• World’s first 238-layer 512Gb TLC 4D NAND developed in July; expected to begin mass production in the first half of 2023
• Providing highest, smallest NAND product while remarkably improving productivity, data transfer speed and power efficiency
• “Will continue innovations to find breakthroughs in technological challenges”

SK hynix Inc. (or “the company”, www.skhynix.com) announced today that it has developed the industry’s highest 238-layer NAND Flash product.

The company has recently shipped samples of the 238-layer 512Gb triple level cell (TLC)¹ 4D NAND product to customers with a plan to start mass production in the first half of 2023. “The latest achievement follows development of the 176-layer NAND product in December 2020,” the company stated. “It is notable that the latest 238-layer product is most layered and smallest in area at the same time.”

The company unveiled development of the latest product at the Flash Memory Summit 2022² in Santa Clara. “SK hynix secured global top-tier competitiveness in perspective of cost, performance and quality by introducing the 238-layer product based on its 4D NAND technologies,” said Jungdal Choi, Head of NAND Development at SK hynix in his keynote speech during the event. “We will continue innovations to find breakthroughs in technological challenges.”

Since development of the 96-layer NAND product in 2018, SK hynix has introduced a series of 4D products that outperform existing 3D products. The company has applied charge trap flash³ and peri under cell⁴ technologies to make chips with 4D structures. 4D products have a smaller cell area per unit compared with 3D, leading to higher production efficiency.

The product, while achieving highest layers of 238, is the smallest NAND in size, meaning its overall productivity has increased by 34% compared with the 176-layer NAND, as more chips with higher density per unit area can be produced from each wafer.

The data-transfer speed of the 238-layer product is 2.4Gb per second, a 50% increase from the previous generation. The volume of the energy consumed for data reading has decreased by 21%, an achievement that also meets the company’s ESG commitment.

The 238-layer products will be first adopted for client SSDs which are used as PC storage devices, before being provided for smartphones and high-capacity SSDs for servers later. The company will also introduce 238-layer products in 1 Terabit (Tb) next year, with density doubled compared to the current 512Gb product.

¹Triple Level Cell (TLC): NAND Flash products are categorized into Single Level Cell, Multi Level Cell, Triple Level Cell, Quadruple Level Cell and Penta Level Cell depending on the number of information (unit: bit) contained in a single cell. That a cell contains more information means more data can be stored within the same extent of area.

²Flash Memory Summit (FMS): The world’s biggest conference for NAND Flash industry taking place in Santa Clara every year. During its keynote speech at the event SK hynix made a joint announcement with Solidigm.

³Charge Trap Flash (CTF): Unlike floating gate, which stores electric charges in conductors, CTF stores electric charges in insulators, which eliminates interference between cells, improving read and write performance while reducing cell area per unit compared to floating gate technology.

⁴ Peri. Under Cell (PUC): A technology that maximizes production efficiency by placing peripheral circuits under the cell array.

About SK hynix Inc.

SK hynix Inc., headquartered in Korea, is the world’s top tier semiconductor supplier offering Dynamic Random Access Memory chips (“DRAM”), flash memory chips (“NAND flash”) and CMOS Image Sensors (“CIS”) for a wide range of distinguished customers globally. The Company’s shares are traded on the Korea Exchange, and the Global Depository shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Further information about SK hynix is available at www.skhynix.com, news.skhynix.com.

Media Contact

SK hynix Inc.
Global Public Relations

Technical Leader
Kanga Kong
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

Technical Leader
Jaehwan Kevin Kim
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

The post SK hynix Develops World’s Highest 238-Layer 4D NAND Flash first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

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Seoul, November 4, 2018

SK hynix Inc. (or ‘the Company’, www.skhynix.com) launched the world’s first 96-Layer 512Gb (Gigabit) ‘CTF based 4D (Four-Dimensional) NAND Flash (4D NAND)’ based on its TLC (Triple-Level Cell) arrays, using 3D CTF (Charge Trap Flash) design paired with the PUC (Peri. Under Cell) technology. The Company will start the early stage of mass production of the 96-Layer 4D NAND within this year. A single 512Gb NAND Flash chip can represent 64GB (Gigabytes) storage.

SK hynix combined its 3D CTF with PUC for the first time in the industry, which is different from the way of integrating 3D Floating Gate and PUC. As a result, it attained the industry’s finest performance and productivity. The Company named the product ‘CTF-based 4D NAND Flash’ to distinguish it from current 3D NAND Flash technologies.

