Tech Roadmap Update (Flash)

Introduction NAND Flash is a rapidly changing technology and market, and promises to be very interesting as the process node approaches 10 nm. At this point, physical constraints will begin to limit the performance of the basic memory cell design. As a result, looking more the two years into the future becomes a purely speculative exercise and we limit our projections to 2014. Contact us for more information: http://www.techinsights.com/company/contact-us/ 1-613-599-6500

Overall (Tech. Node @Mass-Production) Manufacturer 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 ITRS Flash Roadmap (2011 Updated Ver.) 32 nm 22 nm 20 nm 18 nm 16 nm 35 nm 27 nm 21 nm (1) (MLC, TLC) 16 nm (7,8) (eMMC 4.5) 16 nm (8) (@China) 3D: TCAT 34 nm 25 nm 20 nm (6) (MLC, HKMG) 20 nm (4) (TLC) 18 nm (8) N/A 43 nm 24 nm 19 nm (MLC, TLC) 2D: 1Y nm (256 Gb) (3,5) 3D: BiCS (128 Gb, 32 layers, PTS) (3) 2D: 1Z nm (512 Gb) 3D: BiCS (256Gb, 32 layers, ES) (3) 46 nm 26 nm 20 nm (2) (MLC) 15 nm (8,9) (MLC)

ITRS Tech. Roadmap (2011 Updated ver.) Source: ITRS

Overall (Tech. Node @Mass-Production) Source: Chinamarket.com

Overall (Current Mass-Production Situation) Source: Chinamarket.com

Overall (Current Mass-Production Situation) Source: Micron, Aug. 2012

Samsung _ I In 2009, Samsung described its 3D NAND technology based on a terabit cell array transistor (TCAT). A year later, Macronix talked about a BE-SONOS charge-trapping technology. And Hynix is developing a 3D dual control-gate with a surrounding floating-gate. http://semimd.com/blog/2012/08/16/what%E2%80%99s-after-nand-flash/

Samsung _ II Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. offered up some exciting news today, revealing that it had started production of 10 nm-class (10-19 nm) NAND for eMMC, taking mobile storage to new levels of "tiny". The new 64 GB NAND Flash storage chips, which are built on the eMMC 4.5 standard, which Samsung basically wrote itself, offer random writes of 2,000 IOPS (input-output operations per second), random reads of 5,000 IOPS, sequential reads at 260 MB/s, and sequential write speeds of 50 MB/s. Those stats are about 30 percent up from the first-generation eMMC 4.5 devices (mature 20 nm product). More good news for Samsung is that it was able to repurpose its 20 nm lines to produce the 10 nm-class chips.  It says the process compatibility is expected to increase its manufacturing yields around 30 percent. http://www.dailytech.com/Samsung+Starts+Production+of+10+nmClass+Tablet+Smartphone+Flash+Chips/article29202.htm

Samsung _ III Source: Nikkei BP, 2011

IMFT (Micron/Intel) _ I SandForce's controllers have fairly broad compatibility with NAND available on the market today. It shouldn't be a surprise that the first demo we saw of Toshiba's 19nm and Intel/Micron's 20nm NAND was at the SandForce/LSI suite in the Grand Hyatt in Taipei. Even though 19nm/20nm 64Gbit devices aren't very different from their predecessors, they still require custom firmware support for many reasons including dealing with different program times. Intel and Micron have told us that they expect similar endurance from their 20nm NAND as we currently see with their 25nm offerings.  The demo we saw was a simple Iometer test on both platforms. SandForce built SF-2000 drives using NAND from Intel, Micron and Toshiba. The Intel part number hasn't changed much from the 25nm generation. The table below highlights the differences: The last F actually indicates that we're looking at a 20nm part, while the 3 actually refers to generation which seems to have been incremented along with the process node identifier. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5960/sandforce-demos-19nm-toshiba-20nm-imft-nand-flash

NAND Flash Roadmap

Toshiba/Sandisk _ I The 3D NAND industry emerged in 2007, when Toshiba unveiled its Bit Cost Scalable (BiCS) technology. BiCs makes use of a “punch-and plug” structure and charge trap memory films. Toshiba has fabricated a prototype 32-Gbit BiCS flash memory test array with a 16-layer memory cell using 60nm design rules. http://semimd.com/blog/2012/08/16/what%E2%80%99s-after-nand-flash/ Toshiba plans to ship 128-Gbit or 256-Gbit prototype samples (PTSes) in 2013 and engineering samples (ESes) in 2014 and start volume production in 2015. The company intends to realize a 512-Gbit product in 2015 and continue the development in the aim of realizing 1 Tbit or higher capacity. At the same time, Toshiba will scale down its process technology for NAND flash memories having a two-dimensional structure, planning to ship samples of 1Ynm products in 2012 and 1Znm products in 2013. http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20120713/228338/

Toshiba/Sandisk _ II http://savolainen.wordpress.com/

Toshiba/Sandisk _ III http://savolainen.wordpress.com/

Toshiba/Sandisk _ III Source: Nikkei BP, 2011

SK-Hynix _ I SK-Hynix takes NAND to 15-nm While many experts have expressed doubts about the ability of flash memory to scale and indicated the need for an alternative non-volatile memory technology, SK-Hynix has just gone ahead and produced a 15-nm NAND flash memory cell which it plans to unveil at this year's International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4227389/Hynix-NAND-flash-memory-IEDM

SK-Hynix _ II MLC NAND Mass-Products (Schedule) Source: SK-Hynix

Glossary BiCS- pipe-shaped Bit Cost Scalable flash. A 3D NAND cell being developed by Toshiba. eMMC- Embedded Multimedia Card. A 1997 standard combining NAND Flash and Controller. HKMG- High K Metal Gate. An advance technology designed to replace silicon dioxide and at small process nodes. ITRS- International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. MLC- Multilevel Cell. A NAND memory cell that stores more than one bit of information. TCAT- Terabit Array Transistor. A 3D NAND cell architecture. TLC- Triple Level Cell. A NAND memory cell that stores three bits of information.

Sources http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage/display/20120925215333_Samsung_Reveals_Solid_State_Drives_Based_on_21nm_NAND_Flash_Memory.html http://en.chinaflashmarket.com/Uploads/file/2012%20NAND%20Flash%20market%20annual%20report.pdf http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20120713/228338/ http://www.eetimes.com/design/memory-design/4407053/Micron-launches-128-Gbit-NAND-flash http://savolainen.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/nand-technology-roadmap/ http://www.techspot.com/news/50643-intel-begins-shipping-335-series-ssds-with-20nm-mlc-nand.html http://www.dailytech.com/Samsung+Starts+Production+of+10+nmClass+Tablet+Smartphone+Flash+Chips/article29202.htm www.chinaflashmarket.com http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4227389/Hynix-NAND-flash-memory-IEDM