Posted on Thursday, April 21 2011 @ 21:47 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
SanDisk and manufacturing partner Toshiba have announced the development of 19nm NAND flash memory.
Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502), reinforcing its leadership in the development and fabrication of cutting-edge, high density NAND flash memories, today announced that it has fabricated NAND flash memories with 19nm*1 process technology, the finest level yet achieved. This latest technology advance has already been applied to 2-bit-per-cell 64-gigabit (Gb) chips that are the world's smallest and offer the highest density on a single chip (8 gigabytes (GB))*2. Toshiba will also add 3-bit-per-cell products fabricated with the 19nm process technology to its product line-up.
Samples of 2-bit-per-cell 64-gigabit will be available from the end of this month with mass production scheduled for the third quarter of the year (July to September 2011).
Toshiba leads the industry in fabricating high density, small die size NAND flash memory chips. Application of the 19nm generation process technology will further shrink chip size, allowing Toshiba to assemble sixteen 64Gbit NAND flash memory chips in one package and to deliver 128GB devices for application in smartphones and tablet PCs. The 19nm process products are also equipped with Toggle DDR2.0, which enhances data transfer speed.
As the market for mobile equipment, such as smartphones, tablet PCs, and SSDs (solid state drives) expands, demand for smaller, higher density memory products grows. By accelerating process migration in NAND flash memory, Toshiba aims to reinforce and extend its leadership in the NAND flash memory market.
And here's the PR from SanDisk:
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), the global leader in flash memory cards, today announced a 64-gigabit (Gb), 2-bits-per-cell (X2) based monolithic chip made on 19-nanometer (nm) technology, the most advanced memory process technology node in the world. This latest technology enables SanDisk to produce embedded and removable storage devices with the high capacities and small form factors used in mobile phones, tablet computers and other devices.
SanDisk will sample its 19nm 64Gb X2 device this quarter and expects to begin high-volume production in the second half of 2011. At that time, SanDisk will also add 3-bits-per-cell (X3) products fabricated with the 19nm process technology to its product lineup.
"We are excited to introduce the world's smallest and lowest-cost NAND flash chips based on industry-leading 19nm process technology in our ongoing collaboration with our manufacturing partner Toshiba," said Yoram Cedar, executive vice president and chief technology officer, SanDisk. "Products based on this technology are designed to enable new applications, form factors and consumer experience that will continue to drive the flash industry to new heights."
The 19nm memory die uses the most sophisticated flash memory technology node to date, including advanced process innovations and cell-design solutions. SanDisk's All-Bit-Line (ABL) architecture with proprietary programming algorithms and multi-level data storage management schemes help yield multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips that do not sacrifice performance or reliability.
