SK hynix’s 1c “6th Gen 10nm” Node Leveraged By 16Gb DDR5 & Headed To LPDDR6, HBM & GDDR7

SK hynix has developed the world's first DDR5 memory with the 1c "6th Gen 10nm" node & will also bring it to HBM, LPDDR6 & GDDR7 products.

Press Release: SK hynix Inc. announced today that it had developed the industry’s first 16Gb DDR5 built using its 1c node, the sixth generation of the 10nm process. The success marks the beginning of the extreme scaling to the level closer to 10nm in the memory process technology.

The degree of difficulty in advancing the shrinking process of the 10nm-range DRAM technology has grown over generations, but SK hynix has become the first in the industry to overcome the technological limitations by raising the level of completion in design, thanks to its industry-leading technology of the 1b, the fifth generation of the 10nm process.

“We are committed to providing differentiated values to customers by applying the 1c technology equipped with the best performance and cost competitiveness to our major next-generation products including HBM, LPDDR6, and GDDR7,” said Head of DRAM Development Kim Jonghwan. “We will continue to work towards maintaining the leadership in the DRAM space and position as the most-trusted AI memory solution provider.”

SK hynix said it will be ready for mass production of the 1c DDR5 within the year to start volume shipment next year. To reduce potential errors stemming from the procedure of advancing the process and transfer the advantage of the 1b, which is widely applauded for its best-performing DRAM, most efficiently, the company extended the platform of the 1b DRAM for the development of 1c.

The new product comes with an improvement in cost competitiveness, compared with the previous generation, by adopting a new material in a certain process of extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, while optimizing the EUV application process of the total. SK hynix also enhanced productivity by more than 30% through technological innovation in design.

The operating speed of the 1c DDR5, expected to be adopted for high-performance data centers, is improved by 11% from the previous generation to 8Gbps. With power efficiency also improved by more than 9%, SK hynix expects the adoption of 1c DRAM to help data centers reduce electricity costs by as much as 30% at a time when the advancement of the AI era is leading to an increase in power consumption.