3-bit V NAND
Samsung Electronics announced on Oct. 9 that it has begun to mass produce the industry's first 3-bit, multi-level-cell (MLC) 3D NAND flash memory chips for use in solid state drives (SSDs) that can increase data storage efficiency by more than 50 percent.
The 3D NAND flash memory module is a second-gen 10-nanometer-class 128 Gb chip that was made by applying 3-bit technology to a second-gen V-NAND. The second-gen V-NAND started to be mass produced from last May.
The manufacturing process of the second-gen V-NAND was also used in this product, and the amount of data per cells increased from two to three. As a result, the productivity of the 3-bit V-NAND flash more than doubled compared to the existing 10nm class planar NAND flash.
In the past, the 3-bit technology was used in planar NAND flash, and it is the first time for the method to be applied to vertical NAND.
Since 2013, Samsung has been mass producing V-NAND that overcomes the limits of V-NAND micro-processing by vertically stacking cells on top of one another instead of arranging them horizontally.
In May 2014, the chip maker started to mass produce its second-gen V-NAND with a 32-layer cell array structure, an improved version of its first-gen V-NAND (24 layer cells). With the mass production of the 3-bit V-NAND, the company is likely to strengthen its grip of the global NAND flash market.
Meanwhile, Samsung announced on the same day that it will strengthen the lineup of SSDs from existing premium products for service to entry-level products for PCs to expand its share of the V-NAND market.