Micron Ships World’s First 232-layer NAND Technology

Micron Technology, today announced that it had started mass production of the world's first 232-layer NAND, constructed with industry-leading innovations to push outstanding performance for storage solutions. The new 232-layer NAND produces higher capacity and enhanced energy efficiency over prior eras of NAND to foster best-in-class help for the notable data-intensive use cases from client to cloud. It features the industry's loftiest area density.

Micron's 232-layer NAND is a watershed moment for storage innovation as first proof of the capability to scale 3D NAND to more than 200 layers in production. This groundbreaking technology required extensive innovation, including advanced process capabilities to create high aspect ratio structures, novel materials advancements and leading-edge design enhancements that build on our market-leading 176-layer NAND technology.

— Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of technology and products, Micron

Micron's 232-layer NAND technology provides the high-performance storage required to sustain cutting-edge solutions and real-time services needed in data center and automotive applications, as well as responsive, immersive experiences on mobile devices, consumer electronics, and consumer computer systems.

This technology node enables the introduction of the industry's fastest I/O speed — 2.4 gigabytes per second (GB/s) — to satisfy the low-latency and high-throughput demands of data-centric workloads such as AI and machine learning, unstructured databases, and real-time analytics, and cloud computing. That speed represents twice the data transfer speeds of the fastest interface enabled on Micron's 176-layer node. Micron 232-layer NAND also delivers up to 100% higher write bandwidth and more than 75% higher read bandwidth per die than the prior generation. These benefits translate to performance and energy efficiency gains in SSDs and embedded NAND solutions.

Micron's 232-layer NAND also presents the world's first six-plane TLC production. It has the most planes per die of any TLC flash and offers autonomous read capability in each plane. The high I/O speed, read and write latency, and six-plane architecture delivers best-in-class data transfers in multiple formats. This structure ensures more infrequent collisions between reading and writing commands and drives system-level QoS improvements.

Micron's 232-layer NAND is the first in production to enable NV-LPDDR4, a low-voltage interface that delivers more than 30% per-bit transfer savings compared to prior I/O interfaces. The company's 232-layer NAND solutions offer ideal support for mobile applications and deployments in the data center and at the intelligent edge that must offset improved performance with lower consumption. The interface is also backward compatible to support legacy systems and controllers.

The compact form factor of 232-layer NAND offers customers flexibility in their designs while enabling the highest TLC density per square millimeter ever produced (at 14.6 Gb/mm²). The areal density is between thirty-five and one-hundred percent higher than competing TLC products in the market currently. Shipping in a new 11.5 mm x 13.5 mm package, the new 232-layer NAND features a 28% less package size than previous generations, making it the smallest high-density NAND available. More density in a smaller footprint minimizes board space for a diverse set of deployments.

Micron has sustained technology leadership with successive first-to-market advancements in NAND layer count that enable benefits like longer battery life and more compact storage for mobile devices, better performance in cloud computing, and faster training of AI models. Our 232-layer NAND is the new foundation and standard for end-to-end storage innovation underpinning digital transformation across industries.

— Sumit Sadana, chief business officer, Micron

The development of 232-layer NAND results from Micron's leadership in research, development, and process technology advancements. The breakthrough capabilities of this NAND will enable customers to deliver more innovative solutions in data centers, thinner and lighter laptops, the latest mobile devices, and across the intelligent edge.

Micron's 232-layer NAND is now in volume production in the company's Singapore fab. It is initially shipping to customers in component form and through its Crucial SSD consumer product line. Additional product and availability announcements will follow.

News Source: Micron