Micron ships 1β DRAMs made without EUV
Micron has started shipping DRAM chips made on its 1β (1-beta) manufacturing process to smartphone makers and chipset partners for qualification.
This is Micron’s fifth process below 20nm and above 10nm and Micron has achieved this without using extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). DRAM vendors started not referring to the critical dimensions of their manufacturing processes back in about 2015 and since then have referred to 1x-nm, 1y-nm, 1z-nm, 1α-nm and now 1β.
Micron did not refer to changes in how the DRAMs are made in terms of materials, in particular dielectric layers to provide the capacitance for the each bit-cell. Nor did the company say what capacity memory chips it is shipping but for comparison said that at the 16Gbit capacity the 1β node would deliver a 15 percent power efficiency improvement and more than a 35 percent bit density improvement compared with the 1α node. Micron started shipping 1α node DRAMs in volume in 2021.
The company did say it is debuting its 1β DRAMs on its low-power double data rate 5X (LPDDR5X) mobile memory, delivering data transfer rates of up to 8.5Gbps.
Multi-patterning
“The launch of our 1-beta DRAM signals yet another leap forward for memory innovation, brought to life by our proprietary multi-patterning lithography in combination with leading-edge process technology and advanced materials capabilities,” said Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of technology and products at Micron.
Power savings additional to those from scaling have been enabled by the implementation of JEDEC enhanced dynamic voltage and frequency scaling extensions core (eDVFSC) techniques. The addition of eDVFSC at a doubled frequency tier of up to 3,200 megabits per second provides improved power savings controls
Micron has managed to make 1β DRAMs by using multi-patterning techniques and immersion lithography rather than moving to extreme ultraviolet lithography. The chips will be mass producing at Micron’s wafer fab in Hiroshima, Japan
Over the next year, the company will begin to ramp the rest of its portfolio on 1β across embedded, data center, client, consumer, industrial and automotive segments, including graphics memory, high-bandwidth memory and others.
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