The rapid transitioning of application processor manufacturing process to a 28nm node will continue to stir up demand for IC testing equipment, which will help drive up growth of the testing equipment industry in 2013-2014, according to Advantest Taiwan.

Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and MediaTek all have migrated to 28nm processes, resulting in a new wave of demand for IC testing equipment from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL), Advantest indicated.

Growing demand for LCD driver ICs, image sensors and application processors for mobile devices will be also the growth drivers for IC testing equipment in the rest of 2012 as well as in the first half of 2013, said Advantest Taiwan president CH Wu.

In response to ASE's and SPIL's remarks that their capacity utilization rates are expected to stay flat at 80%, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2012, Advantest believes that such a utilization rate is still healthy for the IC packaging and testing industry.

Advantest expects its global sales revenues to grow from JPY140 billion (US$1.76 billion) in 2011 to JPY250 billion in 2014, while its global market share for IC testing solutions will expand from 47% currently to over 50% during the same period.