Samsung takes NAND memory below 20-nm

LONDON – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has said it has started manufacturing 64-Gbit NAND memory ICs using a 10-nm class process technology, that is with minimum geometries of somewhere between 10- and 19-nm. The chips are being sold within a 64-Gbyte embedded multimedia card (eMMC) that went into production last month, Samsung states.

The 10nm-class technology based NAND also is compatible with a 64-Gbit MLC NAND made using 2X-nm process, which Samsung started offering in May. However, the 1X-nm device improves manufacturing productivity by 30 percent, Samsung said.

The eMMC uses a high-speed interface with a 30 percent advantage in performance over the eMMC 4.5 interface. The new high-speed eMMC will be submitted to the industry standards body JEDEC, (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) for adoption as an industry standard in 2013, Samsung said.

The 64-Gbyte eMMC Pro Class 2000 measures 11.5-mm by 13-mm, which represents a 20 percent reduction in size over the conventional embedded memory form factor of 12-mm by 16-mm. This should aid design-in in mobile applications where there is desire to move toward slimmer designs.


Related links and articles:

ISSCC preview: Revving ReRAMS, boosting memory bandwidth

Electronica: Micron memory to skip a node

NAND storage firm raises cash