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Advantest Established Advantest D2T Research Division in the VLSI Design and Education Center, The University of Tokyo


WEBWIRE

On October 1, 2007, VLSI Design and Education Center, the University of Tokyo (VDEC, Director: Professor Kunihiro Asada) and Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE), newly established the Advantest D2T Research Division within the VDEC campus, in order to provide students studying design technology of very large scale integration (VLSI) with an integrated education environment from VLSI design to testing; VLSI is a field which has shown remarkable technological innovation in recent years. This is the first establishment of an endowed research division in the VDEC since its foundation in 1996. Simultaneously with the new establishment of the division, VDEC and Advantest have started joint research with the aim of accelerating technical research of the leading-edge VLSI testing techniques that are indispensable to the development of the semiconductor industry in the future.

In recent years, SoC (System On a Chip) has been embedding itself in daily life, for example, they are now commonly found installed in information equipment and automobiles; increasingly the performance and reliability required for such devices are becoming stricter. For this reason, in the education of students studying semiconductor design, not only design work, but also test design that ensures stable yields in production and minimizes failure rates have become important factors.

The Advantest D2T Research Division has been established to train talented and capable students equipped to be tomorrow’s experts of test design; the division will provide students nationwide with an integrated education and research environment from VLSI design to testing, and support research in SoC design. In addition to the current professoriate of VDEC, teaching staff from overseas will be invited as part of a technology exchange scheme. The division’s joint research activities will promote both advanced testing techniques that meet the progressive demands of design technology, and research for further highly reliable VLSI testing techniques.

This collaboration allows us to couple Advantest’s technological and support capabilities with VDEC’s education skills, research know-how and results accumulated since its foundation; we will contribute to the training of excellent technical experts in semiconductor design. We expect this contribution will serve as a spur to the development of the semiconductor industry that renders such important services to the creation of a technologically convenient and materially affluent society.

As stated below, to celebrate the establishment of the Advantest D2T Research Division, we will hold an opening symposium.

VDEC * : VLSI Design and Education Center
VLSI Design and Education Center (VDEC), which is located in the University of Tokyo and shared by users all over Japan, was established in May, 1996. As an intellectual education center on VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) technology, VDEC aims at improvements of instruction on VLSI design and supports on VLSI chip fabrication for national universities, public universities, private universities and colleges in Japan. For these purposes, VDEC performs various kinds of activities including distributing VLSI design information, providing CAD software and licenses and supporting chip fabrications. With helps and supports from universities, related government ministries and semiconductor industry, active services provided by VDEC have been growing extensively since its beginning.
D2T * : Design To Test

Comment from Prof. Asada, Director of VLSI Design and Education Center, The University of Tokyo:
I expect that the establishment of the Research Division and joint research with Advantest will revitalize education and research activities on SoC design in Japan and enable us to produce many talented engineers who are familiar with a broad range of design techniques, and equally comfortable with the very latest cutting-edge testing techniques.

Comment from Mr. Maruyama, President and CEO of Advantest Corporation:
Advantest has donated a SoC test system and electron beam lithography system to VDEC to help promote education for semiconductor tests and design. It is our hope that through the establishment of the Research Division and joint research with VDEC, we can contribute to the training of future generations of excellent test engineers and the development of the semiconductor industry in Japan.

Opening Symposium for the Establishment of
Advantest D2T Research Division

The symposium will invite many prominent researchers from Japan and abroad, who are playing leading roles in industry and academia, to give an informative series of lectures on the day. We are looking forward to your participation in this special occasion.
Date : January 24 (Thursday), 2008
10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Followed by a banquet starting at 6:10 p.m.
Venue : Takeda Hall, 5th Floor, Takeda Building,
the University of Tokyo
The details may be found at
http://www.vdec.u-tokyo.ac.jp/d2t/d2t-opening-e.html.
Research Division (Endowed Course)

Name : Advantest D2T (Design to Test) Research Division
Content : (1) Tester technology training
(2) Research related to LSI design
(3) Research related to LSI testing
Professoriate : Kwang-Ting (Tim) Cheng, guest professor
(Santa Barbara campus of the University of California,
USA)

Goerschwin Fey, guest associate professor
(the University of Bremen, Germany)

Satoshi Komatsu, guest associate professor
(VDEC, the University of Tokyo)
Establishment period : 3 years from October 2007
Amount of the donation : 30 million yen per year: total 90 million yen
Joint research

Topic of research : Advanced LSI testing techniques
Person in charge of the research : Professor Kunihiro Asada, Director of VDEC
Professor Masahiro Fujita, VDEC
Joint researcher : Yasuo Furukawa,
Group Leader of Advantest OAI Project
Research period : 1 year (from October 2007 to September 2008)
The research is planned to continue for 3 years and to link with the Research Division.
Brief history of VDEC and Advantest

1996: VDEC launched
2003: Takeda Building construction completed (Ikuo Takeda, the founder of Advantest, donated 4 billion yen as construction expenses to VDEC, the University of Tokyo)
2004: As a commemorative project for Advantest’s 50th anniversary, Electron Beam Lithography System (F5112) and Test System (T2000) were donated.
2007
Apr.: To promote the use of VDEC facilities, test design supporting software tools were endowed.The endowment enabled many professors and students across the nation to access the test environment located in the Takeda Building via nine VDEC satellites.
Sep.: Intern students attended tester training in the Advantest Gunma R&D Center.
Oct. Research Division and joint research started.

About Advantest
Advantest Corporation is the world’s leading automatic test equipment supplier to the semiconductor industry, and also produces electronic and optoelectronic instruments and systems. A global company, Advantest has long offered total ATE solutions, and serves the industry in every component of semiconductor test: tester, handler, mechanical and electrical interfaces, and software. Its logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers and device handlers are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor production lines in the world. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its first subsidiary in 1982, in the USA, and now has 40 subsidiaries worldwide. Among them, Advantest America, Inc. is based in Santa Clara, CA., and Advantest (Europe) GmBH is based in Munich, Germany. More information is available at www.advantest.co.jp.

Note: All information supplied in this release is correct at the time of publication, but may be subject to change without warning.



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