Advantest and PDF Solutions Announce Partnership to Build Advantest Cloud Powered by Exensio

Advantest Becomes a Significant Stockholder in PDF Solutions in Private Placement

TOKYO and SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857), a leading semiconductor test equipment supplier, and PDF Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: PDFS), a leading provider of software-based data analytics solutions to the semiconductor industry, today announced that they have established a partnership that includes:

• a development agreement for PDF’s assistance in development of a cloud-based software solution for Advantest’s customers that is based on PDF’s Exensio software analytics platform – an Advantest Cloud powered by PDF Exensio – for both Advantest’s internal use as well as use by Advantest’s customers;
• a commercial agreement providing for the license of technology solutions based on Advantest’s testing platforms and PDF’s Exensio platform;
• a significant 5-year cloud-based, subscription by Advantest to PDF Solutions’ Exensio analytics platform; and
• the purchase by Advantest of 3,306,924 newly issued shares of PDF Solutions common stock for approximately $65.2 million. 

PDF Solutions’ big data analytics, cloud-based platform, Exensio, spans the entire spectrum of the semiconductor value chain from IC design through fabrication, sort, assembly, final test and system level test, and is used by over 20 thousand engineers at over 130 companies to control tens of thousands of tools to optimize time to market, and maximize yield, profitability, reliability and quality.  As the semiconductor industry continues to move towards more advanced devices, the big data analytics provided by the PDF Solutions software platform, including the use of AI and machine learning (“ML”), is becoming critical to achieving yield on advanced manufacturing nodes, ensuring device quality and reducing test and measurement costs.  Importantly, as semiconductor companies use a disaggregated supply chain to produce, test and package chips, the PDF Solutions Exensio platform and Data Exchange Network (“DEX”) connect semiconductor engineers with automated test equipment  (“ATE”) across the semiconductor value chain, enabling important design and manufacturing insights to reduce testing costs and improving performance/yield.