Semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857) and Synopsys (Nasdaq: SNPS), a provider of EDA software and data analytics solutions for the semiconductor ecosystem, have enabled real-time data analytics in Synopsys’ SiliconDash with Advantest’s new ACS Nexus solution. ACS Nexus is a real-time data streaming infrastructure that enables access to aggregated data streams of multiple test cells through a central, standardized software interface available on-premise. ACS Nexus is tightly integrated into Advantest equipment platforms, providing superior real-time analytics performance. The semiconductor industry needs to realize the highest possible quality while achieving stable yield maximums as quickly as possible. Technologies like 5G, 3D/2.5D heterogenous packaging and IC design, and the increasing diversification of Application-Specific ICs (ASICs) necessitate increasingly innovative and software-driven approaches to semiconductor test.
To enable these approaches, as part of its Grand Design Strategy, Advantest has established the vision of an open solution ecosystem for its semiconductor manufacturing equipment platforms, where Advantest’s teams, customers and third parties can develop advanced machine learning and data analytics solutions.
Customers and partners now can access a single centrally provided interface to collect test data in a secure, reliable, and standardized way, with fine-grained permission control by the data owners. Expanding the existing data logging capabilities through this software-defined interface will allow data analytics providers and customers alike to dramatically escalate their advanced analytics capabilities, quickly achieving the desired quality with the highest attainable yield.
For test floor operators, a significant burden of providing IT infrastructure for test data management will be lifted, improving the security and reliability of test floor operations and thus overall equipment efficiency (OEE).
“Enabling this capability today for our ecosystem customers and partners unlocks the industry’s creative capacity to develop the most powerful and advanced solutions for the future of semiconductor test,” said Michael Chang, vice president, ACS, with Advantest.
“Collaborating with Advantest to enable the real-time-enabled version of SiliconDash leverages our companies’ key strengths. Combining ACS Nexus with SiliconDash will allow our joint customers to realize their full potential,” said Amit Sanghani, Synopsys’ senior vice president, test.
ACS Nexus is available now to all third parties and customers on the V93000 & T2000 ATE platform and will expand to all other Advantest platforms over the next year.