Advantest Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) announced that its new CMOS image sensor test solution for its flagship SoC test system, the T2000, will be available beginning in November. The new solution enables highly accurate and massively parallel testing for CMOS image sensor devices to help customers lower their test cost.

CMOS image sensors are used in consumer electronics such as cellular phones, digital cameras, and video cameras, as well as automotive and other applications. As the widespread adoption of digital lifestyles in emerging economies continues to boom, CMOS image sensor demand is keeping pace. Rapid improvements in performance, speed, and resolution, as well as the diversification of multifunctional devices integrating CMOS image sensors, has led to increasing downward pressure on production costs. Advantest's new CMOS image sensor test solution provides customers with 64-DUT parallel test capability-the highest in the industry-to significantly lower the cost of test.

Advantest's new T2000 CMOS image sensor test solution incorporates a test head configured with a large optical source, and a new CMOS image sensor test module, providing illumination to an area greater than 10x that of Advantest's previous product. Most significantly, the solution offers the industry's first 64-DUT parallel test capability for testing image sensor devices-8x higher than the previous product-which results in dramatically higher throughput, contributing to significant reductions in test costs.

The large CMOS image sensor measurement area enables customers add custom circuitry for their applications, without compromising parallelism. At 208 millimeters by 252 millimeters, the area of the new test head permits great flexibility in layout creation and device test.