Innovation Initiatives

With the aim of "enabling leading-edge technologies," Advantest conducts research and development of fundamental technologies and products that will lead to greater value creation in the area of measurement technologies that support the semiconductor industry, the electronics industry, and the information and telecommunications industry. The results of these R&D activities contribute to the evolution of the semiconductor value chain on which our business is based on. In addition, we contribute to the realization of a safe, secure, and comfortable society by promoting the widespread use and social implementation of semiconductors with high performance and economic efficiency. Since R&D activities are a direct source of not only our own growth, but also of expanding our contribution to society, we have positioned R&D as an area of investment of utmost importance, and have invested a large amount of capital over the long term.

Summary of Innovation Initiatives

We wish to continue to be a company that provides high-value, world-class, state-of-the-art semiconductor test technology to all of our semiconductor customers. Our customers include many of the world's technology leaders, including the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers and IT companies, and their future success leads to the success of Advantest. On the other hand, in order to continue to create products and solutions that meet the high expectations of these customers, we must overcome a number of technological hurdles, which requires long-term, sustained, large-scale R&D management with a timeframe of 5 to 10 years. Our R&D management is based on a medium- to long-term roadmap, which is formulated based on the future technology needs and investment forecasts gathered through close communication with our customers, as well as market research on future technology trends and demand forecasts in the semiconductor-related market.

We are also engaged in developing new measurement solutions for medical devices and other applications outside the semiconductor value chain that leverage our electronic and optical measurement technologies.

Expansion of Direct Contributions to the Realization of a Sustainable Society through Innovation

At Advantest, all products undergo a product environmental assessment. In addition, we are committed to incorporating the improvement of environmental performance, such as power consumption efficiency, into our R&D process for new products, in view of contributing to a decarbonized society. Our contribution to the realization of a sustainable society is therefore integrated with our business activities.

Major basic technology developments in the most recent fiscal year

  • Development of optical semiconductor devices, light sources, and optical integrated circuits for optical measurement and collective optoelectronic device test systems
  • Development of sensor technology, algorithm technology, and application technology for ultra-sensitive magnetic measurement
  • Elemental technologies such as pin electronics, pattern and timing generation, and DC test resources for semiconductor and component test systems
  • Development of compound semiconductors such as low-distortion devices and high-speed, high-frequency devices for use in semiconductor and component test systems
  • Development of technologies that enable testing of next-generation protocols and optical signal interfaces, including multi-level transmission
  • Development of calibration methods capable of simultaneously adjusting the timing and waveform quality of ultra-high-speed signals with multiple pins
  • Development of data linkage and analysis methods throughout the semiconductor supply chain, from the design process to the test process

Test solutions appealing to diverse customer needs

V93000 Series

V93000

V93000

The requirements of today’s industry for even higher speeds, performance and pin counts means that test systems must offer greater functionality while maintaining low cost of test. With its scalable platform architecture, the V93000 tests a wide range of devices, from low cost IoT to high end, such as advanced automotive devices or highly integrated multicore processors. It also requires not only innovative technology, but also a system architecture with a long use-life, high scalability, and high investment efficiency.

The V93000 tests a wide range of devices, from low cost IoT to high end, such as advanced automotive devices or highly integrated multicore processors. Staying focused on the single scalable platform strategy, the V93000 is widely accepted at the leading IDMs, foundries and design houses. Outsourcing IDMs and fabless companies find V93000 test capacity installed in all leading OSATs worldwide.

T6391 Test System

T6391

T6391

Display driver ICs (DDIs) control operations of display panels, used in various electric apparatus such as smartphones and televisions. Advantest’s T6391 is the latest addition to the T6300 series, the industry standard for DDI testing, with an installed base of more than 2,500 units worldwide. The T6391 is the latest test platform designed to address various needs for the next-generation DDI technology trends including increasing pin counts, faster interfaces, and multifunctionality.

