Feauture : Research and development
Outstanding core technologies amassed by both Advantest and the former Verigy Ltd. can now be fused in thedevelopment of competitive new technologies geared to global market needs. Advantest is fostering close collaboration between research and development teams based in Japan and the US, from which we expect a new style of research and development to emerge, thus bridging the gap between differing philosophies and approaches to production engineering.
T5831ES
With our April 2012 integration of Verigy Ltd., Advantest now has research and development operations in four regions worldwide — Japan, the USA, Europe and China. Going forward, we plan to combine the mainstay core technologies of Advantest with those of the former Verigy, while ensuring timely releases of competitive new products tailored to global market needs.
Our T5831 series of memory testers for next-generation NAND flash memory and multichip packages (MCPs) represents the first product to be developed under our new R&D platform.
This project for development of a new tester solution was launched in July 2011, immediately after the integration of Verigy Ltd. At that time, we were seeing growing flash memory demand, underpinned in part by an increasing proliferation of smartphones. Above and beyond our aim of coming up with a tester for next-generation, high-speed NAND flash memory devices and MCPs, we were also setting our sights on a new tester solution capable of high-throughput testing that would greatly enable our customers to boost productivity. Advantest's integration of Verigy Ltd. presented the perfect opportunity for us to bring the technological competencies and know-how of both enterprises together, and then launched a project to develop a next-generation tester solution that is now poised to become a de facto industry standard.
In the development phase, we crafted a framework that leverages the strengths of development teams in both Japan and the US. Toward that end, the two sides spent roughly three months sharing full details regarding respective technologies, know-how, areas of specialty and other facets of their operations, while at the same gaining a deeper understanding of one another. Given their wealth of experience in the realms of analog-related technology for measurement modules and CPU and CPU peripheral architecture technology, the R&D team in the U.S. took on the task of developing tester measurement modules. Meanwhile, the R&D team in Japan, which possesses unparalleled capabilities in the design of overall device features, operability and other such product attributes, set up a means for handling development efforts involving aspects of the new product deriving from existing models.
Differences between the two teams over production engineering philosophies and approaches, such as in terms of design rules and processes leading up to the mass production phase, made it necessary for project engineers to bridge such gaps as they proceeded with product development. As one specific example, after the U.S. side shifted from their former operating system software to the FutureSuite platform developed and used in Japan, members of the Japanese team aptly lent a hand to the U.S. R&D team in part by providing design assistance to the U.S. technology team that was handling product design and development. This close cooperation between engineers from Japan and the U.S. is to thank for the success of the Japan and U.S. tester development teams in making it possible for Advantest to ship the T5831ES system designed for next-generation NAND flash memory R&D applications in April 2013, as initially planned. Since then, our teams have begun developing a tester designed for use in mass production.
As we move forward, Advantest is committed to ensuring that our corporate mission of providing “Technology Support on the Leading Edge” is pursued worldwide, and accordingly will work to bring about a new style of research and development — one in which we leverage the know-how built up through our current development projects toward bringing together the technological competencies, outstanding development methodologies and other such strengths found in our worldwide R&D bases.
Staff Voices
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Technology Development Group Takashi Kawasaki-
Developing better mutual understanding to facilitate more effective joint development efforts
For this project, the U.S. development team handled the design and development of measurement modules such as the pin electronics (PE) boards which govern the test functions of tester units, in accordance with development rules from the Japan side. Meanwhile, I and others on the Japan side contributed to the project by lending our support in areas across the realms of PE design, arranging for the release of graphs, prototyping, and evaluation. To ensure that development would proceed smoothly, we of course aided the U.S. team in understanding Japanese development rules, while seeking to bring about a relationship built on mutual trust. I really want to see us continue to encourage interaction and deepen understanding among our engineers around the world to ensure further efficient joint development initiatives.
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Americas Memory Test (AMT) Vince Lopopolo-
Integrating the strengths of Advantest and Verigy into our new business platform
I have been acting as a program manager and mechanical design manager for this product. The success of our joint product development efforts hinged on our ability to create a new product development platform that would combine the strengths of Advantest and the former Verigy Ltd., in terms of development processes, design technology and other such areas. Whereas the project involved plenty of trial and error along the way, our efforts in working on the project overall led to us gaining a wealth of knowledge regarding Advantest’s technology, and also helped us build strong bonds of trust. This will doubtless aid us down the road in efficiently achieving joint development outcomes with advanced memory tester products.
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