Advantest Showcases T2000 Open Architecture SoC Test Solutions at Semicon West; Introduces Industry's First High Performance, Low Cost Mixed-Signal Test Module |
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Advantest America, Inc.
3201 Scott Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA, 95054
USA
Press release date: July 11, 2006
Features Proprietary & Third-Party Tools for Industry-leading T2000 SoC Test System
SAN FRANCISCO, July 11 / -- Semicon West -- Advantest Corporation , 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® 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® standard, improving the applicability of both the OPENSTAR® 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® 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® 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/.
Source: Advantest Corporation 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
Web site: http://www.advantest.com/
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