Kioxia, Western Digital develop 162-layer 3D-NAND
As with all other flash memory suppliers the competition has moved to the vertical dimension with flash memories inability to scale much below 40nm node in the planar dimensions. However, Kioxia and Western Digital have missed out on joining SK Hynix and Micron in the 176-layer 3D-NAND club (see SK Hynix joins Micron on 176 layers for 3D-NAND flash).
However, Kioxia and Western Digital argue that if you can achieve the same bit density in fewer layers you will likely improve yield. The companies’ sixth-generation 3D flash memory features advanced architecture beyond the conventional eight-stagger memory hole array and achieves up to 10 percent greater lateral cell array density compared to the fifth-generation technology. This lateral scaling advancement, in combination with 162 layers of stacked vertical memory, enables a 40 percent reduction in die size compared to the previous generation 112-layer stacking technology, the companies said.
Masaki Momodomi, CTO of Kioxia said that on its own and Western Digital’s behalf Kioxia produces more than 30 percent of the world’s flash memory bits.
“With this new generation, Kioxi and Western Digital are introducing innovations in vertical as well as lateral scaling to achieve greater capacity in a smaller die with fewer layers. This innovation ultimately delivers the performance, reliability and cost that customers need,” said Siva Sivaram, President of Technology & Strategy, Western Digital, in a statement issued by Kioxia.
The Kioxia and Western Digital teams also applied Circuit Under Array CMOS placement and four-plane operation, which together deliver nearly 2.4 times improvement in program performance and 10 percent improvement in read latency compared to the previous generation. I/O performance also improves by 66 percent, enabling the next-generation interface to support the ever-increasing need for faster transfer rates.
Overall, the new 3D flash memory technology reduces the cost per bit, as well as increases the manufactured bits per wafer by 70 percent, compared with the previous generation.
Kioxia/Western Digital presented aspects of their sixth generation of 3D-NAND in Session 30 of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) along with papers from SK Hynix (176 layers), Intel (144 layers) and Samsung (160+).
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News articles:
3nm GAA process, compute-in-memory among highlights of ISSCC 2021
SK Hynix joins Micron on 176 layers for 3D-NAND flash
Kioxia announces another 3D-NAND wafer fab