Micron Technology has announced a new breakthrough in the NAND flash memory : the US company presented the first 3D NAND flash at 176 layer , able to guarantee a density up to 10 times higher than the first 3D NAN projects D seen in past years. We are faced with a number of layers which is almost the 40% higher than the competition and a clear step forward compared to 128 layers achieved by Micron so far.

The new NAND targets the mobile sector, traditional SSDs that we see in the PC sector and servers and any other industrial sector where large storage capacity and high performance are required, such as that of 5G equipment, artificial intelligence and automotive .

Micron’s 3D NAND is the second generation of solutions the company has developed since ending its collaboration with Intel. At the base of these chips, for now of type TLC (three bits per cell) with a density of 512 Gbit , we find the technology Charge-trap , the architecture replacement gate (RG NAND) and the CMOS-under technique -array : all together these solutions create Micron’s fifth generation of 3D NAND and ensure a latency in reading and writing better than 35% with respect to NAND a 96 layer. Micron also indicates a performance increase of over 25% with respect to NAND a 128 layers and results with mixed workloads better than 15 approximately% compared to NAND-based UFS 3.1 modules a 96 layer.

I 176 layers were obtained by joining two parts (deck) from 88 layer and the new 3D NAND is able to reach 1600 megatransfer per second (MT / s) on the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) bus , an improvement of 33% compared to the previous generation ( the 3D NAND a 96 and 128 layer stopped at 1200 MT / s). The company has also simplified the development of the firmware with a single-pass programming algorithm which allows for more easy integration and accelerates the arrival of final products on the market.

In technical terms, each day a 176 layer is thick 45 micrometers, one fifth of a sheet of paper and two thirds of a human hair. the very small size, a single Micron 3D NAND die a 176 layer can archive 20 – 30 hours of HD movies, the equivalent of 10 DVD . Furthermore, Micron is able to stack 16 of these dies in a single package which is approximately the same size as a little finger tip, less than 1.5mm thick. Thanks to advanced technologies and production processes, “ i 176 layers occupy the same height as we previously inserted 64 strata , “said the US company.

One of the most important features of this memory is the Micron’s ability to create a multitude of “holes” in the layers of the 3D NAND, then filled with metal to form vertical connections between the cells. These vertical links – the company claims there are around 1 billion – are similar to elevators in a skyscraper and allow you to read, write, and erase data in cells.

3D NAND TLC a 176 layer of Micron is in volume production in the Singapore plant and is already in delivery to the first customers , also to Crucial , the consumer branch of company we know well for SSDs. Expect new announcements and products based on this new 3D NAND memory over the course of 2021.