Advantest Adds System-Level Testing Capability for Advanced Memory ICs Used in Automotive Market

Advantest Corporation has installed its first enhanced T5851-STM16G tester capable of NVMe system-level test coverage at a major manufacturer of IC memory devices.

T5851/T5851ES tester

By expanding the capabilities of its T5851 platform, the company is able to address the growing market for testing NVMe SSDs using ball-grid arrays (BGAs), which are seeing rapidly increasing use in automotive applications including autonomous vehicles.

Over the next 5 years, the automotive market is expected to become the largest consumer of semiconductor devices – surpassing 5G communications and HPC, today’s leading market drivers. Many analysts anticipate that the automotive segment will have a Y/Y growth rate of 20% to 25%, reaching $100 billion by 2026. A key contributor to that growth is escalating demand for NVMe BGA SSD devices, which are crucial in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). To develop and economically mass produce these key NAND Flash SSD devices, memory manufacturers WW need a reliable, cost-efficient test solution.

Designed to perform system-level testing of NVMe BGA SSDs, the T5851-STM16G tester is for evaluating any gen of BGA SSDs in either an engineering environment or a high-volume production site. The versatile platform can handle devices with multiple protocols, including NVMe, UFS and PCIe, at speeds up to 16Gb/s. The system’s modular, tester-per-DUT architecture supports test flows required for system-level testing of up to 768 devices simultaneously. These performance features help users get their newest memory designs to market faster.

In addition, FutureSuite software ensures that the tester can be integrated with all other members of the T5800 product family to minimize learning curves.

“We are proud to collaborate with our customer and strategic partner in developing NVMe system-level test technology for the fast-growing automotive electronics market,” said Masayuki Suzuki, EVP, memory test business unit “This effort is just the latest example of our commitment to expand and integrate our test and measurement solutions throughout the entire semiconductor value chain.”

The company is taking orders for the T5851-STM16G tester. It is available either as a new tester from the firm’s factory or as a cost-effective enhancement to users’ existing T5851 or even T583X units.