Another year, another SEMICON West....

The ATE excitement was not on the exhibit floor at this year's SEMICON West but in the program related events. Perhaps SEMICON West is showing its age? Next year it turns 45...

Of the major ATE companies, Advantest had the biggest booth with the most hardware on display including some treats such as their new MEMS relay. Teradyne was focused on wireless device test with only a minimal booth. Xcerra, the new entity formed by the consolidation of LTX-Credence, Multitest, and Everett Charles, continued their long standing tradition of having an offsite hospitality suite and no booth. Chroma had a modest booth with several of their different product families.

Tokyo Electron had their meeting suites setup in the South Hall with all the other "front end" companies with no demo hardware visible. And Accretech showed only dicing equipment in their booth this year.

Much more interesting were the presentations and discussion at 1.5 day co-located workshop Test Vision 2020. This is clearly where the "action' was for anyone seriously involved with test. And there were good presentations and a lively panel at the TechXPOT North "Testing into the Future" on Tuesday.