Test conference steps on to international stage

More than 400 people attended the events, which featured 79 technical papers in Silicon Valley and 24 presentations in Shanghai.

In addition to its geographic growth, VOICE 2015 also set a new record for international speakers with presenters coming from 14 countries, up from 11 last year. The conference continues to expand by including new companies and new ideas. Of the 134 abstracts submitted this year, more than 41 percent came from authors who had not presented at any prior VOICE conferences.

Among those candidates trying to become first-time presenters at VOICE, more than 78 percent were from Advantest customers, an indicator of the high value that chipmakers place on this annual forum.

The sessions were packed with technical talks on topics such as the latest testing capabilities enabled by Advantest’s V93000 and T2000 platforms, production test cells, product engineering and emerging test technologies. In addition, attendees benefited from multiple networking opportunities at both events.

In Silicon Valley, VOICE began with a welcome address by Advantest America President and CEO Doug Lefever. Technical product highlights were presented by Andree Weyh, Amit Monga and Zain Abadin of Advantest. Then global adventurer and award-winning author Paul Deegan gave an inspirational keynote address called “Breathless: Embracing Uncertainty at 29,000 Feet.”

Many attendees spoke directly with Advantest test experts at on-site kiosks. In addition, 13 sponsor companies showcased their products and services for attendees and, for the first time, the conference was supported by four industry organisations: SEMI, the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), VLSIresearch and IC Insights.

After the two-day conference, a supplemental day of workshops was offered at Advantest’s San Jose headquarters for customers wanting more detailed, hands-on training.

The inaugural VOICE in Shanghai, which was completely filled several weeks before the event, opened with a welcome speech by Yong Xu, CEO of Advantest China. The keynote speaker was Dr. Jonathan Sang, senior director of the Testing & Outsourcing Unit from HH Grace, who spoke on “Diversified Technologies for the Wearable Market.”

During breaks in the technical sessions, seven sponsor companies showcased their products and solutions for attendees.

With technical presentations at its core, VOICE recognises the best paper at each conference with an award judged by attendees. This year’s winners at the Silicon Valley event were Luis Neria Govea of Qualcomm and Frank Dollendorf of Advantest for their talk on “Different Methods for Run-Time Vector Manipulation and Their Test Time Impacts.”

In Shanghai, the best paper award went to Michael Min and Liang Ge of Advantest for their presentation entitled “Examining a Sequencer-Controlled Search-Trimming Solution with Conditional Jump.”

VOICE 2015 attendees may obtain instructions on how to get the published proceedings on the conference website on the Advantest website.

In 2016, the Advantest VOICE Developer Conference will mark its tenth anniversary. Programme details will be posted online in the coming months.