Industry-first CTF-based 4D NAND Flash hits the market

By Murielle Gonzalez | Published: 5-Nov-2018

Chipmaker SK Hynix announces early stage of mass production of the 96-layer 4D NAND is expected to begin within this year at its new M15 fab in South Korea

SK Hynix has launched a new NAND Flash featuring a 96-layer CTF based four-dimensional (4D) technology. An industry first, the South Korean memory semiconductor supplier said the development is based on its TLC (Triple-Level Cell) arrays, using 3D CTF (Charge Trap Flash) design paired with the PUC (Peri. Under Cell) technology.

A single 512Gb NAND Flash chip can represent 64GB (Gigabytes) storage.

“This 96-Layer CTF-based 4D NAND, with the industry’s top cost competitiveness and performance, will become a milestone in the company’s NAND Flash business, as a platform in developing future products,” said Vice President J.T. Kim, Head of NAND Marketing.

Kim said early stage of mass production of the 96-Layer 4D NAND is expected to begin within this year.

“The Company plans to start the early stage mass production of it within this year and further expand the production in M15 to actively respond to a variety of clients,” he added.

A productivity booster

A single 512Gb NAND Flash chip can represent 64GB (Gigabytes) storage

A single 512Gb NAND Flash chip can represent 64GB (Gigabytes) storage

SK Hynix said the 4D NAND chip reduces more than 30% of chip size and increases bit productivity per wafer by 49% compared to its 72-Layer 512Gb 3D NAND.

"Moreover, the product has 30% higher write and 25% higher read performance," the company said in a statement, adding that its data bandwidth is doubled to the industry’s biggest 64KB (Kilobytes).

"With the introduction of a multiple gate insulators architecture, its data I/O (Input Output) speed reaches 1,200Mbps (Megabits/sec) at 1.2V (Volt) of operation power," SK Hynix claims.

In August, SK Hynix announced that it would enhance the solution market competence with various 4D NAND applications at FMS (Flash Memory Summit) 2018 held in Santa Clara, California, in the US.

With the 96-Layer 512Gb 4D NAND, SK Hynix will introduce 1TB (Terabyte) client SSDs equipped with the company’s own controllers and firmware within this year.

Plus, the enterprise SSDs will be introduced in the second half of 2019. SK Hynix will also respond to the high-density mobile market with the introduction of UFS (Universal Flash Storage) 3.0 in the first half of 2019.

The chipmaker said it will roll out ultra-high density 96-Layer 1Tb (Terabit) TLC and QLC (Quad-Level Cell) in 2019.

Headquartered in Icheon, South Korea, SK Hynix specialises in dynamic random-access memory chips (DRAM) and flash memory chips.

You may also like