Samsung takes 16-Gbit NAND flash to 50 nm

LONDON — Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has begun sampling a 50-nanometer, 16-Gbit NAND flash memory for use in solid-state disk drive applications. The memory is expected to go into volume production at some time during the first quarter of 2007, Samsung said.

Samsung did not state whether the 16-Gbit memory is monolithically integrated or made up from multiple chips in a single package, but it did say that the memory is the first NAND flash memory made using a 50 nanometer manufacturing process.

However, Samsung itself claimed to have made a 32-Gbit memory in a 40-nm process in September 2006 based on a novel high-k gate dielectric including tantalum. That claim came shortly after IM Flash Technologies LLC had claimed to have leapfrogged Samsung with a 4-Gbit NAND flash memory made using a 50-nm manufacturing process.

The latest Samsung samples have a multilevel cell (MLC) design with a 4-kbyte page size, the company said. The page function has been doubled in size compared with previous NAND flash memories and ahs enabled the memory to double the read speed, while increasing write performance by 150 percent, Samsung added.

The memory is set to be deployed in external memory cards for use with PCs and in mobile phone handsets. The introduction of a 16-Gbit (2-Gbyte) memory is also expected to accelerate the adoption of non-volatile memory applications such as flash-based solid state disks, which could be used with Microsoft's Vista operating system.

Samsung's 16-Gbit NAND flash