New 20 nm NAND from Intel and Micron provides unprecedented storage density. The industry’s first monolithic 128 Gb part can store 1 TB of data in a single fingertip-size package with just eight die—a new storage benchmark that meets the ongoing demand for slim, sleek products. Image: Intel Corporation |
Intel Corporation and Micron Technology Inc.
announced a new benchmark in NAND flash technology—the world’s first 20 nm, 128
Gb, multilevel-cell (MLC) device. The companies also announced mass production
of their 64 Gb 20 nm NAND, which further extends the companies’ leadership in
NAND process technology.
Developed through Intel and Micron’s
joint-development venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), the new 20 nm
monolithic 128 Gb device is the first in the industry to enable a terabit (Tb)
of data storage in a fingertip-size package by using just eight die. It also
provides twice the storage capacity and performance of the companies’ existing
20 nm 64 Gb NAND device. The 128 Gb device meets the high-speed ONFI 3.0
specification to achieve speeds of 333 megatransfers per second (MT/s),
providing customers with a more cost-effective solid-state storage solution for
today’s slim, sleek product designs, including tablets, smartphones, and
high-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs.)
“As portable devices get smaller and sleeker,
and server demands increase, our customers look to Micron for innovative new
storage technologies and system solutions that meet these challenges,”
says Glen Hawk, vice president of Micron’s NAND Solutions Group. “Our
collaboration with Intel continues to deliver leading NAND technologies and
expertise that are critical to building those systems.”
The companies also revealed that the key to their
success with 20 nm process technology is due to an innovative new cell structure
that enables more aggressive cell scaling than conventional architectures.
Their 20 nm NAND uses a planar cell structure—the first in the industry—to
overcome the inherent difficulties that accompany advanced process technology,
enabling performance and reliability on par with the previous generation. The
planar cell structure successfully breaks the scaling constraints of the
standard NAND floating gate cell by integrating the first Hi-K/metal gate stack
on NAND production.
“It is gratifying to see the continued NAND
leadership from the Intel-Micron joint development with yet more firsts as our
manufacturing teams deliver these high-density, low-cost, compute-quality 20 nm
NAND devices,” says Rob Crooke, Intel vice president and general manager
of Intel’s Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group. “Through the utilization
of planar cell structure and Hi-K/Metal gate stack, IMFT continues to advance
the technological capabilities of our NAND flash memory solutions to enable
exciting new products, services, and form factors.”
The demand for high-capacity NAND flash devices is
driven by three interconnected market trends: data storage growth, the shift to
the cloud and the proliferation of portable devices. As digital content
continues to grow, users expect that data to be available across a multitude of
devices, all synchronized via the cloud. To effectively stream data, servers
require high-performance, high-capacity storage that NAND delivers, and storage
in mobile devices has consistently grown with increased access to data.
High-definition video is one example of an application that requires
high-capacity storage, since attempting to stream this type of data can create
a poor user experience. These developments create great opportunities for
high-performance, small-footprint storage, both in the mobile devices that
consume the content and the storage servers that deliver it.
Intel and Micron noted that the December
production ramp of their 20 nm 64 Gb NAND flash product will enable a rapid
transition to the 128 Gb device in 2012. Samples of the 128 Gb device will be
available in January, closely followed by mass production in the first half of
2012. Achievement of this milestone will further enable greater densities and
overall fab output, while also helping the companies’ development teams
cultivate the expertise required to design complex storage solutions and refine
future technologies.