Advantest announces candidacy for 2011 GSA Board of Directors seat

SANTA CLARA, USA: Advantest Corp., the semiconductor industry's foremost provider of automatic test equipment (ATE), announced that R. Keith Lee, executive officer of Advantest Corp. and president and CEO of Advantest America, Inc., is running as a candidate for a seat on the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) board of directors.

If elected, Lee, will serve a two-year term representing the packaging/back-end partner category. New board positions will take effect on March 1, 2011.

“The GSA continues to make significant contributions to the semiconductor industry as a champion of the fabless model,” stated Toshio Maruyama, Advantest’s chairman. “It is a great pleasure for me at this time to put forward Keith Lee as a candidate for the GSA board of directors, as it not only confirms Advantest’s commitment to GSA as a driver of continued semiconductor industry growth, but serves as a testament to our mutual goals.”

Lee is a technology industry veteran of more than 25 years. He joined Advantest America in 1984, and has held management positions in design and development, sales and marketing, and applications and systems engineering. Prior to his career at Advantest, he held senior marketing management and engineering positions at Megatest Corp., Mitel Corp., and AT&T. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University, where he remains active on the Industrial Advisory Board for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

"I feel confident that the GSA is well positioned to serve as the crossroads of our industry -- that it is well situated to be at the center of our global collaboration and an incubator for future ideas,” Lee commented. “As we emerge from this severe economic downturn, and begin to grow and evolve our industry, we must do everything possible to establish connections: finance research; attract talent; improve infrastructures; and promote successes. I believe that GSA can be our springboard and I look forward to being a part of the ongoing legacy of this venerable organization,” he continued.

Advantest has been a member of the GSA (formerly the Fabless Semiconductor Association) since 1999 and has been active on several GSA committees over the years. For 22 consecutive years, the company has ranked among VLSI Research’s 10 BEST semiconductor equipment companies in terms of technical leadership, product performance, process and software support, and service.

In SoC test, Advantest achieved the industry’s highest rating in cost-of-ownership, while in memory test, the company led the industry with the highest rating in the categories of uptime and usable throughput.