SK hynix Develops 238-Layer 4D NAND Flash

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The company has shipped samples of the 238-layer 512Gb triple level cell (TLC) 4D NAND product to customers. It plans to start mass production in the first half of 2023. The new product is most layered and smallest in area at the same time.



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 flash and peri under cell 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.


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