TOKYO, May 13, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857) has extended the capabilities of its V93000 SmarTest software with SmartShell, a new software bridge enabling direct communication between any of its V93000 single scalable platform testers and electronic design automation (EDA) environments such as Tessent™ Silicon Insight™ software from Mentor, a Siemens business. EDA tools can now connect to a tester remotely through an online network, send test patterns for execution, modify them and retrieve results and failure information directly instead of going through multiple format conversions.

Traditionally, design engineers create test patterns for scan, JTAG and BIST evaluations from a simulation environment and save them in STIL format.  Patterns are then translated to tester-specific formats and executed on automatic test equipment (ATE) before the results are sent back to the design department as STDF or TXT files.  This process can be time consuming, especially if multiple iterations are needed to bring up production test patterns for new silicon.

The SmartShell software bridge allows external design-verification tools or scripts to send patterns directly to a tester, execute them, collect results and make modifications as needed, all through a simple set of commands supported for various scripting and programming languages.  This significantly shortens the cycle time for a new device’s initial pattern bring-up and enables powerful debugging and data-collection scenarios for internal JTAG (IEEE 1687) and other design-for-test (DfT) technologies.

“By delivering a short and direct path from DfT to ATE, we are helping our customers to master constantly increasing device complexity in less time,” said Ralf Stoffels, Advantest’s vice president of marketing for the V93000.  “In addition to developing test solutions that can be applied on the V93000, our T6391 product group is developing a similar software bridge for that platform.  At the same time, we are continuing to work very closely with our EDA partners to deliver integrated solutions that can meet all our common customers’ needs.”

“Collaboration with our customers and industry partners like Advantest is critical to solving the complexities of silicon bring-up,” said Brady Benware, senior marketing director for the Tessent product family at Mentor, a Siemens business.  “Extending Silicon Insight and ATE-Connect to the Advantest V93000 could reduce silicon bring-up from weeks to days.”

Advantest and Mentor will demonstrate how to use SmartShell to connect Mentor’s Tessent Silicon Insight tool to a V93000 tester at the upcoming VOICE Developer Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 14-15.

Note: A list of relevant Siemens trademarks can be found here. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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 groundbreaking 3D imaging and analysis tools.  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.

ADVANTEST CORPORATION
3061 Zanker Road
San Jose, CA 95134, USA
Judy Davies
Judy.davies@advantest.com