Features Proprietary & Third-Party Tools for Industry-leading T2000 SoC
Test System
SAN FRANCISCO, July 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Semicon West --
Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE), the world's leading supplier
of semiconductor test equipment, is featuring new SoC test solutions and
services at Semicon West 2006, July 11-13 at San Francisco's Moscone
Convention Center, and is introducing a standard-setting, mixed-signal test
module for the dynamic, price-sensitive SoC chip market. The long-time
market leader in memory device test, Advantest, is now also the leader in
SoC test owing to the success of its T2000 open architecture test platform
-- the industry's first test platform based on OPENSTAR(R) open
architecture specifications developed by the not-for-profit Semiconductor
Test Consortium.
SoC solutions that Advantest is featuring at Semicon include a new,
16-channel high performance, low-cost mixed-signal test module for cost
competitive consumer SoCs; a state-of-the-art integrated STIL-based test
and design environment that yields compressed time to volume manufacturing;
its competitive 6.5 Gbps test solution for high-speed differential SERDES
devices; the material handling component of a SoC test cell solution,
featuring Advantest's vision-alignment SoC handler designed for precise
positioning of fine pitch devices; and development tools for third-party
developers of T2000 open architecture test instrument modules (TIMs).
"Advantest is very pleased that makers of SoC devices recognize the
company's smart, market-relevant engineering and excellent execution of
test solutions, as our traditional memory market has," says R. Keith Lee,
Advantest America Inc.'s president and CEO. "At Semicon, the SoC solutions
that we're demonstrating show we understand the consumer-driven SoC market,
with its need for test solutions for varied, highly complex IC applications
that are also price sensitive and highly reliable. We've been able to bring
insight as well as a willingness to understand our SoC customers' business
environment, and they've rewarded us with their trust and confidence."
Single Board, Multi-DUT Mixed-Signal Module Sets New Test Standard
At this year's Semicon, Advantest is debuting a 16-channel mixed-signal
module -- the Base Band Waveform Generator Digitizer (BBWGD) -- that is
notable for several features. Most notable the BBWGD module offers a very
aggressive new price-performance point for the industry. Additionally,
Advantest's new BBWGD test instrument delivers highly integrated
functionality on a single board, helping semiconductor manufacturers
realize higher utilization of their testers and reduced overall costs. In
addition, its unique, singular modularity simplifies and streamlines test
operations. (See accompanying release announcing the BBWGD module.)
Supporting the Latest Version of IEEE STIL Standard
Advantest is also demonstrating an integrated design and test
environment that compresses time to volume manufacturing. This STIL
interface solution offers an integrated bi-directional EDA to the T2000
test platform for automatic test generation. Advantest's STIL interface
solution is unique in the industry on two counts: It supports the IEEE's
latest extension of STIL, 1450.2, as well as previous versions (1450.0 and
1450.1), and it was developed by a test manufacturer and therefore can be
customized by Advantest's dedicated in-house EDA-STIL group. Advantest's
STIL Interface Solutions Group is an active contributor to the
Semiconductor Test Consortium's STIL working group, a goal of which is to
embrace STIL as an OPENSTAR(R) standard, improving the applicability of
both the OPENSTAR(R) framework and the STIL effort.
Advantest's STIL Interface solution features a STILReader that
automatically generates test programs from ATPG STIL output and a
STILWriter that automatically generates STIL files and signal specs from
test programs, thus enabling tighter ATE to EDA links for test program
generation, diagnostics and yield improvement. It meets SoC device
challenges of complex and logic and functional integration; large test
vector size and complex test programs; shorter time to market and high
volume manufacturing; shorter product life cycles and diminishing resources
for test development.
In its booth, Advantest is also featuring its 6.5 Gbps High-speed
Interface Module for the T2000 test platform, which incorporates
OPENSTAR(R) open architecture specifications. Advantest's 6.5 Gbps Module
is a low cost, very flexible test solution for SoCs having advanced
serializer/deserializer (SerDes) communications interfaces employing a
variety of SerDes standards (e.g., PCI Express, SATA, XAUI and FBDIMM) as
well as source-synchronous devices such as microprocessors. Running on
Advantest's T2000, which provides coaxial connectors throughout the signal
path to provide a consistent wide- bandwidth DUT interface, the module
reliably delivers high-speed signals to and from the DUT - the single most
critical challenge to ATE systems.
In addition, the 6.5 Gbps provides advanced capabilities traditionally
found only on bench instruments, such as the ability to perform full
functional testing and I/O characterization of interfaces like FBDIMM.
Via video, Advantest is also demonstrating its M4741A SoC handler using
state-of-the-art vision alignment for precise positioning of fine pitch
devices. The M4741A performs dynamic vision alignment for <0.5mm fine-pitch
devices configured in high-density IC packages, including chip-scale and
quad-flat packages (CSPs and QFPs) and ball-grid arrays (BGAs). Throughput
exceeds 4,000 units per hour when performing simultaneous testing of four
devices, ensuring rapid time to market for these advanced device packages
essential to a variety of handheld consumer products requiring highly
miniaturized, power-efficient semiconductors, including cell phones, PDAs
and notebook computers.
T2000 Third-Party Developer Services and Tools
In addition, Advantest's new Developer Services Group (DSG), located in
the company's Santa Clara R&D center, is demonstrating its T2000 hardware
developers' kit as part of the company's focus on working with third-party
developers from around the world to create new test instrument modules
(TIMs) to expand the T2000's ability to test a wider variety of SoC
applications. Functioning as an OPENSTAR(R) technical support center
dedicated to the success of third-party developers, DSG is focused on SoC
applications modules, providing training, consulting and integration
services to facilitate third- party development of SoC test solutions.
Apria Technology, manufacturer of mixed-signal instrumentation products
and services and supplier of the first third-party OPENSTAR-compliant
module, will feature its OC800(TM) Baseband AWG and Digitizer Module within
the Advantest booth. The OC800 helps customers economically meet the
diverse, stringent mixed-signal test requirements for baseband products
such as Gigabit Ethernet, DVD, digital TV and I-Q applications.
Advantest's new, existing and emerging products and services in support
of the diverse and cost- and time-sensitive SoC market add up to an
impressive SoC market capability from the market's test leader.
About Advantest
Advantest Corporation is the world's largest supplier of automatic test
equipment to the semiconductor industry. Advantest's SoC, logic, memory,
mixed-signal and RF testers and device handlers are integrated into the
most advanced semiconductor fabrication lines in the world. Founded in
Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its North American Subsidiary in 1982
and its European subsidiary in 1984. More information is available at
http://www.advantest.com.
OPENSTAR is a registered trademark of Semiconductor Test Consortium,
Inc.
OC800 is a trademark of Apria Technology.
SOURCE Advantest Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.advantest.com
CONTACT:
Amy Gold of Advantest America, Inc.,
+1-212-850-6670, a.gold@advantest.com; or Barbara Palmer of
Palmer Communications for Advantest Corporation, +1-914-725-8057,
bpalmer@palmercommunications.com
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