SK hyninx announces the world’s highest 238-layer 4D NAND flash, mass production starts in H1 2023

SK hynix develops the world’s highest 238-layer 4D NAND flash memory

News Highlights

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

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

The company recently shipped samples of the 238-layer 512GB 4D Tri-Level Cell (TLC)1 NAND product to customers with a plan to start mass production in the first half of 2023. development of 176-layer NAND. produced in December 2020,” the company said. “It is noteworthy that the latest 238-layer product is the most layered and the smallest at the same time.”

The company unveiled the development of the latest product at Flash Memory Summit 20222 in Santa Clara.

“SK hynix has ensured world-leading cost, performance and quality competitiveness by introducing the 238-layer product based on its 4D NAND technologies. We will pursue innovations to find breakthroughs in technological challenges.

– said Jungdal Choi, head of NAND development at SK hynix in his keynote speech at the event.

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

The product, while reaching the highest layers of 238, is the smallest NAND in size, which means that its overall productivity has increased by 34% compared to 176-layer NAND, because more chips with higher density higher 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 over the previous generation. The amount of energy consumed for reading data has decreased by 21%, an achievement that also meets the company’s ESG commitment.

The 238-layer products will first be adopted for client SSDs that are used as storage devices for PCs, later to be provided for smartphones and high-capacity SSDs for servers. The company will also introduce 238-layer products in 1 terabit (Tb) next year, with double the density compared to the current 512 GB product.

¹ Tri-Level Cell (TLC): NAND Flash products are classified into single-level cell, multi-level cell, three-level cell, four-level cell, and four-level cell based on the number of information (unit: bit ) contained in a single cell. The fact that a cell contains more information means that more data can be stored in the same area extent.

² Flash Memory Summit (FMS): The world’s largest conference for the NAND Flash industry held annually in Santa Clara. During its keynote at the event, SK hynix made a joint announcement with Solidigm.

³ Charge Trap Flash (CTF): Unlike floating gate, which stores electrical charges in conductors, CTF stores electrical charges in insulators, eliminating 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 circuitry below the cell array.