Samsung Mass Producing 128Gb 3-Bit MLC NAND Flash Chips

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has begun mass producing a 128, 3-bit MLC NAND memory chip using 10 nm-class* process technology this month.

The highly advanced chip will enable high-density memory solutions such as embedded NAND storage and SSDs.

"By introducing next-generation memory storage products like the 128Gb NAND chip, Samsung is extremely well situated to meet growing global customer needs," said Young-Hyun Jun, EVP, memory sales and marketing, device solutions division, Samsung Electronics. "The new chip is a critical product in the evolution of NAND flash, one whose timely production will enable us to increase our competitiveness in the high density memory storage market."

128Gb NAND flash is based on a 3-bit multi-level-cell design and 10nm-class process technology. It boasts the industry’s highest density as well as the highest performance level of 400Mb/s data transfer rate based on the toggle DDR 2.0 interface.

Utilizing 128Gb NAND flash memory, Samsung will expand its supply of 128GB memory cards, which can store as many as sixteen 8GB full HD video files. It now will also increase its production volume of SSDs with densities over 500GBs for wider adoption of SSDs in computer systems, while leading the transition of main storage drives in the notebook market from HDD drives to SSDs.

Demand for high-performance 3-bit MLC NAND flash and 128Gb high storage capacities has been rapidly increasing, driving the adoption of SSDs with more than 250GB storage, led by the Samsung SSD 840 Series.

Samsung started production of 10nm-class 64Gb MLC NAND flash memory in November last year, and in less than five months, has added the new 128Gb NAND flash to its range of high-density memory storage offerings. The new 128Gb chip also extends Samsung’s 3-bit NAND memory line-up along with the 20nm-class* 64Gb 3-bit NAND flash chip that Samsung introduced in 2010. Further, the new 128Gb 3-bit MLC NAND chip offers more than twice the productivity of a 20nm-class 64Gb MLC NAND chip.

* 10nm-class means a process technology node somewhere between 10 and 20nm and 20nm-class means a process technology node somewhere between 20 and 30nm.