Western Digital (Kioxia) 162-Layer BiCS6 3D NAND and talks 200+ Layers

Kioxia (WD partner) is developing BiCS+ 3D NAND to allow ultra-high-capacity SSDs with proper performance. 162-Layer BiCS6 is inbound and 200+ layers in development.

The company will then introduce its 6th Generation BiCS memory, which will have 162 active layers and allow 1 Tb QLC 3D NAND devices with a 68 mm2 die footprint. These improvements will improve the performance of next-generation SSDs, especially those having PCIe 5.0 interfaces. Western Digital's die size will be smaller than competitors' die sizes because the business will shrink memory cell size by employing a new material. As a result, the company expects to offer cheaper storage devices that compete with the top SSDs in terms of performance and price. 

In late 2022 (Q2 of WDC's FY2023), mass manufacturing of BiCS6 3D NAND memory is expected. BiCS6 3D NAND chips will be employed in applications ranging from low-cost USB devices to high-capacity SSDs. Western Digital plans to offer BiCS+ memory, which was built from the bottom up for datacenter applications that demand both high capacity and great performance.

A quicker interface and/or 8/16-plane architecture for increased parallelism are claimed to deliver a 55 percent bit growth per wafer over BiCS6 and a 15% increase in program bandwidth over BiCS6 (i.e., higher write speed). BICS+ is currently scheduled for 2024.