Advantest New Pin Scale Serial Link Card Continues to Win Market Share With Latest Order From Chinese IC Maker HiSilicon

TOKYO, JAPAN--(Marketwired - Mar 18, 2014) - Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857) (NYSE: ATE) has received an order from the engineering group within HiSilicon Technologies Co., Ltd., a Chinese producer of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and other chipsets for communication networks and digital media, for a V93000 Smart Scale™ tester equipped with Advantest's Pin Scale Serial Link (PSSL) digital channel card. Introduced in the fourth quarter of 2013, the PSSL card is already in use at more than 10 customer sites for both device characterization and volume manufacturing of today's most advanced high-speed semiconductors.

"Advantest's test solution presents both the performance capabilities and the low cost of test that we require," said David Lin, senior test manager with HiSilicon. "While we are installing a PSSL-enabled tester in our engineering operations, our OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) partners are using several of these systems for high-volume testing of our commercially available ICs."

Operating at data-transfer rates up to 16 Gbps, PSSL is the fastest fully integrated automatic test equipment (ATE) instrument on the market. It is the newest of Advantest's Pin Scale cards built on the V93000 Smart Scale's universal pin architecture, making it capable of performing per-pin testing with high multi-site efficiency. Each pin on a PSSL card can run at its own data rate, allowing a tester to match the exact clock speeds of any device under test without sacrificing pin count or timing flexibility. This design enables the system to achieve unprecedented granularity in IC testing.

Because all resources can operate independently and simultaneously, PSSL is capable of high-volume throughput. The system can conduct affordable, at-speed testing of high-end ICs used in infrastructure and network processing applications including 10G/40G/100G Ethernet, PCI Express (PCIe) interface and proprietary 10G to 16G backplane SerDes technology, which is used in China's LTE communications infrastructure.

PSSL also supports a full suite of physical layer (PHY) testing methodologies such as pseudorandom bit stream (PRBS) stimulus and response, jitter injection and measurement capability as well as AC and DC analysis to provide comprehensive margin test coverage.

About HiSilicon
Established in 2004, HiSilicon Technologies Co., Ltd. is a leading provider of end-to-end chipsets and solutions for telecommunication networks, wireless terminals and digital media. With IC design divisions in Beijing, Shanghai, the U.S. and Sweden, the company serves more than 200 customers in over 100 countries, bringing maximum value to global operators and consumers. For more information, please visit www.hisilicon.com.

About Advantest Corporation
A world-class technology company, Advantest is the leading producer of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the semiconductor industry and a premier manufacturer of measuring instruments used in the design and production of electronic instruments and systems. Its leading-edge systems and products are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor production lines in the world. The company also focuses on R&D for emerging markets that benefit from advancements in nanotech and terahertz technologies, and has introduced multi-vision metrology scanning electron microscopes essential to photomask manufacturing, as well as a groundbreaking 3D imaging and analysis tool. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its first subsidiary in 1982, in the USA, and now has subsidiaries worldwide. More information is available at www.advantest.com.