Samsung Electronics has began mass manufacturing of its ninth era of V-NAND reminiscence. The first dies based mostly on their newest NAND tech are available a 1 Tb capability utilizing a triple-level cell (TLC) structure, with information switch charges as excessive as 3.2 GT/s. The new 3D TLC NAND reminiscence will initially be used to construct high-capacity and high-performance SSDs, which can assist to solidify Samsung’s place within the storage market.
Diving proper in, Samsung is conspicuously avoiding to checklist the variety of layers of their newest era NAND, which is the precept driving consider rising capability generation-on-generation. The firm’s present eighth gen V-NAND is 236 layers – much like its main opponents – and phrase on the road is that ninth gen V-NAND ups that to 290 layers, although this stays to be confirmed.
Regardless, Samsung says that its ninth era V-NAND reminiscence boasts an approximate 50% enchancment in bit density over its eighth era predecessor. Driving this features, the corporate cites the miniaturization of the cell dimension, in addition to the mixing of enhanced reminiscence cell applied sciences that cut back interference and lengthen the lifespan of the cells. With their newest NAND expertise, Samsung has additionally been in a position to get rid of dummy channel holes, thus decreasing the planar space of the reminiscence cells.
Interestingly, right now’s announcement additionally marks the primary time that Samsung has publicly confirmed their use of string stacking of their NAND, referring to it as their “double-stack structure.” The firm is extensively believed to have been utilizing sting stacking again of their eighth era NAND as nicely, nonetheless this was by no means confirmed by the corporate. Regardless, using string stacking is just going to extend from right here, as distributors look to maintain including layers to their NAND dies, whereas manufacturing variability and channel gap tolerances make it troublesome to supply greater than 150-200 layers in a single stack.
| Samsung TLC V- NAND Flash Memory | ||
| ninth Gen V-NAND | eighth Gen V-NAND | |
| Layers | 290? | 236 |
| Decks | 2 (x145) | 2 (x118) |
| Die Capacity | 1 Tbit | 1 Tbit |
| Die Size (mm2) | ?mm2 | ?mm2 |
| Density (Gbit/mm2) | ? | ? |
| I/O Speed | 3.2 GT/s (Toggle 5.1) |
2.Four GT/s (Toggle 5.0) |
| Planes | 6? | 4 |
| CuA / PuC | Yes | Yes |
Speaking of channel holes, one other key technological enhancement within the ninth gen V-NAND is Samsung’s superior ‘channel gap etching’ expertise. This course of improves manufacturing productiveness by enabling the simultaneous creation of electron pathways inside a double-stack construction. This technique is essential because it allows environment friendly drilling via extra layers, which is more and more essential as cell layers are added.
The newest V-NAND additionally options the introduction of a sooner NAND flash interface, Toggle DDR 5.1, which boosts peak information switch charges by 33% to three.2 GT/s, or nearly 400MB/sec for a single die. Additionally, ninth gen V-NAND’s energy consumption has been diminished by 10%, in accordance with Samsung. Though Samsung would not state underneath what situations – presumably, that is at iso-frequency reasonably than max frequency.
Samsung’s launch of 1Tb TLC V-NAND is ready to be adopted by the discharge of a quad-level cell (QLC) mannequin later this yr.
“We are excited to deliver the industry’s first 9th-gen V-NAND which will bring future applications leaps forward,” stated SungHoi Hur, Head of Flash Product & Technology of the Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “In order to deal with the evolving wants for NAND flash options, Samsung has pushed the boundaries in cell structure and operational scheme for our next-generation product. Through our newest V-NAND, Samsung will proceed to set the development for the high-performance, high-density…
