Kioxia and Western Digital into 218-Layer 3D Flash Memory

Kioxia Corporation and Western Digital Corp. announced details of their newest 3D flash memory technology.

Applying advanced scaling and wafer bonding technologies, the 3D flash memory delivers high capacity, performance and reliability at a compelling cost, which makes it for meeting the needs of data growth across a range of market segments.

“The new 3D flash memory demonstrates the benefits of our strong partnership with Kioxia and our combined innovation leadership,” said Alper Ilkbahar, SVP, technology and strategy, WD. “By working with one common R&D roadmap and continued investment in R&D, we have been able to productize this fundamental technology ahead of schedule and deliver high-performance, capital-efficient solutions.”

The 2 companies reduced the cost by introducing several unique processes and architectures, enabling continued lateral scaling advancements. This balance between vertical and lateral scaling produces greater capacity in a smaller die with fewer layers at an optimized cost. The firms also developed CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, wherein each CMOS wafer and cell array wafer are manufactured separately in its optimized condition and then bonded together to deliver enhanced bit density and fast NAND I/O speed.

“Through our unique engineering partnership, we have successfully launched the 8-Gen BiCS FLASH with the industry’s highest ⁽¹⁾ bit density,” said Masaki Momodomi, CTO, Kioxia. “I am pleased that Kioxia’s sample shipments for limited customers have started. By applying CBA technology and scaling innovations, we’ve advanced our portfolio of 3D flash memory technologies for use in a range of data-centric applications including smartphones, IoT devices and data centers.”

The 218-layer 3D flash leverages 1Tb TLC and QLC with 4 planes and features innovative lateral shrink technology to increase bit density by over 50%. Its high-speed NAND I/O at over 3.2Gb/s, a 60% improvement over the previous gen, combined with a 20% write performance and read latency improvement, will accelerate overall performance and usability for users.