Advantest (Japan)

The COVID-19 pandemic, spanning from early 2020 to late 2022, posed unprecedented challenges for global public health. However, it also spurred innovative approaches to pandemic management, notably the development of pathogen detection in wastewater. It was successfully demonstrated that wastewater analysis can not only reflect ongoing COVID-19 infections but also serve as an early indicator of disease prevalence within communities. Recognizing the value of longitudinal analyses of various pathogens, we identified the need for wastewater biobanking. This practice allows for the retrospective analysis of samples, offering critical public health insights at the population level. Moreover, the potential to transport and store biobanked samples at ambient temperature or in a dry state could greatly enhance the utility of this technology, especially in resource-limited settings such as low- and middle-income countries. This article also addresses the ethical considerations and public health implications of wastewater-based epidemiology. While this approach holds significant potential beyond pathogen detection, it is essential to evaluate the benefits and potential risks carefully.

Digital technologies are rapidly prevailing in our society, and there the performance of analog circuits is progressing and their market amount is growing steadily. We have experienced that in many cases analog parts may be small compared to digital ones, but analog ones are troublesome. Testing of analog circuits plays a crucial role in achieving both reliability and low cost such as in computer, Internet, AI, IoT and automotive systems. Also, in ATE systems, analog parts are key. Analog testing is a challenge including circuit design, signal processing algorithms and measurement methods/systems.This session will discuss analog testing related issues with three talks by researchers from industry. The first talk introduces a state-of-art low jitter 1GHz crystal oscillator by an ATE manufacturer. The second one explains a time measurement BOST using a successive approximation register time-to-digital converter (SAR TDC) with fine resolution by a semiconductor company. The third one is a proposal of an ADC diagnosis method using obtained self-calibration parameters, by an ADC design researcher.

The dielectrically consistent reference interaction site model (DRISM) is one of the methods used to solve the well-known drawback of the reference interaction site model (RISM) theory: That it underestimates the dielectric constant of the solutions. Recently, Nishihara and Otani developed the first-principles effective screening medium (ESM) method combined with RISM theory, called ESM-RISM, to simulate physical properties at the electrode/electrolyte interface [Phys. Rev. B 96, 115429 (2017)]. In this study, we combined DRISM with the ESM-RISM framework to increase the accuracy of electrochemical interface simulations, which was applied to the Pt(111)/aqueous water interface as a benchmark calculation. The electrochemical properties at the interface, such as the potential of zero charge, standard hydrogen electrode potential, and double-layer capacitance, all reasonably agree with previous experiments. The thickness of the contact layer was found to correlate well with double-layer capacitance. We believe that the present method is a useful tool to better model the physical properties at electrochemical interfaces.

Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) is an engineering plastic; when reinforced with fillers, it exhibits high heat resistance, strength, and molding/dimensional stability. Plating on PPS without using harmful chemicals can meet the following requirements due to its excellent properties: low environmental load process, lightweight metal substitute materials, electromagnetic wave shielding materials, etc. This study focused on metallizing by atmospheric ultraviolet (UV) treatment of PPS. This process is generally used for the pretreatment of painting and adhesion, and it entails a small environmental load; however, the UV treatment of moist air produces various chemical species. Therefore, the humidity effect during metallizing via atmospheric UV treatment was investigated, revealing its influence on the adhesion strength of the resulting metal film. In a dry environment, a metal film with strong adhesion can be formed on PPS, and UV treatment under such conditions can maintain the structure of the PPS surface. In contrast, a weak layer was generated under wet conditions, reducing the adhesion strength between the metal film and PPS.

This paper presents the design and testing of a WR28 based blind mating waveguide interconnect for over the air testing of antenna in package modules with automated test equipment. The waveguide blind mating interconnect is required for the connection between the measurement antenna that is embedded on the production test cell handler plunger and the measurement instrumentation of the automated test equipment. This interconnect needs to be disconnected each time a new device under test is inserted on the socket by the handler. This requires that the interconnect reliability is in the range of 1 million cycles or even higher for a commercial volume production test cell.

We have developed a method of applying swept-sine signals to DUTs with the objective of achieving high-speed measurement of the equivalent-circuit parameters (four elements: Ls, Cs, Rs, and Cp) of piezoelectric MEMS(micro-electromechanical systems). Based on this development, we propose a solution that makes use of a PRBS (pseudo-random binary sequence) pattern that reduces test costs by utilizing an inexpensive digital-pin resource from among the measurement resources for ATE (automated test equipment).

Skin aging is characterized by color and wrinkle caused by degeneration of collagen and elastin in the dermis. Recently, the volume, diameter and branching of the micro vessels in the skin are proved to affect these biomechanical changes. Thus, high resolution imaging for both micro structure and micro vessels of the skin is desired. In the present study, dual-wavelength photoacoustic microscope (PAM) combined with high frequency ultrasound (HFUS) is developed to visualize both the morphology and microcirculation of the skin. Two Nd:YAG laser light sources with the wavelength of 532/556 nm, pulse width of 1.2/3.6 ns, pulse energy of 16 μJ/pulse and repetition rate of 1 kHz were equipped in the HFUS-PAM system. The optical fiber for laser delivery was inserted through the center hole of the concave ultrasound transducer with the central frequency of 75 MHz. Both HFUS and PA signals were acquired at the sampling rate of 500 MHz and the resolution of 12 bits. The transducer was scanned by voice coil actuators to obtain 3D dataset of HFUS and PA signals. Oxygen saturation of the micro circulation was calculated by the PA signals alternately obtained at 532 nm and 556 nm. 3D image of the layered structure and the micro vessels representing oxygen saturation in the 6 mm x 6 mm x 3 mm volume of the skin was successfully obtained with the system. HFUS-PAM will provide important information of skin morphology and microcirculation for assessment of skin aging.