Advantest was founded in Japan in 1954 as Takeda Riken Industry Co., Ltd., and was a maker of electronic measuring instruments. The company entered the semiconductor testing business in 1972, began trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1983 and changed its name to Advantest Corporation in 1985.[4] The company’s stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001.[5]
Expanding its semiconductor test business, Advantest established its North American subsidiary, Advantest America, in 1982, and its European operations in Munich in 1983, to locate its sales and service operations closer to its North American and European customers. The company also has subsidiaries throughout Asia and operates in 18 countries. With the integration with Verigy completed,[6] the company currently has approximately 6,464 employees worldwide.
In 2002, Advantest was one of the founding member companies that established the Semiconductor Test Consortium (STC)—the first international, industry-wide collaboration aimed at developing a highly scalable, flexible test platform to reduce the cost of test of SoCs and other advanced ICs that incorporate complex technologies such as copper interconnects, sub-100 nm device geometries and 300mm wafers.[7]
Astronics Corporation sold their semiconductor test business to Advantest in 2018 for $185 million.[8]
Advantest completed its acquisition of U.S.-based, final-test and system-level test equipment supplier Essai, Inc in January 2020.[9]
Advantest acquired R&D Altanova, Inc., a U.S.-based supplier of semiconductor test equipment in October 2021.[10]
In June 2022, Advantest acquired Italy-based CREA - Collaudi Elettronici Automatizzati S.r.l. (CREA), a major supplier of power semiconductor test equipment.[11]
Products
Advantest has three reportable segments of business: semiconductor and component test systems; mechatronics (handlers); and services, support and others.
Advantest offers SoC test systems, memory test systems, test handlers, device interfaces, SEM metrology and review, and SSD test systems.[12]
