Sandisk shrinking flash

SANDISK HAS announced some serious-looking breakthroughs in NAND Flash memory manufacturing, at ISSCC.

The company, along with its long-standing co-developement partner Toshiba, announced it is moving production of its NAND flash memory chips to a 32nm process technology.

This will allow the partnership to manufacture 32Gb (gigabit), 3-bits-per-cell (X3) memory chips which will be smaller and cheaper to produce than the current 43nm output. Production is expected to begin in the second half of 2009

This development comes just 18 months after the introduction of the first generation of 3-bits-per-cell chips on 56nm wafers, once again proving that Moore geezer knew his onions. The new 32nm process will produce the smallest NAND flash memory dies reported so far and will have obvious implications for memory-hungry and power-reliant gadgets like mobile phones and increasingly diminutive netbooks.

Secondly, as Sylvie had reported earlier, Sandisk is tooting another improvement in cell manufacturing, with 4-bits-per-cell (X4) done at the current 43nm node. Automagically, Sandisk can output 33 per cent more capacity on the same wafer, or 64Gb ever-so-slightly bigger cells than the current crop.

So, flank on the left with 32nm X3 cells and on the right with 43nm X4.

The competition should have reason to worry. µ