Supplying New DRAMs to AMD, Acer
Micron started mass-producing 176-layer NAND flashes for the first time in the world in November 2020.
Micron Technology, a U.S. memory semiconductor company, is ahead of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in mass-producing state-of-the-art DRAMs and NAND flashes.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra announced mass production of 1α-nm LPDDR4x DRAMs through a keynote lecture at the Computex 2021 Forum in Taiwan on June 2. Micron is currently supplying 1α-nm DRAMs to AMD and Acer. Micron's 1α-nm DRAM corresponds to Samsung Electronics’ and SK Hynix's 14-nm DRAMs. Micron is the first company in the world to mass-produce 14-nano DRAMs.
The Micron CEO also introduced a new solid state drive (SSD) based on a 176-layer 3D NAND flash on the same day. Micron started mass-producing 176-layer NAND flashes for the first time in the world in November 2020. The latest announcement means that production of the new SSD has struck its stride.
"It is difficult to directly compare Micron's technologies with those of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix due to different core processes," said an industry insider. "It is quite surprising that Micron has narrowed its technology gap with the two Korean chipmakers without an ultraviolet (EUV) lithography process."
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have yet to start mass-production of 176-layer NAND panels. SK Hynix announced in December 2020 that it completed the development of a 176-layer NAND flash. However, it has not reached the stage of mass-production yet. Although both companies said that they will be able to mass-produce 176-layer NAND flashes in the second half of 2021, industry experts believe that mass production will actually start at the end of 2021. They also expect the two Korean chipmakers’ mass-production of 14-nano DRAMs to begin at the end of 2021.
The Korean semiconductor industry is paying much attention to Micron's success in developing 14-nano DRAMs without using EUV lithography equipment, which holds the key to the refinement of semiconductor processes. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are applying EUV processes to the production of DRAMs in the lower end of the 10-nm range production. ASML of the Netherlands exclusively supplies EUV equipment, one unit of which is worth more than 200 billion won. Only TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix have EUV equipment. Micron does not use EUV equipment so it is making high-tech memories with deep ultraviolet (DUV) technology which is one generation behind compared to EUV technology.
Some experts say that Micron’s 1α-nm DRAMs and 176-layer NAND flashes have not been verified to have the same performance as products from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.