused on delivering the highest value of service and support to our customers, and we are delighted that the strategies, people, processes and equipment that we’ve implemented to support the semiconductor industry are having tangible results. We truly appreciate our customers’ recognition and continued confidence.”

VLSIresearch CEO G. Dan Hutcheson noted, “For as long as our Customer Satisfaction Survey has been measuring customer feedback, global customers have paid tribute to Advantest’s ability to deliver superior products along with high quality service and support. Maintaining the customer at the center of the decision-making process is what enables Advantest to support this kind of distinction over time. It’s abundantly clear that Advantest remains dedicated to its customers’ success.”

VLSIresearch also indicated that 2014 was notable for the strong recovery in the test sector, evidenced by 22 percent sales growth in ATE. As one of the top two providers in the space, Advantest shares about 50 percent of overall sales for test and related equipment. Advantest has long been the industry’s only ATE provider to design and manufacture its own fully integrated suite of test-cell solutions, comprising testers, handlers, device interfaces, and software to assure the industry’s highest levels of integrity and compatibility.

As the industry evolves to deliver new test solutions that address the needs of emerging markets and technologies, particularly around automotive, IoT and other smart products, Advantest will maintain its longstanding, razor-sharp focus on providing exceptional products and support to enable our customers’ ongoing success.

Visit Advantest at the Flash Memory Summit and Intel Developer Forum in August

Advantest will exhibit its MPT3000 family of test solutions for advanced solid state drives (SSDs) and present a technical paper at the Flash Memory Summit, August 11-13 in Santa Clara, Calif. Advantest is an Emerald sponsor of this year’s tenth annual Summit. Later in August, Advantest will showcase its advanced test solutions for emerging market segments including the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable electronics at IDF15, the Intel Developer Forum, in San Francisco.

Flash Memory Summit

Designed to help accelerate SSD product development and achieve faster time to market, Advantest’s flexible, multi-protocol MPT3000 platform will be featured in booths #606-608 within Hall B of the Santa Clara Convention Center during the Summit’s exhibition days of August 12-13.

The MPT3000ENV leverages its modular, tester-per-DUT architecture to conduct performance and stress testing of PCIe NVMe, SAS 12G and SATA SSDs of all major form factors in a thermal chamber supporting up to 6.4kW total DUT power dissipation. This tester gives customers the adaptability to compete in the evolving SSD market.

Advantest’s MPT3000ES engineering station uses the same high-performance electronics and software as the MPT3000ENV, but offers a smaller footprint configuration. The engineering station can perform analysis and debugging on a wide range of SSD products enabling device manufacturers to pursue multiple business opportunities with a single test platform. Live demonstrations of the MPT3000ES testing devices of multiple protocols will be shown in the booth.

In addition to its exhibits, Advantest will present a paper on testing SSDs. Speaker Scott Filler, marketing manager at Advantest, will discuss the cost of test for SSDs during the F-21 Forum. This forum will be held in the Great America Ballroom J at the Santa Clara Convention Center on Wednesday, August 12, beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Intel Developer Forum

From August 18-20, Advantest will showcase its advanced test solutions for emerging market segments including IoT and wearable electronics at IDF15, the Intel Developer Forum, in San Francisco. In booth #955 at Moscone Center’s West Hall, Advantest will display its new T5833 and proven T5831 memory testers, which are built on Advantest’s modular AS Platform.

Advantest’s new T5833 system is a high-volume, versatile test solution designed for both wafer sort and final test of LPDDR3-DRAMs, high-speed NAND flash, multi-chip packages (MCPs) and non-volatile memory devices – the primary memory ICs used in smart phones and tablet computers. With a parallel test capacity of 2,048 devices for wafer test and 512 devices for final package test, the T5833 lowers costs by significantly reducing test times and boosting throughput.

The cost-efficient T5831 system, already installed for high-volume manufacturing, supports testing of all NAND flash devices, including all ONFI, Toggle, 3D NAND and eMMCs, and mobile DRAMs in MCPs. Both T5833 and T5831 are built with high-throughput Tester-Per-Site™ architectures and the semiconductor industry’s highest power supply current per device under test (DUT), making them ideal test solutions for current and next-generation memory devices.

Since both testers are built on Advantest’s modular AS Platform, they enable each customer to choose the optimal system configuration for its specific needs. The platform’s module upgradeability allows it to handle current and future generations of devices, and its scalability increases throughput, all of which generates greater return on investment.

At IDF15, Advantest will exhibit within the DDR4 Memory Community, a collection of suppliers from the memory IC ecosystem that are spearheading the development of the upcoming fourth generation in double data-rate (DDR) memory technology. DDR4 is the newest DRAM technology, offering increased speed, reduced power, higher capacity capabilities and greater reliability for applications including enterprise and client systems.

Advantest and Synopsys: Taking Test Cost Reduction to the Next Level (Webinar)

SoC designers can substantially reduce manufacturing test costs by employing specific methodologies that leverage advances in both EDA software and test systems. In this recent 60-minute webinar, two methodologies are highlighted — multisite test and concurrent test — that minimize test application time and maximize throughput. How Synopsys DFTMAX Ultra and Advantest SoC Test Solutions enable successful deployment are also discussed. The Webinar features Dave Armstrong, director of Business Development, Advantest; Adam Cron, principal engineer, Synopsy; and Chris Allsup, marketing manager, Synopsys. The webinar replay is available here.