• 1c node, 6th generation of 10nm process, developed in most efficient way by applying platform of industry-leading 1b technology
• Cost competitiveness improved with adoption of new material, optimization of EUV process, while power efficiency enhanced to help reduce electricity cost of data centers by 30% maximum
• Mass production expected to be ready this year for volume shipment in 2025
• Application of 1c node to leading-edge DRAM products to bring differentiated values to customers

Seoul, August 29, 2024

SK hynix Inc. (or “the company”, www.skhynix.com) announced today that it has developed the industry’s first 16Gb DDR5 built using its 1c node, the sixth generation of the 10nm process.

The success marks the beginning of the extreme scaling to the level closer to 10nm in the memory process technology.

The degree of difficulty to advance the shrinking process of the 10nm-range DRAM technology has grown over generations, but SK hynix has become the first in the industry to overcome the technological limitations by raising the level of completion in design, thanks to its industry-leading technology of the 1b, the fifth generation of the 10nm process.

SK hynix said it will be ready for mass production of the 1c DDR5 within the year to start volume shipment next year.

In order to reduce potential errors stemming from the procedure of advancing the process and transfer the advantage of the 1b, which is widely applauded for its best performing DRAM, in the most efficient way, the company extended the platform of the 1b DRAM for development of 1c.

The new product comes with an improvement in cost competitiveness, compared with the previous generation, by adopting a new material in certain process of the extreme ultra violet, or EUV, while optimizing the EUV application process of total. SK hynix also enhanced productivity by more than 30% through technological innovation in design.

The operating speed of the 1c DDR5, expected to be adopted for high-performance data centers, is improved by 11% from the previous generation, to 8Gbps. With power efficiency also improved by more than 9%, SK hynix expects adoption of 1c DRAM to help data centers reduce the electricity cost by as much as 30% at a time when advancement of AI era is leading to an increase in power consumption.

“We are committed to providing differentiated values to customers by applying the 1c technology equipped with the best performance and cost competitiveness to our major next-generation products including HBM¹, LPDDR6², and GDDR7³,” said Head of DRAM Development Kim Jonghwan. “We will continue to work towards maintaining the leadership in the DRAM space and position as the most-trusted AI memory solution provider.”

¹HBM(High Bandwidth Memory): a high-value, high-performance memory that vertically interconnects multiple DRAM chips and dramatically increases data processing speed in comparison to conventional DRAM products. Since the introduction of the first HBM, the generation has shifted to HBM2, HBM2E, HBM3, HBM3E, HBM4 and HBM4E.
²LPDDR: low power DRAM for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, which aims to minimize power consumption and features low voltage operation. The latest specifications are for the 7th generation, succeeding the series that end with 1, 2, 3, 4, 4X, 5 and 5X.
³GDDR(Graphics DDR): a standard specification of graphics DRAM defined by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) and specialized for processing graphics more quickly. Its generation has shifted from GDDR3, GDDR5, GDDR5X, GDDR6 to GDDR7. With the newer generation promising faster speed and higher power efficiency, GDDR has now become one of the most popular memory chips for AI.

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
Sooyeon Lee
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

The post SK hynix Develops Industry’s First 1c DDR5 first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

SK hynix Inc. (or “the Company”, www.skhynix.com) announced that it has started this month mass production of the 8 Gigabit (Gb) *LPDDR4 mobile DRAM based on the 1anm, which is the fourth generation of the 10nm process technology.

* LPDDR4 (Low Power Double Data Rate 4): Low power DRAM for mobile devices. DDR refers to DRAM with the specifications that JEDEC standardized and the generation has advanced from one to four.

As the semiconductor industry classifies the 10nm DRAM products, naming them after the alphabets, the 1a technology is the fourth generation, following the first three generations of the 1x, 1y, and 1z. SK hynix plans to provide the latest mobile DRAM products to smartphone manufacturers from the second half of 2021.

This is the first time that SK hynix adopted the *EUV equipment for mass production after proving the stability of the cutting edge lithography technology through partial adoption for its 1ynm DRAM production.

* EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet): lithography technology that uses extreme ultraviolet

As technology migration continues to ultra-micro levels, an increasing number of semiconductor companies are adopting the EUV equipment for the photo process where circuit patterns are drawn on the wafer surfaces. Industry experts believe that a semiconductor company’s leadership in technology will depend on how it can fully take advantage of the EUV equipment. SK hynix plans to use the EUV technology for production of all its 1anm DRAM products going forward as it has proved the stability of the process.

SK hynix expects the new technology to bring an improvement in productivity, and further boost cost competitiveness. The company expects the 1anm technology to lead to a 25% increase in the number of DRAM chips produced from the same size of a wafer, compared with the previous 1znm node. SK hynix anticipates that the 1anm DRAM will also likely help alleviate the supply and demand conditions of the global markets following an increase in DRAM demand globally.

