Kioxia and Western Digital Announce 6th-Generation 3D Flash Memory
February 18 2021 - 6:00PM
Business Wire
Innovations in Scaling and CMOS Placement
Deliver the Companies’ Highest Density and Most Advanced 3D Flash
Memory Technology to Date
Kioxia Corporation and Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC),
today announced that the companies have developed their
sixth-generation, 162-layer 3D flash memory technology. Marking the
next milestone in the companies’ 20-year joint-venture partnership,
this is the companies’ highest density and most advanced 3D flash
memory technology to date, utilizing a wide range of technology and
manufacturing innovations.
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“Through our strong partnership that has spanned two decades,
Kioxia and Western Digital have successfully created unrivaled
capabilities in manufacturing and R&D,” said Masaki Momodomi,
Chief Technology Officer, Kioxia. “Together, we produce over 30
percent1 of the world’s flash memory bits and are steadfast in our
mission to provide exceptional capacity, performance and
reliability at a compelling cost. We each deliver this value
proposition across a range of data-centric applications from
personal electronics to data centers as well as emerging
applications enabled by 5G networks, artificial intelligence and
autonomous systems.”
Beyond Vertical Scaling – New Architecture Leverages New
Innovations “As Moore’s Law reaches its physical limits across
the semiconductor industry, there’s one place where Moore’s Law
continues its relevancy — that’s in flash,” said Dr. Siva Sivaram,
President of Technology & Strategy, Western Digital. “To
continue these advances and meet the world’s growing data demands,
a new approach to 3D flash memory scaling is critical. With this
new generation, Kioxia and Western Digital are introducing
innovations in vertical as well as lateral scaling to achieve
greater capacity in a smaller die with fewer layers. This
innovation ultimately delivers the performance, reliability and
cost that customers need.”
This sixth-generation 3D flash memory features advanced
architecture beyond conventional eight-stagger memory hole array
and achieves up to 10 percent greater lateral cell array density
compared to the fifth-generation technology. This lateral scaling
advancement, in combination with 162 layers of stacked vertical
memory, enables a 40 percent reduction in die size compared to the
112-layer stacking technology, optimizing cost.
The Kioxia and Western Digital teams also applied Circuit Under
Array CMOS placement and four-plane operation, which together
deliver nearly 2.4 times improvement in program performance and 10
percent improvement in read latency compared to the previous
generation. I/O performance also improves by 66 percent, enabling
the next-generation interface to support the ever-increasing need
for faster transfer rates.
Overall, the new 3D flash memory technology reduces the cost per
bit, as well as increases the manufactured bits per wafer by 70
percent, compared with the previous generation. Kioxia and Western
Digital continue to drive innovation to ensure continued scaling to
meet the needs of customers and their diverse applications.
The companies detailed the related innovations in a joint
presentation at the ISSCC 2021 show earlier today.
About Kioxia Kioxia is a world leader in memory
solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of
flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its
predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation,
the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is
committed to uplifting the world with memory by offering products,
services and systems that create choice for customers and
memory-based value for society. Kioxia's innovative 3D flash memory
technology, BiCS FLASH™, is shaping the future of storage in
high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs,
SSDs, automotive and data centers.
About Western Digital Western Digital creates
environments for data to thrive. As a leader in data
infrastructure, the company is driving the innovation needed to
help customers capture, preserve, access and transform an
ever-increasing diversity of data. Everywhere data lives, from
advanced data centers to mobile sensors to personal devices, our
industry-leading solutions deliver the possibilities of data. Our
data-centric solutions are comprised of the Western Digital®,
G-Technology™, SanDisk®, and WD® brands.
© 2021 Kioxia Corporation or its affiliates. All rights
reserved. © 2021 Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates. All
rights reserved. Western Digital and the Western Digital logo are
registered trademarks or trademarks of Western Digital Corporation
or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. All other
company names, product names, and service names may be trademarks
of their respective companies.
1 Source: As of February 18, 2021. Kioxia survey.
Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains
certain forward-looking statements, including the expected
availability, benefits and performance of the 6th-generation 3D
flash memory technology. There are a number of risks and
uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be
inaccurate including, among others: future responses to and effects
of the COVID-19 pandemic; volatility in global economic conditions;
impact of business and market conditions; impact of competitive
products and pricing; development and introduction of products
based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage
markets; risks associated with cost saving initiatives,
restructurings, acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, joint ventures
and strategic relationships; difficulties or delays in
manufacturing or other supply chain disruptions; hiring and
retention of key employees; high level of debt and other financial
obligations; changes to relationships with key customers;
disruptions in operations from cyber-attacks or other system
security risks; actions by competitors; risks associated with
compliance with changing legal and regulatory requirements and the
outcome of legal proceedings; and other risks and uncertainties
listed in Western Digital’s filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including Western Digital’s Form
10-K filed with the SEC on August 28, 2020, to which your attention
is directed. You should not place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof,
and neither Western Digital nor Kioxia undertakes any obligation to
update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent
events or circumstances.
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Kioxia Contacts: Kota Yamaji Kioxia Public Relations
81-3-6478-2319 kioxia-hd-pr@kioxia.com
Western Digital Contacts: Erin Hartin Western Digital
Public Relations 1-303-601-8035 erin.hartin@wdc.com
T. Peter Andrew Western Digital Investor Relations
1-800-695-6399 investor@wdc.com
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