Over the past 30 years, the DRAM market has experienced periods of rapid growth and rapid decline. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the DRAM market declined by -37%, but in 2021, it showed a sharp increase of 42%. During the DRAM growth cycle, the number of major DRAM suppliers has decreased from 20 in the mid-1990s to 6 today, and the Big 3 companies now occupy most of the overall market.

According to market research firm IC Insights on the 24th, the three major DRAM suppliers, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, accounted for approximately 94% of the DRAM market share as of 2021. Domestic companies Samsung and SK Hynix set a record by accounting for 71.3% of global DRAM sales last year, raising the status of the Korean semiconductor industry.

Samsung is the world's largest DRAM supplier, with about 44% market share and revenue of approximately $41.9 billion in 2021. Samsung has been developing its DRAM business in many ways over the past year, and was the first to use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology in March 2020. In October last year, it began mass production of 14nm EUV-based DRAMs, increasing the number of EUV layers from two to five in its most advanced 14nm DDR5 DRAM process.

Last November, Samsung announced that it had developed a 14nm 16Gb LPDDR5X DRAM using EUV technology for high-speed applications including 5G, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. The LPDDR5X DRAM is said to provide a data processing speed of up to 8.5Gbps (1.3 times faster than existing 6.4Gbps LPDDR5 devices) and consume about 20% less power than LPDDR5 memory.

Samsung also unveiled its first DRAM memory modules supporting the new CXL interconnect standard, along with 2GB GDDR6 and 2GB DDR4 automotive DRAMs designed for autonomous electric vehicles and high-performance infotainment systems.

SK Hynix, which ranked second with a DRAM market share of about 28%, recorded $26.6 billion in DRAM sales, up 39%. DRAM accounted for about 71% of total semiconductor sales in 2021. Of total DRAM sales, server DRAM accounted for 40%, mobile DRAM accounted for 35%, PC DRAM accounted for 15%, and consumer DRAM and graphic DRAM accounted for 5% each.

Last year, SK Hynix launched the industry's highest-performance DDR5 DRAM with a data speed capable of transmitting 163 full HD movies per second. The chip is called HBM3 because it is the third generation of Hynix's high-bandwidth memory.

SK Hynix, like Samsung Electronics, has also started using EUV lithography for mass production of 8Gb LPDDR4 DRAM based on the 4th generation 10nm-class process, 1-alpha (1anm).



Micron ranked third with $21.9 billion in revenue in 2021. Micron’s DRAM sales grew 41%, giving it about 23% of the global market share. DRAM accounted for about 73% of Micron’s total IC sales of $30 billion.

Last year, Micron introduced a 1anm memory node designed in part to support the data center transition to DDR5 DRAM. It was powered by a new CPU platform that is expected to ramp later this year and gain traction in 2023. Micron’s 1anm DRAM is also being used in low-power communications applications, including 5G smartphones.

Micron manufactures 1anm DRAMs using technology that does not require EUV lithography. However, it has completed receiving orders for EUV equipment and plans to transition to EUV technology to manufacture DRAMs using the 1gamma (1g) nm node starting in 2024.