semiconductor
packaging news
Sponsor
StratEdge-Corporation

Die-on-Tab for Compound Semiconductors
This white paper explains why die-on-tab is critical for GaN and GaAs RF power devices, improving heat dissipation, reliability, and system life. Download now.
StratEdge Corporation
CyberOptics
Viewpoint
February 13, 2026

VIEWPOINT 2026: Ira Leventhal, Vice President, Research & Venture, Advantest America



VIEWPOINT 2026: Ira Leventhal, Vice President, Research & Venture, Advantest America
Ira Leventhal, Vice President, Research & Venture, Advantest America
My 2025 viewpoint highlighted the Era of Complexity—the convergence of AI/HPC scale, sustainability demands, and shifting geopolitics. Advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration introduce new failure modes and limit test access, making shift left test essential and turning reliability into a lifecycle commitment.

Co packaged optics (CPO) is taking center stage in the Era of Complexity in 2026. As AI/HPC push beyond copper's limits, CPO enables 200 G/lane and 1.6 T on a path to 3.2 T. The aggressive ramp demands test solutions that are truly scalable and HVM ready—not on paper, but in practice, and quickly.

This isn't just a technology shift; it's an ecosystem shift. Optics, compute silicon, advanced 2.5D/3D packaging, and high stack memory are now part of a tightly coupled electro optical and thermal mechanical ecosystem. Success requires unprecedented collaboration across the full value chain—aligning on manufacturable approaches that deliver both bandwidth density and extreme quality.

To keep pace, the industry is moving test content left. Performance and reliability checks once reserved for final test are being executed at wafer sort, singulated die, and stack level stages to ensure known good optical engines before full assembly. Elements of system level behavior are being validated earlier to strengthen coverage and reduce late surprises. And across the flow, cleanliness discipline, precise alignment, and active thermal control become first principles of yield.

CPO will reward companies that view test not as a gate, but as a continuous, end to end capability that scales with the product—from development through high volume manufacturing and into the field. That mindset, coupled with tight cross ecosystem collaboration, is how we’ll turn optics in package from promise into robust, reliable scale.

Ira Leventhal, Vice President, Research & Venture
Advantest America
https://www.advantest.com/en/
Free Newsletter Subscription
Semiconductor Packaging News is built for professionals who bear the responsibility of looking ahead, imagining the future, and preparing for it.

Insert Your Email Address

Sponsor
Brewer-Science

Ultra-Thin Wafer Handling
Brewer Science temporary wafer bonding systems allow for safe handling and transport of ultrathin wafers during rigorous backside processing steps.
Brewer Science
Advanced-Component-Labs