d'Arbeloff and DeWolf knew that testing electronic components in high-volume production would reach a bottleneck, unless the tasks performed by technicians and laboratory instruments could be automated. Their business plan involved a new breed of "industrial-grade" electronic test equipment, known for its technical performance, reliability and economic payback.
In the 1980s, Teradyne expanded its sub-assembly test business by acquiring Zehntel, a leading manufacturer of in-circuit board test systems. In 1987, the company introduced the first analog VLSI test system, the A500, which led the market in testing integrated devices that provided the interface between analog and digital data.
The 1990s brought more diversification. The company acquired Megatest Corporation, which expanded its Semiconductor Test group to include smaller and less expensive testers than had been currently available. Teradyne also became a market leader in high-end System-on-a-Chip (SoC) test with its Catalyst and Tiger test systems.[citation needed]
In 2000, Teradyne Connection Systems acquired Herco Technologies and Synthane-Taylor, and a year later they acquired circuit-board test and inspection leader, GenRad, and merged it into the Assembly Test Division. GenRad's Diagnostic Solutions, which made test equipment for the automotive manufacturing and service industries, became a separate product group for Teradyne.
In 2006, Teradyne sold its two Boston buildings and consolidated all of its Boston-area staff to its current site in North Reading, Massachusetts.
Teradyne grew its semiconductor test business with the addition of Nextest and Eagle Test Systems in 2008, serving the flash memory test market and high-volume analog test market, respectively. That same year, Teradyne entered the disk-drive test market with the internally developed Neptune product, which serves the data-intensive internet and computing storage markets.
In 2010, Teradyne celebrated its 50th anniversary. The following year, it acquired LitePoint Corporation, a leading provider of test instruments for use with wireless products, such as laptops PCs, tablets, home networking and cell phones. With the addition of LitePoint, Teradyne's product portfolio stretched from wafer test of semiconductor chips to system-level circuit boards to products ready for store shelves.
Upon d'Arbeloff's retirement, George Chamillard assumed the post of President and CEO. He was replaced at his retirement by former CFO Mike Bradley. Bradley retired in January 2014, and was in turn replaced by Semiconductor Test Division president Mark Jagiela.
Teradyne operates major facilities around the world, with headquarters in North Reading, Massachusetts.
Timeline
Teradyne's tradeshow booth showcasing the company's flagship product that went on to launch the semiconductorATE industry, circa 1964.
Timeline showing notable milestones, major acquisitions and key innovations.[3]
2018 - Teradyne acquires Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) and Energid to expand its Industrial Automation business to include Autonomous Mobile Robots and motion control and simulation software for robotics.
2019 - Teradyne acquires AutoGuide Mobile Robots.[5]
2023 - Teradyne acquires a 10% equity stake in Technoprobe[6]
Divisions
The Semiconductor Test Division provides test equipment used by integrated circuit manufacturers to test logic, RF, analog, power, mixed-signal and memory devices. Teradyne manufactures five principal families of testers known as the "J750", "FLEX," "UltraFLEX," “Eagle” and “Magnum” series. These testers are used by semiconductor manufacturers to test and classify the individual devices ("dies") on a completed semiconductor wafer and then used again to retest the parts once they are enclosed in their final packaging.
The System Test Group builds testers for completed circuit boards (printed circuit boards/printed wiring boards) and hard drives. The division addresses next-level electronics production for consumer, communications, industrial and government customers. Major product families in the system test business include: TestStation, Spectrum Series, High-Speed Subsystem, Neptune, Saturn and Titan. Portions of this division were acquired when Teradyne purchased GenRad in 2002.
LitePoint, Teradyne's wireless test business, provides services for leading manufacturers of wireless modules and consumer electronics. Serving the rapidly growing wireless communications industry, LitePoint products are used by chipset and product designers along with their contract manufacturers. LitePoint's products include IQxel for connectivity test and IQxstream for cellular test.
Teradyne's industrial automation business is composed of Universal Robots, Mobile Industrial Robots, AutoGuide and Energid.
Universal Robots (UR) provides collaborative robots (cobots) that work side-by-side with production workers. UR cobots automate tasks including machine tending, packaging, gluing, painting, polishing and assembling parts. The cobots are deployed in the automotive, food and agriculture, furniture and equipment, metal and machining, plastics and polymers, and pharma and chemicals industries.
Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) offers autonomous mobile robots for managing internal logistics (for payloads under 1,500kg).[clarification needed] These robots are currently used in the transportation, healthcare, pharmaceutical, metal and plastics, fashion, technology and food industries.
AutoGuide Mobile Robots manufactures modular industrial mobile robots (for payloads up to 45,000kg). These high-payload robots are used for assembly, material handling, warehousing and distribution operations across multiple industries.
Energid specializes in the control and simulation of complex robotic systems, and is used in the aerospace, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, defense and medical industries.[citation needed]
Related Research Articles
Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. Electronics is a subfield of physics and electrical engineering which uses active devices such as transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits to control and amplify the flow of electric current and to convert it from one form to another, such as from alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) or from analog signals to digital signals.
