First-Ever Virtual VOICE 2021 Developer Conference Receives Record-High Global Attendance

After being cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Advantest held its 15th annual VOICE 2021 Developer Conference as an all-virtual event on June 21-23. The 3-day event attracted a record-setting 320 international attendees, with over half representing Advantest customers and partners. The 2021 conference drew participants from 53 unique companies hailing from 11 countries, including 20 new companies that had not previously experienced Advantest’s Developer Conference.

Yoshiaki Yoshida, CEO of Advantest Corporation, and Doug Lefever, CEO of Advantest America Inc., kicked off the conference by welcoming event attendees. This year, the Virtual VOICE program included 68 technical presentations from 21 companies covering eight topical tracks, and 22 technology kiosks highlighting Advantest’s latest test innovations.  The event incorporated 32 live sessions, giving speakers and attendees the opportunity to interact and exchange valuable information on best practices, test challenges, applications and solutions.

Additionally, Virtual VOICE featured a 13-company strong Partners’ Expo headlined by Alliance ATE and ISE Labs, two dynamic keynote speakers, and a featured industry talk on the semiconductor market by G. Dan Hutcheson of VLSIresearch Inc. VOICE concluded with an award ceremony and custom music video performance by classically trained violinist Gabi S. Holzwarth. 

Best Papers and Best Kiosk Award

Through an online poll, attendees voted to select the top two technical presentations and the best technology kiosk. 

Best Paper Award: 

• “HSIO Loopback: The Challenges and Obstacles of Testing 112 Gbps” / Dave Armstrong – Advantest, Don Thompson – R&D Altanova
• “Automotive Keyless Entry System-on-Chip Test Methodologies and Techniques” / Jonvyn Wongso, Krishna Vangapalli, and Daniel Marstein – Microchip Technology, Philip Brock and Louis Benton – Advantest 

Best Kiosk Award:

• “EXA Scale Infrastructure and Utility Card” / Helmut Schmid and David Butkiewicus – Advantest

Visionary Award:

• Derek Lee – NVIDIA 

The annual VOICE Developer Conference is made possible by the extensive organizational work of a Steering Committee, comprised of volunteer representatives from Advantest and its worldwide customer base and the support of event partners and sponsors. 

Check out the Virtual VOICE event highlights video here on LinkedIn.

We look forward to hosting VOICE 2022 as an in-person event in Scottsdale, AZ, USA on May 17-18, 2022. Watch the VOICE website for more details: https://voice.advantest.com/

Virtual VOICE June 21-23, 2021

VOICE is a developer conference, created by test engineers for test engineers. 

Each year, the VOICE Developer Conference unites semiconductor test professionals representing the world’s leading integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), foundries, fabless semiconductor companies and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers to exchange information about the latest technology advancements, express new ideas, share best practices and network with one another.

VOICE, the annual Advantest Developer Conference, is the leading conference for the growing international community of users and strategic partners involved with Advantest’s V93000 and T2000 SoC test platforms as well as Advantest memory testers, handlers and test cell solutions, product engineering, and test technology.

Virtual VOICE promises a collaboration of minds and ample opportunities for peer networking. Join us at Virtual VOICE 2021 for a dynamic and memorable conference experience!  

Register now.  Registration ends on June 16 at midnight PT https://voice.advantest.com/register/

Advantest’s Virtual Presence at SEMICON Japan 2020 Demonstrates Continued Industry Leadership

For the first time in 50 years, SEMICON Japan commenced as a virtual trade show in 2020.  This online event, which took place from December 11-18, provided a COVID-safe venue for innovative leaders to demonstrate their technology excellence and thought leadership in the semiconductor industry.

Returning as a gold sponsor, Advantest supported the SMART Mobility and SMART Workforce programs, along with Mirai College, an industry research event for university and graduate students. Advantest’s Koichi Tsukui, managing executive officer, also gave opening remarks at SMART Mobility 2, which featured executive speakers from Bosch and MIRISE Technologies discussing the evolution of autonomous driving and semiconductor technologies.

Advantest’s virtual booth showcased more than a dozen test solutions on digital display. This included new products such as the V93000 EXA Scale™  SoC test system; T2000 modules for CMOS image capture, digital and power supply; Advantest Cloud Solutions™, a cloud-based ecosystem enabling users to manage test data; and lastly, the H5620 high-productivity memory tester with integrated burn-in and memory-cell test functions—all in one system.

Additionally, Markus Knoch, Advantest’s director of product marketing, delivered a technical presentation “Testing in the Age of Exascale Computing,” and discussed the various challenges for testing future high-performance computation devices. 

Despite its online format, SEMICON Japan 2020 was another important opportunity for Advantest to demonstrate industry leadership, share valuable information and best practices with customers, and support the future semiconductor industry workforce.

SEMICON Japan Virtual lobby entrance.

Advantest’s virtual booth.

Advantest’s V93000 EXA Scale™ product showcase.

A Flexible Approach to Advantest’s Technical Seminars Yields Success

Advantest’s annual Technical Seminar series in Asia took on many forms in 2020:  hybrid, in-person and virtual. Despite ongoing COVID-19 challenges, Advantest regions took strategic measures to cross-collaborate and organize successful customer events across the globe. While each seminar included multiple topics, all highlighted Advantest’s new V93000 EXA Scale^TM SoC test system.

Advantest’s 2020 Taiwan Technical Seminar took place for the first time as a hybrid event, setting an all-time high attendance record of nearly 300 customers. To ensure a safe environment, COVID-19 precautions were taken such as requiring masks, taking temperatures and arranging seating to maintain social distancing. Participants had the opportunity to attend technical presentations from both in-person and remote presenters and talk with Advantest product experts at interactive technology kiosks as well as participate in games and prize drawings.

Advantest’s 2020 China Technical Seminars took place as in-person events in three locations — Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen – with nearly 500 customers in attendance. Similar COVID-19 precautions, like wearing masks, were taken to protect participants while allowing them to enjoy an informative event in-person. 

Advantest’s 2020 Singapore Technical Seminar went fully virtual with more than 200 attendees. The seminar incorporated an innovative variety of approaches, including live presentations and kiosk sessions with local presenters, pre-recorded presentations with live Q&A, and educational videos of Advantest’s labs in Germany. The event concluded with a virtual lucky draw using an online prize wheel. 

Advantest thanks the many customers who attended and continued to support the annual technical seminars late last year, in all their flexible formats.

Gallery Images

Seminar attendees during general session (Taiwan).

Technology kiosk interaction between Advantest staff and attendees (China).

Virtual general session room with seminar agenda (Singapore).

Virtual Flash Memory Summit 2020 Affords Advantest Opportunity to Share New Flash and SSD Test Solutions

By Jess Nguyen

Like most industry conferences last year, Flash Memory Summit 2020 went virtual for the first time on November 10-12, 2020, giving Advantest the opportunity to demonstrate its support of the storage and memory test industry. Advantest’s product showcase theme, End-to-End Flash and SSD Test Solutions, was reinforced by its virtual exhibit featuring cutting-edge MPT3000 and T5800 series memory testers. 

Advantest experts strategically leveraged digital collateral such as product videos, panels, and images to exhibit the latest product information to more than 3,000 conference attendees. With nearly all industry events going virtual this year, continuously learning how to adapt to an on-screen conference environment provided Advantest with imperative insight on how to effectively engage with strategic customers and prospective customers online.

As the world continues to navigate the uncertainty of COVID-19, Advantest is determined to continue fostering its valuable relationships with its customers, partners, and employees. Advantest hopes to see you at next year’s Flash Memory Summit, currently scheduled for August 3-5, 2021 in Santa Clara, California.