Advantest brings advanced high-speed memory tester and handler to U.S. market

Advantest brings advanced high-speed memory tester and handler to U.S. market
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Advantest America Inc. here is now marketing the new T5585 Memory Test System and M6541A Dynamic Test Handler that were announced last month in Tokyo at Semicon Japan.

The T5585 is designed for at-speed, high-volume testing of Double Data Rate SDRAM and SSRAM. It can test up to 128 devices in parallel, and 500-MHz DDR in a single pass. The new system has double the test-cell capacity of the T5581.

The T5585 has both per-pin timing and an enhanced strobe-shifting featureto address data strobes and echo clock functions of DDR devices. In addition, Advantest's proprietary immersion cooling system stabilizes the test head resources, improves reliability and contributes to the system's compact footprint.

"Today's DRAM market continues to shift to higher bandwidth devices while volume and production pressures steadily rise," said Gary Fleeman, Advantest America's memory product manager. "Increasing demands are put on memory test, especially in the arena of accuracy, while the industry continues its march for improved bandwidth and higher throughput.

"In addition to requirements for at-speed test, we have to address reduced device timing margins and along with high throughput, we must meet cost-of-test requirements and production floor needs," he added.

The T5585 is software-compatible with Advantest's existing memory platforms -- both the T5300 Series and the T5500 Series -- which cuts program development time. Installed software and various debug tools also help in cutting turnaround time as well, the company said.

As a companion to the T5585, the M6541A Dynamic Test Handler is designed with a proprietary four-step handling function that keeps index time to a minimum, the M6541A can handle simultaneous testing of up to 64 devices -- 6,000 devices per hour. Two M6541A handlers can be connected to the T5585.

The M6541A's touch panel and comprehensive help function make it extremely easy to operate. In addition, the system was designed so that the time needed for establishing operating requirements and correcting problems are significantly reduced.

Designed for long-term investment, the M6541A has two features geared specifically for advanced factories: a maintenance function that alerts the operator when parts need changing, and pptional SECS function which allows for the inter-equipment communication necessary for factory automation and gathering of operation data.

The T5585 is avaliable immediately, with the price for a basic configuration at $3 million. The M6541A is available now at a base price of $475,000.