Samsung announced that it will begin mass production of their 64 layer 256 Gbit 3D TLC NAND flash, the fourth generation V-NAND.

The Samsung 64-layer 3-bit 256Gb V-NAND features a data transfer speed of 1Gbps (gigabit per second), which is the fastest among currently available NAND flash memory. Also, the V-NAND has the industry’s shortest page program time (tPROG)* of 500 microseconds (㎲) among NAND flash memory, which is about four times faster than that of a typical 10-nanometer (nm) class, planar NAND flash memory and approximately 1.5 times faster than that of Samsung’s fastest 48-layer 3-bit 256Gb V-NAND flash. With today’s ample supply of leading-edge V-NAND products, Samsung expects that the industry will now focus more on the high performance and reliability of memory storage, rather than immerse itself in a chip scaling race.

The new 64-layer 256Gb V-NAND provides more than a 30 percent productivity gain, compared to the 48-layer 256Gb V-NAND that preceded it. In addition, the 64-layer V-NAND has a 2.5V input voltage for its circuits, which leads to approximately 30 percent greater energy efficiency than the 3.3 volts that 48-layer V-NAND used. Also, the reliability of the new V-NAND cell increased by about 20 percent compared to its predecessor.

Samsung plans to raise the production ratio of 64 layer 256 Gbit 3D TLC NAND to over 50% by the end of the year. They have secured the fundamental technology that it needs in the future to produce V-NAND chips with one terabit capacity and more, by stacking over 90 layers of cell arrays.