256gbit World's Highest Capacity 3D NAND flash chips

[SURbit]

SanDisk, Toshiba double down, announce the world's highest capacity 3D NAND flash chips

Toshiba's BiCS technology stacks 48 layers of microscopic NAND layers atop one another, vastly increasing memory density.

Credit: Toshiba

 

The new 3D NAND chip is designed for wide use in consumer, client, mobile and enterprise products

SanDisk and Toshiba announced today that they are manufacturing 256Gbit (32GB), 3-bit-per-cell (X3) 48-layer 3D NAND flash chips that offer twice the capacity of the next densest memory.

The two NAND flash manufacturers are currently printing pilots of 256Gb X3 chips in their new Yokkaichi, Japan fabrication plant. They are expecting to ship the new chips next year. (2016)

Last year, Toshiba and SanDisk announced their collaboration on the new fab wafer plant, saying they would use the facility exclusively for three dimensional "V-NAND" NAND flash wafers.

 

At the time of the announcement, the companies reported the collaboration would be valued at about $4.84 billion when construction of the plant and its operations were figured in.

 

 

In March, Toshiba announced the first 48-layer 3D V-NAND chips; those flash chips held 128Gbit (16GB) of capacity.

The new 256Gbit flash chip, which uses 15 nanometer lithography process technology, is suited for diverse applications, including consumer SSDs, smartphones, tablets, memory cards, and enterprise SSDs for data centers, the companies said.

Based on a vertical flash stacking technology that the companies call BiCS [Bit Cost Scaling], the new flash memory stores three bits of data per transistor (triple-level cell or TLC), compared to the previous two-bit (multi-level cell or MLC) memory Toshiba had been producing with BiCS.

Toshiba and SanDisk's Bit Cost Scaling (BiCS) 3D vertical NAND design.

 

"This is the world's first 256Gb X3 chip, developed using our industry-leading 48-layer BiCS technology and demonstrating SanDisk's continued leadership in X3 technology. We will use this chip to deliver compelling storage solutions for our customers," Siva Sivaram, SanDisk's executive vice president for memory technology, said in a statement.

SanDisk and Toshiba's fab operations in Yokkaichi, Japan where the new 48-layer 3D V-NAND chip is being produced.

 

Last year, Samsung became the first semiconductor manufacturer to begin producing 3D NAND. Its V-NAND chip provides two to 10 times higher reliability and twice the write performance, according to Samsung.

Samsung's V-NAND uses cell structure based on 3D Charge Trap Flash (CTF) technology. By applying the latter technologies, Samsung's 3D V-NAND can provide more than twice the scaling of today's 20nm-class planar NAND flash.

 

Samsung is using its 3D V-NAND for a wide range of consumer electronics and enterprise applications, including embedded NAND storage and solid-state drives (SSDs). Samsung's 3D NAND flash chips were used to create SSDs with capacities ranging from 128GB to 1TB.

 

SOURCE: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2956214/computer-hardware/sandisk-toshiba-double-down-announce-the-worlds-highest-capacity-3d-nand-flash-chips.html

[rahull]

Technology metamorphosing at rapid phase

[steven36]

TOKYO -- Toshiba will ramp up production of next-generation memory chips while paring back its hard drive business and selling other chipmaking operations, aiming for a speedy return to profitability after expensive post-scandal restructuring.

 

 

     The Japanese company plans by March to begin mass production of 3-D NAND flash memory, in which memory cells are stacked vertically to boost capacity. New production lines being built at fabrication facilities in Yokkaichi in Mie Prefecture are partially complete. Lithography and other equipment will be brought in gradually. Construction will be complete by June.

 

 

     Toshiba has entered talks with the local municipal government over neighboring land the company hopes to use to expand the facilities to house more lines. While it had considered building a new plant in Iwate Prefecture, it concluded that keeping everything in one place would be better, since trained engineers are more readily available, among other advantages.

 

     The new plant, to cost an estimated 400 billion yen to 500 billion yen ($3.37 billion to $4.21 billion), will be brought online by fiscal 2018. Toshiba will solidify its plans after talking with SanDisk, with which it operates the Yokkaichi facilities, about splitting the cost evenly.

 

     Flash memory competes with hard drives, a less promising market. Toshiba is considering layoffs at a hard drive factory in the Philippines. It plans to gradually scale down the division, which employs roughly 8,000, and could eventually bow out of the business entirely. It will switch over to production of solid-state drives, which use flash memory.

 

     The hard drive business is in a tough spot, and selling it is a possibility, President Masashi Muromachi told reporters on Dec. 21 -- suggesting that restructuring would be on the way soon.

 

     Toshiba has a nearly 20% share of the global hard drive market, likely logging around 400 billion yen in annual sales. While it is one of the top three, alongside Western Digital and Seagate Technology, sustained large-scale investment is required, and industry realignment has run its course. Selling the business would be difficult, since demand is lackluster due to such factors as flagging personal-computer sales.

     On the other hand, 3-D flash memory is expected to fare better amid rising demand for higher-capacity smartphones and data centers. Samsung Electronics is entering mass production as well.

 

     Toshiba has been investing around 200 billion yen a year on the memory business -- even during company-wide restructuring encompassing such areas as white goods and PCs -- and will likely continue to invest to remain competitive. It plans to use proceeds from the planned sale of Toshiba Medical Systems and non-memory chipmaking operations to fund this spending.

 

The Source

[Batu69]

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