Posted on Friday, March 02 2007 @ 0:13 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Samsung
announced it has begun mass producing its new 1Gb DDR2 DRAM memory on the 60nm process technology.
Use of the new process technology is a significant milestone in that it increases production efficiency by 40% over the 80nm process technology deployed in DRAM fabrication since early 2006, and offers twice the productivity of 90nm general process technology.
Ample market availability of 1Gb DRAM will further increase the demand for large density DRAMs, especially as the new premium Vista operating system imposes a DRAM requirement of at least 1GB. Samsung’s line up of 60nm 1Gb DRAM-based modules includes 512MB, 1GB and 2GB densities supporting either 667Mbps or 800Mbps speeds with customer validation.
Samsung anticipates such a high degree of receptivity to the 60nm process that it should drive greater demand for 1Gb DRAM chips in the near future over today’s mainstream density of 512Mb.
Samsung’s continuous technology migration below 90nm has relied heavily on the company’s extensive use of three-dimensional (3D) transistor technologies to build increasingly smaller chips. One of the key technologies involved in the development of Samsung’s 3D transistor is a recess channel array transistor (RCAT) that actually builds the DRAM cell three-dimensionally to minimize its size while increasing its density.
This new 3D transistor technology doubles the refresh cycle, which is critical for enabling efficient fabrication on a nanometer-scale. Samsung has been utilizing RCAT for DRAM fabrication from 90nm. This key 3D technology is expected to enable DRAM fabrication to 50nm and lower.
