Automated Test Equipment

SoC, memory and HBM testers · Advantest V93000, Teradyne UltraFLEXplus, Magnum 7H

Every chip passes through a tester at least once, and two companies build nearly all of them. Advantest held about 65% of a $9.0 billion tester market in 2025, up from 58%, and is raising SoC tester output from 3,000 to 5,000 or more systems a year.

Advantest share of the tester market rose from 58 percent to 65 percent in 2025, and its share of SoC testers from 56 to 66 percent, in a tester market of about 9.0 billion dollars, up 50 percent. Advantest and Teradyne together hold about 90 percent. Advantest is raising annual SoC tester capacity from 3,000 systems in July 2025 to 5,000 or more by March 2027. TESTER MARKET SHARE, 2025 (MARKET ABOUT $9.0B, UP 50%) Advantest 65% Teradyne and others 35% ADVANTEST AND TERADYNE TOGETHER HOLD ABOUT 90%. ADVANTEST SHARE, BEFORE AND AFTER 2025 All testers 58% 65% SoC testers 56% 66% ADVANTEST SOC TESTER CAPACITY, SYSTEMS PER YEAR 3,000 July 2025 5,000+ Target, March 2027 SHARE AND MARKET: ADVANTEST FIGURES VIA WING VC, MAY 2026. CAPACITY: ADVANTEST VIA THE EDGE SINGAPORE, JANUARY 2026.
Tester market, 2025
~$9.0B, +50%
Advantest share
~65%
Advantest + Teradyne
~90%
SoC tester market, 2026
$8.7B to $9.5B
Advantest capacity
5,000+ a year
Hub
Equipment

Market

Advantest Holds About Two-Thirds of the Tester Market

Two companies sell almost all of the world's chip testers. Advantest of Tokyo held about 65% of a tester market of about $9.0 billion in 2025, up from 58% the year before, and about 66% of SoC testers. Teradyne of North Reading, Massachusetts holds most of the rest; together the two hold about 90% (Advantest figures cited by Wing VC, May 2026). Smaller makers include Cohu, Chroma ATE in Taiwan, and Chinese suppliers in analog and mature digital test.

Advantest gained in 2025 because AI accelerators and HBM grew fastest, and Advantest's V93000 SoC platform and memory testers are widely used for both. Advantest forecasts the SoC tester market at $8.7 billion to $9.5 billion in 2026, up from $6.9 billion in 2025.

Inside a tester

A Tester Is One Instrument Channel per Chip Pin

Inside a tester. A workstation runs the test program. The mainframe holds power, cooling and pattern memory. Cables run to the test head, which holds pin electronics boards that drive and compare each channel, device power supplies, and precision analog and RF instruments. A load board or probe card carries the signals to the chip under test. Channel count, data rate and power per device set what a tester can handle. Workstation test program, data logging Mainframe power, cooling, pattern memory TEST HEAD Pin electronics drive and compare, per channel Device power supplies high current at low voltage Analog and RF precision measurement Timing edge placement, picoseconds cables Load board or probe card CHIP WHAT LIMITS A TESTER: CHANNEL COUNT, DATA RATE PER CHANNEL, CURRENT PER DEVICE, AND HOW MANY CHIPS IT CAN TEST AT ONCE.

A tester is a computer-controlled set of instruments, one channel per chip pin. Leading-edge SoC testers carry thousands of digital channels, timing accuracy in the picoseconds, and device power supplies that deliver hundreds of amps at under one volt to a large AI die. The same mainframe can be configured with different boards, so one platform serves phone processors, AI accelerators and automotive chips. How a tester is used at wafer sort and final test is on Wafer Sort Test and Final Test.

Platforms

Each Maker Sells a Few Platforms Configured Per Chip

Flagship tester platforms
MakerPlatformTestsNote
AdvantestV93000 (EXA Scale)SoC, AI accelerators, high-speed digitalMain platform for AI accelerator test
AdvantestT5500 and T5800 seriesDRAM, HBM, NANDWidely used at the three DRAM makers
AdvantestSLT systemsSystem-level testAdds to ATE spend per AI chip
TeradyneUltraFLEXplusSoC, AI accelerators, mobile processorsMain Teradyne platform for advanced SoC
TeradyneMagnum 7HHBM and DRAMTeradyne's memory platform for HBM
TeradyneJ750 and EagleMicrocontrollers, power and analogHigh-volume mature parts
Changchuan TechnologyD9016SoCUp to 4,096 digital channels, shown March 2026
Huafeng Test & ControlSTS8300 seriesAnalog, mixed-signal, powerEstablished Chinese analog tester line

Results

Both Tester Makers Are Growing on AI Demand

Tester makers, latest reported results
CompanyPeriodRevenueTest business
AdvantestApril to June 2026¥367.5B, +39.3%Test systems ¥333.6B, +38.7%; services ¥33.9B, +46.0%
TeradyneQuarter to June 28, 2026$1,329MSemiconductor test $1,122M; third quarter guided at $1,200M to $1,300M total
CohuSecond quarter 2026$149M, +38%Handlers, sockets and inspection; 2026 growth guided about 35%

Advantest sells 99.1% of its output outside Japan, mostly to Taiwan, South Korea, China and the US. Teradyne reports third-quarter 2026 results on October 27, 2026; this page carries its second-quarter figures.

Capacity

Advantest Is Raising Tester Output by Two-Thirds

  • Made in US
  • Made abroad
Where testers are designed and built
MakerHQProductionUS status
AdvantestTokyo, JapanJapan; US R&D for SoC test (reported)Made abroad
TeradyneNorth Reading, MADesigned in the US; built mainly in Asia (reported)Made abroad
CohuPoway, CASoutheast Asia (reported)Made abroad
Changchuan, HuafengHangzhou, BeijingChinaMade abroad

Tester supply became tight in 2026. Advantest set a target of 5,000 or more SoC testers a year by March 2027, up from 3,000 in July 2025, and its chief executive Douglas Lefever called that level the "bare minimum" (The Edge Singapore, January 2026). Neither tester maker builds systems in volume in the United States, although Teradyne is a US company.

China

China Makes Analog Testers and Buys SoC Testers

China is one of the largest tester markets and has the most domestic tester makers. Beijing Huafeng Test & Control serves analog, mixed-signal and power test, and Hangzhou Changchuan Technology sells testers, probers and handlers, including the D9016 SoC tester shown at SEMICON China in March 2026. For leading-edge SoC test, Chinese testers remain generations behind (Wing VC). Changchuan says domestic testers can be delivered within two months against more than six months for imports, a company claim.

Record

Page Record

Covers
Tester market and shares, tester architecture, platforms, company results, capacity, build locations and China
Sources
Wing VC, The Chip Testing Bottleneck (May 2026); Advantest FY2026 first quarter results; The Edge Singapore (Advantest capacity, January 2026); Teradyne second quarter 2026 results (July 28, 2026) and results date notice (October 2026); Cohu second quarter 2026 call (July 30, 2026); 36Kr (SEMICON China, March 26, 2026)
Last verified
October 2026