Samsung Commences 9th Gen V-NAND Mass Production: 33% Faster at 3.2 Gbps, QLC In 2H 2024

Samsung has announced the mass production of its 9th Gen V-NAND flash memory which offers a 33% boost over the 8th Gen V-NAND.

The announcement was more or less expected as we reported about the commencement of the mass production for the 9th Gen V-NAND flash a few weeks back. First of all, the TCL NAND will be going into production (this month) with QLC mass production expected in the second half of the year. It is also reported that the 9thGen V-NAND will feature 290+ layers but that isn't confirmed officially by Samsung itself.

Press Release: Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass production for its one-terabit (Tb) triple-level cell (TLC) 9th-gen vertical NAND (V-NAND), solidifying its leadership in the NAND flash market.

With the industry’s smallest cell size and thinnest mold, Samsung improved the bit density of the 9th-generation V-NAND by about 50% compared to the 8th-generation V-NAND. Innovations such as cell interference avoidance and cell life extension have been applied to enhance product quality and reliability while eliminating dummy channel holes has significantly reducing the planar area of the memory cells.

In addition, Samsung’s advanced “channel hole etching” technology showcases the company’s leadership in process capabilities. This technology creates electron pathways by stacking mold layers and maximizes fabrication productivity as it enables simultaneous drilling of the industry’s highest cell layer count in a double-stack structure. As the number of cell layers increases, the ability to pierce through higher cell numbers becomes essential, demanding more sophisticated etching techniques.

The 9th-generation V-NAND is equipped with the next-generation NAND flash interface, “Toggle 5.1,” which supports increased data input/output speeds by 33% to up to 3.2 gigabits-per-second (Gbps). Along with this new interface, Samsung plans to solidify its position within the high-performance SSD market by expanding support for PCIe 5.0.

Power consumption has also been improved by 10% with advancements in low-power design, compared to the previous generation. As reducing energy usage and carbon emissions becomes vital for customers, Samsung’s 9th-generation V-NAND is expected to be an optimal solution for future applications. Samsung has started mass production for the 1Tb TLC 9th-generation V-NAND this month, followed by the quad-level cell (QLC) model in the second half of this year.