Universal Scientific Industrial

2015/08/19 08:25 Central News Agency (CNA)

(Central News Agency reporter, Rongfeng Zhong, Taipei, August 19, 2015) Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest has entered a strategic partnership with USI, a subsidiary of ASE Group (2311), to offer dedicated outsourced assembly and test (OSAT) services to the fast-growing market for solid-state drives (SSDs).

According to Advantest, the partnership allows SSD manufacturers to test their designs and devices on the advanced test platform while minimizing up-front capital investment by outsourcing test activities to USI's factory in Shanghai, China.

Avantest said, "The total shipments of SSDs will grow to 300 million units by 2019, according to the market research firm Gartner. The SSD industry needs a subcontracted test model scalable in alignment with market needs."

Outsourced assembly and test houses in the semiconductor industry provide a proven and highly successful business model from which the SSD industry can benefit. 

Many SSD vendors with NAND flash and system-on-chip-based controller experience have worked with OSATs on other products. Avantest believes that such partnerships help SSD suppliers to achieve both their engineering and production goals.

In Shanghai, USI operates a 65,000-square-meter factory and a SSD development center.

USI provides quality and reliability testing of SSDs for applications in high-growth market segments such as tablet computers, cloud computing and big data.