An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip, computer chip, or simply chip, is a small electronic device made up of multiple interconnected electronic components such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors. These components are etched onto a small piece of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Integrated circuits are used in a wide range of electronic devices, including computers, smartphones, and televisions, to perform various functions such as processing and storing information. They have greatly impacted the field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization and enhanced functionality.
National Semiconductor Corporation was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers, communication interface products and data conversion solutions. National's key markets included wireless handsets, displays and a variety of broad electronics markets, including medical, automotive, industrial and test and measurement applications.
Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work together in a design flow that chip designers use to design and analyze entire semiconductor chips. Since a modern semiconductor chip can have billions of components, EDA tools are essential for their design; this article in particular describes EDA specifically with respect to integrated circuits (ICs).
Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing, and power management technology, headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts.
Amphenol Corporation is an American producer of electronic and fiber optic connectors, cable and interconnect systems such as coaxial cables. Amphenol is a portmanteau from the corporation's original name, American Phenolic Corp.
A mixed-signal integrated circuit is any integrated circuit that has both analog circuits and digital circuits on a single semiconductor die. Their usage has grown dramatically with the increased use of cell phones, telecommunications, portable electronics, and automobiles with electronics and digital sensors.
Credence Systems Corporation was a manufacturer of test equipment for the global semiconductor industry, with a major focus on solving specific challenges facing the fast-growing consumer-driven semiconductor markets. It was headquartered in Milpitas, California and merged with LTX in 2008.
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., a subsidiary of Analog Devices, designs, manufactures, and sells analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the automotive, industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets. Maxim's product portfolio includes power and battery management ICs, sensors, analog ICs, interface ICs, communications solutions, digital ICs, embedded security, and microcontrollers. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, and has design centers, manufacturing facilities, and sales offices worldwide.
Microchip Technology Incorporated is a publicly listed American corporation that manufactures microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog, and Flash-IP integrated circuits. Its products include microcontrollers, Serial EEPROM devices, Serial SRAM devices, embedded security devices, radio frequency (RF) devices, thermal, power, and battery management analog devices, as well as linear, interface and wireless products.
Kingston Technology Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, sells and supports flash memory products, other computer-related memory products, as well as the HyperX gaming division. Headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, United States, Kingston Technology employs more than 3,000 employees worldwide as of Q1 2016. The company has manufacturing and logistics facilities in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Taiwan, and China.
Nicholas DeWolf was co-founder of Teradyne, a Boston, Massachusetts-based manufacturer of automatic test equipment. He founded the company in 1960 with Alex d'Arbeloff, a classmate at MIT.
Integrated Micro-electronics, Inc. provides electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and power semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS) with manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America. Its headquarters is located in Biñan, Laguna.
Eagle Test Systems is a supplier of automatic test equipment (ATE) and operates as a business unit within the Teradyne Semiconductor Test Division. Eagle's test equipment was designed to address volume production. Customers, including semiconductor manufacturers and assembly and test subcontractors, use the products to test analog, a combination of digital and analog, known as mixed-signal, and radio frequency (RF) semiconductors.
pSemi, is a San Diego–based manufacturer of high-performance RF CMOS integrated circuits. A Murata Manufacturing company since December 2014, the company's products are used in aerospace and defense, broadband, industrial, mobile wireless device, test and measurement equipment and wireless infrastructure markets. Their UltraCMOS technology is a proprietary implementation of silicon on sapphire (SOS) and silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates that enables high levels of monolithic integration.
Diodes Incorporated is a global manufacturer and supplier of application specific standard products within the discrete, logic, analog, and mixed-signal semiconductor markets. Diodes serves the consumer electronics, computing, communications, industrial, and automotive markets.
Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. was an American fabless semiconductor company that designed, manufactured, developed, and sold integrated circuits for communications applications in wireless and wired networks.
Universal Robots is a Danish manufacturer of smaller flexible industrial collaborative robot arms (cobots), based in Odense, Denmark. Since 2015, the company is owned by American automatic test equipment designer and manufacturer Teradyne.
Techman Robot Inc., formerly a business division of Quanta Storage Inc., is an independent company under Quanta Computer established in 2015. The company is most recognized for its cobot with a built-in vision system: the TM Robot series. This robot series previously won the COMPUTEX D&I Gold Award. Techman Robot Inc. is also among the first companies to receive the TARS certification.
MOSAID is a semiconductor technology company incorporated in Ottawa, Canada. It was founded in 1975 as a DRAM design company, and later branched out into other areas including EDA software, semiconductor reverse engineering, test equipment manufacturing and intellectual property licensing. MOSAID went public in 1994 with a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange under ticker symbol "MSD". By 2011 the business was based exclusively on patent licensing and the company was acquired by Sterling Partners, a US-based private equity firm. MOSAID was renamed Conversant Intellectual Property Management in 2013. In 2021, the company announced it was changing its name back to MOSAID.
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