Kioxia to Start Mass Production of 1Tb BiCS8 3D NAND Flash Memory in Japan This Month

TapTechNews July 4th news, Nikkei News reported that Kioxia will start the mass production of the 1Tb version of BiCS8 3D NAND flash memory at its Yokkaichi Plant in Mie Prefecture, Japan this (July) month.

The BiCS8 flash memory jointly developed by Kioxia and Western Digital was released in March 2023, with its stacking layer reaching 218 layers and introducing the CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) peripheral circuit directly bonded to the memory array technology.

This design divides the peripheral short circuit and the unit memory array into separate manufacturing on different wafers, which can provide higher bit density and faster NAND I/O speed.

In the BiCS8 flash memory, the Kioxia-Western Digital Alliance has planned several products. In addition to the first-launched 1Tb TLC and 1Tb QLC, Kioxia announced yesterday (3) that the 2Tb QLC version of BiCS8 flash memory for high-storage-density devices has also been sampled.

The Kioxia-Western Digital Alliance will further expand the flash memory production scale in the future:

The two sides have decided to invest 729 billion yen (TapTechNews note: currently about 32.871 billion RMB) to expand the wafer fab jointly operated in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture and Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture, for the production of BiCS8/9 two generations of flash memory.

The Japanese government will give subsidy support of one-third of the investment amount. The newly built capacity will start shipping in September 2025.