At the U.S. session, there were 99 technical presentations -- 20 more than last year -- while the Taiwan conference had 30 papers -- six more than 2015's VOICE event in Shanghai. Advantest customers accounted for the majority of this year's paper authors. Sixty percent of the papers in San Diego and 53 percent in Taiwan were either customer authored or co-authored. In total, VOICE 2016 featured technical papers from 35 companies representing 12 countries, including the first participation from Ireland. The event's international appeal and the diversity of its seven technical tracks covering the newest semiconductor test methodologies continue to attract new participants, with 44 first-time attendees.
VOICE is made possible by the organizational work of a Steering Committee made up of volunteer representatives from Advantest and its customers and the support of corporate sponsors, which reached a new high of 15 companies this year. As part of VOICE's 10th anniversary in San Diego, five long-time sponsors -- EAG, ISE Labs, AllianceATE, TSSI and R&D Altanova -- and ATE customer NVIDIA were honored for their continuing support of this industry gathering. Industry organizations including SEMI, the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), VLSIresearch, IC Insights also returned to support VOICE in 2016, along with new industry supporter IHS.
VOICE in San Diego
The session in San Diego -- site of the very first VOICE conference -- opened with welcoming remarks from Sae Bum Myung, executive vice president of Advantest's Sales and Marketing Group. Each morning of this two-day event featured a keynote address. On the first day Michael Campbell, senior vice president of engineering for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies and the keynote speaker at the inaugural VOICE conference in 2006, spoke on "Technologies & Trends Driving the Internet of Things" while the second day's keynote address was given by Yossi Ghinsberg, an international best-selling author and global adventurer, who shared his personal experience surviving alone in the Amazon jungle in his talk entitled "The Power to Survive."
In addition to the presentations, the San Diego event included a Partners' Expo, opportunities to talk in person with Advantest technical experts at 16 on-site kiosks and an evening networking event celebrating the VOICE 10th anniversary aboard the USS Midway.
VOICE in Taiwan
Attendees at the first-ever VOICE in Taiwan were greeted with a welcoming speech by Yoshiaki Yoshida, executive vice president of Advantest's Corporate Relations Group. The keynote presentation on "Making Differences Matter: A New Paradigm for the Asian Semiconductor Industry" was delivered by Colley Hwang, president of DIGITIMES.
During breaks in the technical sessions, 12 sponsor companies showcased their products and solutions at the Partners' Expo. There also was a kiosk where attendees could discuss Advantest's new AVI64 Universal Analog Pin Module with company technologists.
Best Paper Awards
At each VOICE conference, attendees vote to select the best technical presentations. At the San Diego event, David Johansen from Intel along with Kathy Wu and Steve Moore, both from Advantest, won for their paper on "Making a Quad-Site 10-GHz WiGig RF Module UDI Characterization/Production Worthy." In Taiwan, co-authors Zack Huang of KYEC and Kevin Fan of Advantest were recognized for their presentation on "Rapid Test Program Development by STDL to Convert EDA Data to the V93000."
Beyond the 2016 Conference
All 129 papers from both events are available to VOICE 2016 attendees in the published proceedings. Email mktgcomms@advantest.com for access instructions.
The dates and locations for next year's Advantest VOICE Developer Conference will be announced in the coming months.
About VOICE
Managed by a steering committee of volunteer representatives from Advantest and its customers, VOICE is the leading conference for the growing international community of users and strategic partners involved with Advantest's T2000 and V93000 SoC test platforms as well as Advantest memory testers, handlers and test cell solutions. The conference offers a unique opportunity to take part in making semiconductor testing operations as innovative, efficient and cost-effective as possible. Attendees gain and share valuable insights, build long-lasting relationships and learn what's new about Advantest test equipment, handlers and applications as well as technology trends that are not related to specific equipment.
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.
All information supplied in this release is correct at the time of publication, but may be subject to change.
Advantest Corporation 3061 Zanker Road San Jose, CA 95134, USA Judy Davies Email Contact