Advantest Corp, the world’s largest chip testing equipment supplier, yesterday said that stronger-than-expected demand from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) has stretched to far longer than the expected six months, driven by a surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance-computing (HPC) applications.
Normally lead times range from three to four months, but as a majority of AI and HPC chips are packaged using advanced packaging technology, chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, it requires a longer and more complex testing process to ensure every semiconductor die works well before being packaged together, Advantest said.
As a result, demand for Advantest’s equipment is running high, the company said.
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
Taiwan is a major consumer of such testing equipment because it plays a major role in supplying AI and HPC chips.
Advantest holds a greater market share in the AI and HPC chip testing equipment market, compared with its 56 percent share of the global testing equipment market.
“The lead time is a critical issue now. Demand has greatly exceeded our original expectations,” Advantest chairman Alex Wu (吳萬錕) told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a media briefing celebrating the company’s new Hsinchu headquarters.
“We have our hands full now,” Wu said. “We will do our best to satisfy customers’ demand. We hope to shorten our lead times a bit by the end of this year.”
Taiwan is the company’s fastest-growing market, even though China has become its biggest market due to growing demand for mature equipment, Wu said.
Advantest also expects to see an increase in demand for its memorychip testing equipment in Taiwan as local memorychip makers seek to tap into a more affordable high-bandwidth segment, with devices such as PCs and smartphones being equipped with more AI functions, Wu said.
Advantest counts ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packager, King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子), Nvidia Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its customers.
To cope with rising demand, Advantest is expanding its headcount and facilities in Taiwan.
The new headquarters can house at least 400 employees, Wu said.
The company currently employees more than 300 people in Hsinchu.
Advantest has spent NT$200 million (US$6.1 million) on its new headquarters in the Tai Yuen Hi-Tech Industrial Park (台元科技園區), which is also home to semiconductor material analysis company Materials Analysis Technology Inc (閎康) and display drive IC designer Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠).
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