DOUG LEFEVER, Representative Director and Group CEO, Advantest Corporation
I believe many of the technology trends that we’ve seen in 2024 will continue through 2025, especially silicon development related to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications. Although socioeconomic factors, supply chain issues, and the risk of a global recession will persist, demand for AI should remain strong throughout 2025, spurring major long-term growth in the semiconductor industry. I expect much of this growth will stem from high-performance computing (HPC) products used in data centers, such as GPU/CPUs and DRAM used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
HPC devices are incredibly complex, and their development presents the industry with numerous unique challenges. To increase processing speed and improve performance, engineers are developing chips with more and more transistors – a single data center GPU can contain billions of transistors. Additionally, many manufacturers are employing heterogeneous integration to group multiple ICs together on a single substrate, reducing chip-to-chip communication delays. So, not only are these HPC devices densely packed with transistors, but they also contain various components, all with different needs and processing speeds, packaged together in a single device. This can lead to hot spots and mechanical failures that have the potential to damage the device and render it unusable. Also, power requirements for these devices are increasing exponentially, demanding test and handling equipment with substantial current supplies and advanced thermal control capabilities.
Most HPC devices are designed for use in data centers running large language models (LLMs), requiring massive computational resources. To run LLMs efficiently, data centers can pool hundreds or even thousands of these AI/ML processors together for long periods of time. If one fails, they have to start the whole process over. This is driving the industry to incorporate more test insertions and added fault coverage in the manufacturing process to ensure higher reliability. Some customers are adding system-level test and burn-in insertions for an added layer of quality assurance. As the demand for AI continues to grow in 2025, we anticipate an increase in the demand for semiconductor testing to support the development of these high-performance devices.
The products used to power today’s AI/ML applications are far more complex than anything our industry has seen before and will only become more complex with the influx of generative AI in consumer products like smartphones and laptops. Advantest is prepared to provide our industry with the test solutions needed to navigate this complexity and drive innovation in 2025.
Click here to read the 2025 Executive Viewpoints in Semiconductor Digest
