Samsung Announces Industry’s First Production of 30-nm-class, 3-bit Multi-Level-Cell NAND Chips

(Auszug aus der Pressemitteilung)

Seoul, Korea, December 1, 2009 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world

leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced today that
it commenced the industry’s first volume production of 3-bit,
multi-level-cell (MLC) NAND flash chips using 30-nanometer (nm)-class
process technology at the end of November. The chips will be used in NAND
flash modules accompanied by exclusive Samsung 3-bit NAND controllers to
initially produce eight gigabyte (GB) micro Secure Digital (microSD) cards.

„Introducing cost-efficient, 30nm-class 3-bit technology widens our NAND
memory solution base to make NAND even more enticing for increasingly
diverse market applications,“ said Soo-In Cho, executive vice president and
general manager of the Memory Division at Samsung Electronics. „Our 3-bit
NAND memory will support the development of more cost-competitive,
high-density consumer electronics storage solutions,“ he added.

Three-bit MLC NAND increases the efficiency of NAND data storage by 50
percent over today’s pervasive 2-bit MLC NAND chips. Samsung’s new
30nm-class 3-bit MLC NAND will provide consumers with effective NAND-based
storage that can be applied to USB flash drives in addition to a range of
micro SD cards.

In 2005, Samsung introduced the first 50nm-class, 16Gb MLC NAND memory
device, ushering in an era of unprecedented growth for flash memory beyond
the high-performance SLC (single-level-cell) market. Mass production of
30nm 3-bit NAND is expected to significantly raise the portion of NAND
flash memory production devoted to high densities (32Gb and above),
designed to accommodate increased video usage.

Other NAND advancements, like the introduction of asynchronous double data
rate MLC NAND memory (see separate release issued a few minutes ago) are
expected to also contribute greatly to this trend.