Hewlett-Packard to buy Versatest for broader ATE business thrust

Electronic News, Oct 31, 1994 by Jeff Dorsch

PALO ALTO, CALIF.--Hewlett-Packard is bidding to become a full-line supplier of automatic test equipment (ATE) through its acquisition of Versatest, Inc., a small but rapidly growing vendor of systems for testing flash memories and other nonvolatile memories.

HP's purchase of Versatest is expected to close this week, unless the Federal Trade Commission raises antitrust objections, which observers say doesn't seem likely. Financial terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. The employees of privatelyheld Versatest, currently based in Santa Clara, Calif., will be offered jobs at HP's California Semiconductor Test Operation, also located in Santa Clara.

The Versatest line of memory test equipment fills in a key component in the HP catalog of ATE. For years, the company has prospered in printed circuit board test equipment and ASIC verification systems, and in the past year it's made a major push into marketing lower-cost IC test equipment for manufacturing test applications. The first big payoff came when Motorola's Microprocessor & Memory Technologies Group last spring selected HP to supply equipment for volume testing of the PowerPC microprocessor (EN, May 23)--a coveted contract that Teradyne, LTX and Schlumberger ATE were also seeking.

More recently, HP won an order at IBM Microelectronics for testing cache SRAMs, and introduced the first model in the HP 9473 line, another lower-cost product line for testing linear, mixed-signal and discrete devices (see The Test Floor, page 48). HP also markets the HP 9490 line of mixed-signal IC test systems, which has gained a number of customers but has yet to take much market share from Teradyne and LTX. Integrated Circuit Testing GmbH (ICT) and MRS Technology, Inc., signed final agreements on their joint effort to develop and produce an electrical test system for active-matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs). As previously reported (EN, June 20), ICT is adapting its electronbeam probing technology for flat panel displays (FPDs). MRS will develop material handling systems and highlevel user interfaces for the new tester, and will distribute the equipment in all markets except Europe. ICT will cover the European market. ICT will deliver two testers to MRS in 1995, the companies said. In addition, MRS will acquire a 10 percent equity interest in ICT.

ICT CEO Hans-Peter Feuerbaum said, "The Ebeam probing method detects shorts and open circuits and defective circuit elements in electronic microstructures. The principal advantages of this method are high test throughput, the capability of probing fine structures with the focused beam and noncontact testing which leaves no physical damage to the structures tested. MRS has extensive knowledge of the flat panel display market and considerable experience in developing and integrating process equipment for largearea substrates. We believe that together our two companies can bring an effective test system to market quickly. We are already talking to several potential beta-site customers."

"The ICT E-beam technology represents the best solution so far to the difficult problems inherent in electrically testing large-area electronic circuits, such as circuit plates for AMLCDs," said Griff Resor, president and CEO of MRS. "Our FPD customers have been telling us that high-speed functional testing is a key piece of the equipment infrastructure needed to improve yields and lower costs in FPD production. The ability of the proposed ICT/MRS test system to determine circuit plate functionality before power-up and before extensive back-end assembly should be a significant contributor to these goals."

The FPD test equipment market has already seen entries by Photon Dynamics (which has attracted millions of dollars in Advanced Research Projects Agency funding), Tokyo Electron Ltd./GenRad and Teradyne.

Aetrium reported receiving OEM orders totaling $1.1 million over the first nine months of this year for its Versatus Automation Modules. The orders came from seven new customers, according to the IC test handling company. International customers include PS Systems and AMCO in the Netherlands and Rood Technology of Germany. Domestic sales were to Micron Technology, Lumonics, View Engineering and Fusion Systems. The Versatus modules will ultimately be used in the automation of IC lead inspection, package marking, lead trim-and-form and for burn-in board loading applications. Joe Levesque. Aetrium's President and CEO, said: "These new customers signify the growing acceptance by semiconductor equipment manufacturers of the cost effectiveness of the standard Versatus Automation Modules." Aetrium recently agreed to acquire the assets of Sym-Tek Systems, another manufacturer of IC handlers (EN, Oct. 24).

IBM Microelectronics will use Hewlett-Packard's HP 83000 Model F330t IC tester to test its fast cache static RAMs. The F330t can also test high-speed processors, HP noted. HP will deliver the tester later this year to IBM, which will be using it to test high-speed synchronous SRAMs for secondary cache memory needed for PCs and other systems with higher-speed microprocessors, such as the PowerPC. "Faster processors are creating a surge in demand for the fast synchronous SRAMs used to handle data from slower DRAM memories," said John E. Scruggs, general manager of HP's Automated Test Business.