The 4D NAND chip reduces more than 30% of chip size and increases bit productivity per wafer by 49% compared to the Company’s 72-Layer 512Gb 3D NAND. Moreover, the product has 30% higher write and 25% higher read performance. Also, its data bandwidth is doubled to the industry’s biggest 64KB (Kilobytes). With the introduction of a multiple gate insulators architecture, its data I/O (Input Output) speed reaches 1,200Mbps (Megabits/sec) at 1.2V (Volt) of operation power.

In August, SK hynix already announced that it would enhance the solution market competence with various 4D NAND applications at FMS(Flash Memory Summit) 2018 held in Santa Clara, CA.

Above all, with the 96-Layer 512Gb 4D NAND, SK hynix will introduce 1TB (Terabyte) client SSDs equipped with the Company’s own controllers and firmware within this year. Plus, the enterprise SSDs will be introduced in the second half of 2019. SK hynix will also respond to the high density mobile market with the introduction of UFS (Universal Flash Storage) 3.0 in the first half of 2019. Furthermore, the Company will roll out ultra-high density 96-Layer 1Tb (Terabit) TLC and QLC (Quad-Level Cell) in 2019.

“This 96-Layer CTF-based 4D NAND, with the industry’s top cost competitiveness and performance, will become a milestone in the Company’s NAND Flash business, as a platform in developing future products,” said vice president J.T. Kim, the Head of NAND Marketing. “The Company plans to start the early stage mass production of it within this year and further expand the production in M15 to actively respond to a variety of clients,” he added.

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Media Contact

SK hynix Inc.
Public Relations

Assistant Manager
Heeyoung Son
Phone: +82.31.8093.4719
E-Mail: heeyoung.son@sk.com

Assistant Manager
Hyun Kyung Olivia Lee
Phone: +82.31.8093.4771
E-Mail: hyunkyung14.lee@sk.com

The post SK hynix Inc. Launches the World’s First ‘CTF-based 4D NAND Flash’ (96-Layer 512Gb TLC) first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

SK hynix Inc. (or ‘the Company’, www.skhynix.com) today announced that the Company recently completed developing an enterprise SATA Solid State Drive (or ‘eSSD’). With its 72-Layer 512Gb (Gigabits) 3D NAND Flash chips, the Company is paving the way for its full-fledged entrance to the high value-added eSSD market.

SK hynix combined the 72-Layer 512Gb 3D NAND Flash with its in-house firmware and controller to provide the maximum density of 4TB (Terabytes). SK Hynix makes the most of its 72-Layer 512Gb 3D NAND chips to double the biggest density of the SSD of the same size with 256Gb NAND chips.

A single 4TB SSD could contain 200 UHD (Ultra-HD) movies, each of which is generally as large as approximately 20GB (Gigabytes). The new eSSD supports sequential read and write speed of up to 560MB/s (Megabytes per second) and 515MB/s, respectively, and it can perform 98,000 random read IOPS (Input/Output operations per second) and 32,000 random write IOPS. SK hynix also improved the read latency, which is of the utmost importance in eSSD performance. The Company is sampling the product to server and data center clients in the United States.

The Company also finished developing enterprise PCIe (PCI Express) SSD and is shipping samples to server and data center clients. The PCIe SSD will also use the 72-Layer 3D NAND and have a capacity of more than 1TB. The 1TB PCIe SSD operates at 2,700MB/s and 1,100MB/s of sequential read/write speed and runs random read/write performance of 230,000 IOPS and 35,000 IOPS.

“SK hynix started mass-producing Client SSD with its 3D NAND chips and in-house firmware and controller last year. Now we have expanded our SSD business portfolio with the development of eSSD,” said Jin Kang, the Head of NAND Planning and Enabling. “The Company plans to actively meet growing eSSD market demands to contribute to enhancing its profitability in NAND Flash business” he added.

According to IHS Markit, the SSD market revenue is expected to total USD 25.1 billion in 2017 and post a continuous annual growth of 5.6% to total 31.2 billion in 2021. Especially, the revenue of the enterprise SSD will lead the market growth by rising from USD 13.4 billion to 17.6 billon at a CAGR of 7% during the same period.

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Media Contact

SK hynix Inc.
Public Relations

Assistant Manager
Heeyoung Son
Phone: +82.31.8093.4719
E-Mail: heeyoung.son@sk.com

Assistant Manager
Hyun Kyung Olivia Lee
Phone: +82.31.8093.4771
E-Mail: hyunkyung14.lee@sk.com

The post SK hynix Inc. Ramps Up Enterprise SSDs with its 72-Layer 512Gb 3D NAND Flash first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.