Serial Flash memories offer smallest packages per density

Winbond Electronics Corp. announced a family of new SpiFlash Serial Flash memories, claiming that it offers the industry's smallest packages per density.

Applications include space-critical designs, such as smart phones, Bluetooth headsets, cameras, digital video, gaming, GPS, wireless modules and other mobile/handheld products. With minimal package dimensions as small as 3.4mm², the devices meet the space-saving needs of the rapidly growing mobile-computing market with a range of densities from 512K-bit to 16M-bit.

Available in eight-pin ultra-thin small-outline no-lead (USON) and wafer-level-ball-grid-array (WLBGA) forms, the new SpiFlash memories occupy less than 20 percent of the space used by ordinary 30mm² WSON and SOIC packages, according to Winbond.

The new USON 6mm² (2 x 3 x 0.55mm) SpiFlash memories come in densities of 512Kb, 1Mb, 2Mb, 4Mb and 8Mb in 2.5V or 3V versions; power-saving 1.8V versions are also available for 2Mb and 4Mb densities. The 8Mb USON is the industry's highest density available in such a package. The WLBGA devices, which use a Wafer-Level-Chip-Scale-Packages (WLCSP) assembly process, are available in 8Mb (3.4mm²) and 16Mb (4.8mm²) densities that operate at 1.8V. The WLBGAs are 0.47mm in height and use 11 percent and 16 percent the space, respectively, of a WSON or SOIC package. The WLBGA packages also provide design security by preventing access to the chips' signals once mounted to PCBs.

Winbond's W25X (Single & Dual SPI) and W25Q (Single, Dual and Quad SPI), USON devices are sampling now, with some versions in full production, and priced from $0.32 to $0.57 in 10,000 unit quantities.  The W25Q80BWBYIG (8Mb) and W25Q16DWBYIG (16Mb) WLBGA devices are in production now and priced from $0.68 to $0.97 in 10,000 unit quantities.