SK Hynix to Accelerate Next-Gen NAND Development with 400+-Layer Stacking by 2025
TapTechNews August 1st news, according to the Korean media ETNews, SK Hynix will accelerate the development of the next-generation NAND flash memory and plans to complete the mass production preparation of 400+-layer stacked NAND by the end of 2025, and officially start large-scale production in the second quarter of 2026.
SK Hynix previously demonstrated a sample of 321-layer stacked NAND flash memory in 2023 and said that this particle is planned to be mass-produced in the first half of 2025.
According to the Korean media's statement, SK Hynix will shorten the interval of the next two generations of NAND to about 1 year in the future, which is significantly shorter than the industry average level.
TapTechNews note: In terms of the generation release interval, Micron took 2 years from 232-layer NAND flash memory to 276-layer, and the interval between Samsung's V8 NAND and V9 NAND is about 1.5 years.
The Korean media also mentioned in the report that SK Hynix's new 400+-layer stacked NAND flash memory will adopt an overall structure different from the existing 4D NAND:
SK Hynix's current 4D NAND uses the PUC (PeriUnderCell, peripheral under the cell) technology, placing the peripheral control circuit under the storage unit, which can reduce the chip occupation space compared to the more traditional peripheral circuit side placement design.
And SK Hynix's future NAND will manufacture peripheral circuits and storage units on two wafers respectively, and then use the W2W (wafer-to-wafer) form of hybrid bonding technology to integrate these two parts into a complete flash memory.
In other words, SK Hynix will also adopt a structure design similar to Yangtze Memory's Xtacking and Kioxia-Western Digital CBA.
The report pointed out that SK Hynix has started to build the raw material and equipment supply chain required for NAND hybrid bonding, and is conducting a new review of hybrid bonding technology and materials; in addition Samsung Electronics is also considering applying hybrid bonding in the next-generation NAND production.