By Arizona AI · Profile reviewed · 11 sourced facts
Advantest makes semiconductor testing equipment, and its Essai operations in Chandler, Arizona manufacture the sockets that connect chips to testers. Essai's Arizona manufacturing entry reported 177 employees on March 31, 2026, compared with 199 a year earlier. Advantest's socket products serve applications including AI processors, while its Arizona ties also include test-engineering education with Arizona State University and NXP.
Sources: Advantest: Essai, Inc. | Offices / Subsidiaries, City of Chandler, Advantest: Corporate Overview · Addresses open Google Maps in a new tab
15 open Arizona positions See Advantest jobs
From Advantest’s own careers site, refreshed twice a day.
Advantest builds equipment that checks whether semiconductor chips operate properly and meet performance requirements. Its Essai subsidiary makes test sockets used to connect chips to testing equipment. Advantest completed its acquisition of Essai in January 2020, making Essai a wholly owned subsidiary of Advantest America.
Worldwide position: Advantest reported a 65% share of the semiconductor tester market in calendar 2025, up from 58% in 2024, in its 2026 annual report, page 9. This is a company-reported worldwide figure. Advantest was established in December 1954, is headquartered in Tokyo and trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market as 6857.
Chandler manufacturing: Essai's business is test-socket design, manufacturing and sales. Chandler identifies manufacturing facilities at 280 S. 79th St. and 4111 W. Saturn Way, both in Chandler, in its proposed intergovernmental agreement. Published address differences are collected in the Arizona locations cards below.
Expansion and employment: In July 2024, Chandler described a multi-facility project intended to support up to 400 jobs. That was a projection for the project. Advantest's filings report 199 employees on March 31, 2025 and 177 on March 31, 2026 in Essai's Arizona manufacturing entry. Those counts do not establish the reason for the change or whether the project met its planned employment level.
Essai's financial results: For the year ended March 31, 2025, Essai recorded a JPY21.393 billion impairment loss on goodwill and intangible assets. Advantest attributed it to weaker sales to a major customer and delays expanding sales to new customers. This was an accounting reduction in those assets' recorded value; the disclosure concerns Essai and does not identify a loss at either Chandler building.
Why the trade zone matters: Chandler's Resolution 5944 says city cooperation and FTZ support influenced Essai's decision to locate its facilities in Chandler. The resolution supports reclassification of new personal property from class one to class six and explicitly excludes real property. The council adopted the resolution on December 11, 2025.
Federal approval: The Foreign-Trade Zones Board authorized Essai's described production activity within FTZ 75 on September 28, 2026. The production notification lists wafer test sockets and thermal heat sinks. These records describe authorized activity and property treatment, not a measured dollar saving or a new construction budget.
Teaching and industry exchange: Advantest and NXP supported a new radio-frequency test course at Arizona State University in spring 2023. Advantest designed labs and installed a V93000 tester at ASU Research Park in Tempe; engineers from both companies supported the labs. The course is part of ASU's School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. Advantest also held its VOICE developer conference in Scottsdale on May 18-20, 2026.
How the connection works: In a function test, the tester sends electrical signals and checks the chip's responses. An interface board connects the test system to the socket; the socket holds and contacts the chip. Advantest describes these roles in its semiconductor testing guide and Interconnect Solutions overview.
Illustration by Arizona AI. A simplified function-test connection, based on the linked Advantest technical descriptions.
Why AI makes this demanding: Advantest lists CPU, server, GPU and AI applications for its socket and interconnect products, whose reliability testing includes contact resistance, force and repeated operating cycles. Its thermal-control documentation describes the increasing heat-management demands of devices that combine computing, memory and communications. Reliable electrical contact and controlled temperature are part of the testing problem, alongside the tester itself.
Arizona's role: Essai supplies the physical test interfaces described above, while the group's wider portfolio includes wafer, packaged-device and system-level testing. Advantest's June 2026 OpenLight collaboration targets electro-optical testing for optical interconnects in data centers and high-speed networks. That is a worldwide development initiative, not a stated Chandler production program.
Worldwide financial context: Advantest reported JPY845.2 billion in consolidated sales for April-September 2026 and forecast JPY1,863 billion for the year ending March 2027. The forecast is not completed sales. These group figures describe a different scope and period from Essai's earlier write-down and Arizona employment counts.
Cybersecurity incident, 2026: Advantest disclosed a ransomware incident on February 19, after detecting unusual activity on February 15. In its March 4 update, Advantest said core production, shipments and customer support remained operational while additional systems were being restored.
In a company notice dated October 6, filed with Massachusetts, Advantest confirmed that extracted data included personal information. Advantest said in that notice that it had no information suggesting public disclosure or misuse and offered monitoring services to affected recipients. These are the company's statements at their respective dates.
Each figure is dated and linked to its source. Figures that are company-reported, announced, or projected rather than measured are labeled.
| Measure | Value | As of | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 280 S. 79th St., Chandler, AZ 85226 | 2026-11-08 | company-reported From the company's own published information. | Advantest |
| Site role | Semiconductor test-socket manufacturing | 2025-12-11 | verified | City of Chandler |
| Address shown by Google Maps | 280 N. 79th St., Chandler, AZ 85226 | 2026-11-08 | verified | Google Maps |
| Measure | Value | As of | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 4111 W. Saturn Way, Chandler, AZ 85226 | 2026-11-08 | verified | City of Chandler |
| Site role | Semiconductor test-socket manufacturing | 2025-12-11 | verified | City of Chandler |
| Address published in Advantest's directory | 4119 W. Jupiter Way, Chandler, AZ 85226 | 2026-11-08 | company-reported From the company's own published information. | Advantest |
| Project address in the city permit | 4119 W. Saturn Way, Chandler, AZ 85226 | 2026-11-08 | verified | City of Chandler |
Arizona AI currently tracks 15 open Advantest roles in Arizona, the largest named category being manufacturing technicians & skilled trades (9). Counts come from the Arizona AI job index, aggregated from the employer's own careers system and refreshed twice daily; they reflect published listings, not total employment.
Arizona AI is currently tracking 15 open Advantest roles in Arizona, across Chandler and Phoenix. The count updates automatically as Advantest adds and removes postings, and duplicate listings for the same role are merged.
The largest categories among current listings at Advantest in Arizona are manufacturing technicians & skilled trades (9), hardware & design engineering (2), business & corporate (1), process & equipment engineering (1). Categories are derived from job titles by Arizona AI.
Advantest lists Arizona roles in Chandler and Phoenix. Locations are shown exactly as Advantest publishes them; the company's main Arizona site is Chandler, AZ. Employers sometimes label roles with the metropolitan area rather than the specific campus city.
Each listing on this page links through to Advantest's own application page. Arizona AI does not collect applications or charge job seekers, and roles are aggregated from the employer's official careers system rather than from third-party recruiters.
No. Chandler's July 2024 announcement described the number of jobs the project was intended to support. A project employment projection and dated employee counts in annual filings are different measures.
No. The annual filing's facilities table reports the accounting value of buildings, land and other assets at the reporting date. It is not a construction budget or spending during that year.
No. The September 2026 decision authorizes the production activity described in Essai's notification within FTZ 75, subject to the FTZ Act and regulations. It does not state an opening date.
No. The October 2026 results report consolidated group sales. They should not be read as Chandler revenue or as an update on Essai's separately disclosed earlier impairment.