Advantest partners with Applied Materials, joins EPIC platform

Japanese semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation has announced that it will join Applied Materials’ new EPIC (Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization) platform in Sunnyvale, California. 

As the first automated test equipment (ATE) company to join the platform, Advantest will partner with Applied Materials to strengthen the links between front-end manufacturing technologies and back-end testing of chips and packages, Advantest said in a press release.

This partnership aligns with Advantest’s recently launched Innovation Center, which fosters cross-functional collaboration to accelerate the development of advanced test solutions for next-generation semiconductor technologies. Advantest’s Innovation Center provides state-of-the-art labs and research facilities equipped with the latest technology to support a wide range of R&D programs and will seamlessly connect with Applied’s EPIC Center, opening later this year, the press release said.

This partnership allows Advantest and Applied Materials to align their expertise in anticipating customer needs and developing fully integrated solutions that optimize performance, enhance efficiency, increase yield and reduce time-to-market when testing next-generation semiconductors.

“We are excited to have Advantest join our EPIC platform as an innovation partner, and we look forward to our teams collaborating to accelerate end-to-end semiconductor technology development for the AI era,” said Gary Dickerson, president and chief executive officer, Applied Materials. “Working alongside Advantest, we aim to co-develop solutions that optimize semiconductor production flows for faster prototyping and improve the energy-efficient performance of next-generation computing systems.”

“As devices become increasingly complex, we provide opportunities to collaborate with partners from the very early stages of the semiconductor manufacturing process,” said Doug Lefever, representative director and group CEO of Advantest Corporation. “We believe this partnership will facilitate joint development work that yields scalable and cost-effective testing methodologies for customers’ next-generation technologies. This enables us to build optimal solutions early on to meet industry needs, establishing a framework to respond swiftly and efficiently to future demand.”