Toshiba mass-produces 15-nm NAND flash

Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. recently began mass production of what it says is the industry's first 15-nm process technology, which will apply to 2-bit-per-cell 128-gigabit (16-Gbyte) NAND flash memories. The new technology replaces the company's second-generation 19-nm process technology, Toshiba's previous flagship process. The new chips, which include improved peripheral circuitry technology. achieve the same write speed as chips formed with the 19-nm technology, but boost the data transfer rate to 533 Mbits/s, 1.3 times faster, by employing a high-speed interface.
 
Toshiba is now applying the 15-nm process technology to 3-bit-per-cell chips, and aims to start mass production in the first quarter of this fiscal year, to June 2014. The company will develop controllers for embedded NAND flash memory in parallel and introduce 3-bit-per-cell products for smartphones and tablets, and will subsequently extend application to notebook PCs by developing a controller compliant with solid-state drives (SSDs).
 
Toshiba continues to closely follow its process technology development roadmap and will strengthen product competitiveness and performance by applying leading-edge process to production. Toshiba plans to reinforce its market leadership by promoting product innovation and development and ensuring that it can respond to a wide variety of clients' product needs, including smartphones, tablets, slim notebook PCs, and enterprise products requiring high reliability, including SSDs for data centers.