SANTA CLARA, California – June 16, 2008 – Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE), the world’s leading supplier of semiconductor test equipment, announces it has been named to VLSI Research Inc’s 10 BEST list for the 20th consecutive year, a most significant industry achievement.  Based on direct customer feedback from surveys representing 95 percent of the world’s total semiconductor market, VLSI Research, the leading semiconductor market research firm, ranks Advantest among the 10 BEST companies in two market segments:  “Test Equipment” and “Material Handling Equipment.”

As a 10 BEST test equipment supplier, Advantest achieved overall high ratings across thirteen categories of customer satisfaction, including seven measures of equipment performance and six measures of customer service.  Advantest’s personal best rankings in the Test Equipment segment came in the categories of “Uptime” and “Quality of Results."  Among the suppliers for Material Handling Equipment, the company continues to better its annual ranking, and attained the highest scores in five categories, including software, process support and field engineering.  

Advantest is the world’s market share leader in Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) and has a long history of technology leadership as well.   In 2005, 2006 and 2007, in recognition of exceptional customer satisfaction across measured categories including cost of ownership, quality of results, product performance, customer service, technical leadership, and commitment, Advantest was also awarded a five-star supplier rating from VLSI Research.

Advantest develops and manufactures test solutions for SoC, logic and memory semiconductor devices, as well as those used in LCD driver and automotive applications.  Advantest is the only ATE company that manufacturers completely integrated test cell solutions, to help manufactures lower test costs and increase productivity.  Test cells, comprised of testers, handlers, device interfaces and software, are all designed in-house by Advantest and provide the industry’s highest levels of interface integrity, compatibility and performance.  Advantest’s newest RF test cell solution will be demonstrated at Semicon West in San Francisco’s Moscone Center, July 15-17.

R. Keith Lee, president and CEO of Advantest America, Inc., comments, “Advantest is committed to providing it customers the highest performance test solutions, as well as the most completely integrated solutions in ATE.  Beyond our high-performance products and services, Advantest is also focused on helping our customers succeed by giving them every competitive advantage we can offer by sharing years of accumulated experience, knowledge and insight.  We are very grateful for the confidence our customers place in us.”

“Advantest’s continued success provides an ideal example of how customers benefit from working with a company that is so deeply committed to R&D efforts and systematic product innovation,” said VLSI Research CEO G. Dan Hutcheson.  “Throughout the semiconductor industry’s business cycles, Advantest has continued to maintain an aggressive R&D program, which in turn has enabled them to lead the industry by providing a strong, steady flow of leading-edge systems to chip makers throughout the world.  It is a pleasure to note their 20th consecutive year among the 10 BEST.”

About Advantest
Advantest Corporation is the world’s leading 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 www.advantest.com.