The new LCD HP (high-performance) per-pin digitizer and comparator module has been developed for use with the T6391 display driver test systems featuring two key performance improvement. First, it improves measurement precision 5x compared to the previous module, making it ideally suited to accommodate the testing demands of advanced display driver ICs (DDICs) for high-end smartphones and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) applications. Second, it can handle high-voltage testing up to ±40V, enabling the module to address the high-reliability testing demands of brand-new automotive DDICs.

inteXcell

inteXcell

inteXcell

Test solutions for next-generation memory devices, which are becoming both faster and larger in capacity, will require not only high-speed and massively parallel testing capability, but also a scalable test environment that is highly automated, leading to a smaller system footprint.

Advantest launched inteXcell, a new line of minimal-footprint test cells designed to address demanding final-test requirements presented by the increasing bit densities, lower power consumption and faster interface speeds of future memory devices. inteXcell is the first ever fully integrated and unified test solution to combine broad test coverage with high-throughput handling in a highly flexible system architecture.

Advantest Cloud Solutions™ (ACS)

ACS

With the aim of expanding and growing corporate value, Advantest is extending its solutions by enhancing test solutions and introducing new technologies. As an example, Advantest has been promoting Advantest Cloud Solutions™ (ACS), which integrates data generated through customers' semiconductor manufacturing processes with semiconductor testing data, which is then analyzed to generate new value.

The Advantest Cloud Solutions™ (ACS) ecosystem helps customers accomplish intelligent data-driven workflows. The ACS open solution ecosystem, a family of cloud-based products and services, is based on a single scalable data platform, which enables customers to develop or procure market-leading solutions from Advantest and its partners. Using these real-time machine learning, market-leading solutions, customers can automate turning insights into production actions in an easy-to-use and accessible way across the entire semiconductor value chain.

System Level Test Systems

T5851-STM16G

T5851-STM16G

As a new test solution, Advantest is developing products that support system level testing to guarantee the performance of the final product. While System Level and Burn-In tests are not new methodologies, both are gaining more momentum particularly for production test.

E5620

E5620

E5620

The E5620 Defect Review Scanning Electron Microscope (DR-SEM), its newest mask SEM product for reviewing and classifying ultra-small defects on photomasks and mask blanks. With its high-accuracy, high-throughput defect review capability, the E5620 DR-SEM is expected to contribute appreciably to production quality improvements in next-generation photomasks and shorter mask manufacturing turnaround times.

The E5620 implements Advantest's highly stable image capture technology to easily import defect location data from mask inspection systems and automatically image the locations. The system has a number of improvements over its predecessors, specifically to target review of masks for the next generation of EUV lithography.

Photoacoustic Microscope

Hadatomo™

WEL5200

We have released "Euclid", a three-dimensional image viewer that can display 3D images by superimposing data on melanin in the skin, the vascular network, and the skin structure, as measured by a Hadatomo™ Z tool. Advantest is also accumulating new research results with Hadatomo™ Z photoacoustic microscope.

Terahertz Spectroscopic / Imaging System

TAS7500IM、TAS7500SP

Left: TAS7500IM
Right: TAS7500SP

Terahertz spectroscopy and imaging systems are used to perform non-destructive analysis of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, communications materials, etc., without requiring a specially constructed analysis environment, and is expanding the range of applications for our customers.

External Collaboration

Advantest aims to contribute not only to semiconductor testing but also to the entire semiconductor value chain by promoting innovation through industry-academia collaborations and other external collaborations, as well as through human capital development initiatives.

In addition to the above, we have established "The Advantest D2T Research Division" at the Tokyo University Systems Design Lab (d.lab), with the aim of developing specialist in test design and supporting research activities for SoC (System on Chip) design.

Together with the University of Tokyo, Advantest has begun working on research and development of new, advanced system technologies from April 1, 2023 in the Research Association for Advanced System (abbreviated as RaaS, hereafter referred to as RaaS*1)" (Chairperson: Professor Tadahiro Kuroda, Director of the System Design Lab (d.lab) of the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo). The six members of the cooperative, the University of Tokyo, Advantest, Toppan Inc., Hitachi Ltd., Mirise Technologies Corporation, and Japan’s RIKEN Scientific Research Institute, will work together to do R&D on a next-generation leading-edge semiconductor development platform that can be shared among the members.

*1 RaaS
An acronym of the Research Association for Advanced Systems. It advocates the provision of semiconductors not as components (products) but as core system knowledge (services), and reads “Raas”. It also stands for “research as a service".