Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Toshiba to Develop 16-Gigabit NAND Flash Memory, Co-Developed with SanDisk

Toshiba Corporation has announced the development of technology for a 16-gigabit (Gb) NAND flash memory chip fabricated with 43-nanometer (nm) process technology.

The new 16Gb products apparently have a chip area of approximately 120 square millimeters, about 30 percent less than the same-density NAND flash memories jointly developed by Toshiba and SanDisk and fabricated with 56nm process technology.

Memory cells are grouped and controlled in NAND strings of 64 cells aligned in parallel, double the number of 56nm devices, with a dummy word-line cell at either end to prevent program disturbance.

This technology contributes to reduce the number of select gates and to improve memory area efficiency. Modification of the peripheral circuit design also contributes to reduced chip
area: the addition of high voltage switches to the circuit reduces the number of control-gate driver circuits required to drive word lines, and ground buses are routed on the memory cell arrays.

Toshiba said it will start immediate shipments of commercial samples of new 16Gb (2 gigabyte) single-chip, multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memories, the current mainstream density and start mass production from March.

Toshiba intends to start mass production of 32Gb (4 gigabyte) NAND flash memories early in the third quarter of this year (July-September 2008). The new chips will be produced at Fab 4, the latest 300mm wafer fabrication facility at Toshiba’s Yokkaichi Operations, in Mie prefecture, Japan.

By combining advanced process and MLC technologies, and through continued advances in production efficiency, Toshiba intends to enhance cost competitiveness and meet the needs of the NAND flash memory market.