SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Expanding their ties, SanDisk Corp. and Toshiba Corp. plan to collaborate on the development of certain types of rewriteable 3D memory, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Both (SanDisk) and Toshiba ''will contribute and cross license technology related to the 3D collaboration and will jointly perform research and development,'' according to the filing from SanDisk. ''As part of the licensing of its intellectual property, (SanDisk) will receive certain licensing payments from Toshiba.''
For years, Toshiba and SanDisk have collaborated in NAND flash. The companies are currently shipping 43-nm NAND devices, with a three-bit-per-cell (x3) technology in the works.
Gregory Wong, president of Forward Insights, a consulting and market research company, said there are many challenges for this 3D technology.
''A four-level 3D R/W memory will have to at least catch up with NAND flash on process technology to be considered competitive with x4 NAND flash,'' Wong said, referring to NAND-based four-bit-per-cell technology.
''This would put 3D R/W memory at least 3-4 years out,'' Wong said. ''The other issue is whether an eight level stack is manufacturable at high yields. An eight-level stack was demonstrated by Matrix in 2003 on a much less advanced 0.25-um geometry. Producing eight level memory stacks at leading edge technology is another matter.''
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