The new product stably runs 4266Mbps, the fastest transfer rate in a standard LPDDR4 mobile DRAM specification, and has reduced power consumption by 20%. It is a meaningful accomplishment for SK hynix as it aims to reduce carbon dioxide emission as part of its commitment to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) management.

SK hynix will apply its 1anm technology to its DDR5 products, the world’s first next-generation DRAM launched in October 2020, from early next year.

Cho Youngmann, Vice President at SK hynix, said that “With improved productivity and cost competitiveness, the latest 1anm DRAM will not only help secure high profitability, but also solidify SK hynix’s status as a leading technology company with early adoption of the EUV lithography technology for mass production.”

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About SK hynix Inc.

SK hynix Inc., headquartered in Icheon, South 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 Luxemburg 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
Jaehwan Kevin Kim
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

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

Technical Leader
Eun Suk Yixi Lee
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

The post SK hynix Starts Mass Production of 1anm DRAM Using EUV Equipment first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

“Moore’s Law is dead” – Semiconductor scaling hits a dead end

In semiconductor scaling, existing ‘multi-patterning’ is now unavailable courtesy of argon fluoride (ArF) lithography technology exposing its limitations on the newly adopted 10nm scale. In the semiconductor industry, ‘Moore’s Law’ stated that chip density doubles every 24 months. It held strong for a while but now faces its end due to the higher difficulty of photolithography processing.

Semiconductor production requires a photolithography process in which a thin yet powerful laser beam prints meticulous micro-circuit patterns onto a wafer, similar to how a photo is printed–which is why it is called ‘photo.’ ‘Photolithography’ is a technology which transfers and copies the shadows created by lighting a ‘mask’, or an original glass plate with metal patterns of the desired circuit design. This is one of the most crucial steps of the entire manufacturing process as these patterns are imprinted onto the wafer, with the accuracy of the circuit’s design ultimately determining its competitiveness in the market.

‘Scaling’ represents the industry’s supreme task, shortening the gate length within a transistor on a semiconductor circuit. The gate acts like a bridge between a source and a drain, controlling the flow of the current. Thus, as the gate length decreases, the amount of electron movement from a source to a drain increases accordingly, which in turn accelerates the circuit’s operating speed.

Semiconductor lithography equipment has seen many advances over the years, adopting a large lens with high numeral aperture (NA) or using short wavelength light as the light source. However, as gate length decreases below 30nm, the patterning ability of existing liquid immersion ArF lithography equipment reaches its limit. Whilst a multi-patterning method was applied for DRAMs of up to 18nm, this created additional processing stages and prompted productivity loss and increased material costs, which all resulted in escalating production costs. As the number of processing steps reached nearly 500 to 600, the only solution was painting minute circuit patterns with a ‘thinner brush,’ via the application of even shorter wavelength light.

Pioneering EUV technology could lead the way

Accordingly, the semiconductor industry has been preparing for new semiconductor lithography under the name EUV to enable 10nm-class scale processes. Dutch company ASML has a monopoly on EUV equipment and each unit costs between about USD 81 million and USD 122 million. By utilizing the light of a 13.5nm wavelength, much shorter than existing ArF wavelength of 193nm, EUV allows much finer semiconductor circuit patterns without multi-patterning. Through this, the number of processing steps is reduced and thus manufacturing time shorter than current multi-patterning, such as Quadruple Patterning Technique (QPT), giving EUV pioneering status as the only breakthrough to date.

However, applying EUV to chips like DRAMs is a challenging process requiring the most advanced technology around. For this reason, the industry is keeping a close eye on the yield of the DRAMs that are mass-produced by EUV for the first time. Regarding DRAMs, it is expected that EUV will be partially used in 2020 in manufacturing chips of 1ynm or smaller.

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Resolving technological challenges in EUV processing is the key

Resolving the technological challenges of EUV processing is vital for the future of the industry. EUV has a unique characteristic of being absorbed by nearly every matter, even gases. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new technologies first over the whole range of lithography process, including a new mask, photoresist, and optical systems. It is crucial to manufacture masks with no defects and to ensure developing new mask test equipment as well.

Increasing the number of wafers produced per hour is another important challenge. In 2018, ASML achieved a wafer per hour (WPH) of more than 125 and is aiming to break the 155 mark in 2020. In terms of light source output, it is known that DRAM manufacturers’ tests results showed up to 250W. Semiconductor manufacturers which started developing EUV processes with equipment bought from ASML are now at developing and testing the overall equipment. The industry is conducting research on high-NA processes of 0.55NA as the next-generation of lithography technology, beyond the 0.33NA currently being developed.

“For the successful mass-production of EUV lithography technology, securing technologies to manufacture EUV masks that assure zero defects, as well as hardware within lithography equipment, light sources and pellicle, is essential,” said an official from the semiconductor industry. “Research on a variety of technologies that test for defects within EUV masks is currently ongoing. For improved resolution, utilizing the light source of shorter wavelengths and securing higher NA are crucial.”

The post EUV Technological Innovation Shapes the Future of Semiconductors first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.