Toshiba and SanDisk reportedly to begin sub-30nm NAND flash production in 2H10
(2x = PLAD)
Heck - and they call AMAT a value play ...those S and Pee guys
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Josephine Lien, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Monday 21 September 2009]
Toshiba and its NAND flash partner SanDisk reportedly plan to begin mass producing NAND flash chips fabricated on 20nm-class process technology in the second half of 2010, according to industry sources. In line with the technology migration, SanDisk and Toshiba's joint-venture manufacturing facilities in Yokkaichi (Mie prefecture, Japan) is expected to ramp up its monthly capacity to around 200,000 wafers.
Toshiba, which recently started mass production of 3-bit per cell (3bpc) 32nm devices, originally expected 32nm to account for over 50%of the total output from the Yokkaichi operations by the end of 2009, the sources said. But the ramp-up reportedly has been behind schedule, the sources added.
Rival group Intel and Micron Technology have said they expect to introduce 2xnm technology later in 2009, according to previous reports. Mass production of their 32Gb NAND flash memory using 3bpc 34nm process technology is on track to take place at the two companies' joint venture IM Flash Technologies.
Samsung Electronics reportedly is also stepping up efforts for the solid-state drive (SSD) market, moving to upgrade its 8-inch fab in Austin, Texas into a 12-inch fab for producing more NAND flash chips from the second half of 2010, previous reports indicated. The Korea-based chip vendor currently produces NAND flash using 42nm.
The cost structure of SSD would be significantly improved with NAND flash chips produced on 2Xnm, accelerating its replacement for hard drives, sources at memory module makers commented. |
