Contamination costs Western Digital and Kioxia 6.5 Exabytes of 3D NAND

According to Kioxia's comments, the problem has an impact on the manufacturing of the company's 3D BiCS flash, which is used in a wide range of SSDs and other products. 

The company predicts a "quick restoration to normal operation," meaning that production has been halted for the time being. Although Kioxia stated that its production capacity had been compromised, the company did not indicate how much.

Western Digital's answer provides additional details, claiming that the problem will result in a "minimum" drop of 6.5 exabytes in production as a result of the problem. Unfortunately, neither business has provided a specific timeline for when they expect to be able to resume full production. Because of the extensive cycle times associated with 3D NAND flash (two to three months are required to construct a 3D flash chip), any interruption will have an impact on the market for several months after production has resumed.

Kioxia will ship 8.5 percent of the world's SSD capacity in 2021, while Western Digital will ship 15.4 percent of the world's SSD capacity. The closures of Kioxia and Western Digital come on the heels of Samsung's recent plant closures as a result of Covid restrictions. Both of these closures could result in a shortage of NAND-based products such as SSDs and other flash memory devices in the future.