Korea Electronics Show 2010

'3-bit information at once...' SK Hynix Semiconductor exhibits 3-bit cell NAND flash memory

SK Hynix Semiconductor's technological prowess is also formidable. Following Samsung Electronics, the world's leading memory semiconductor manufacturer, which began production of 64Gb NAND flash memory chips with a 3-bit cell structure developed using 20nm process technology, SK Hynix Semiconductor is also producing 32Gb and 64Gb NAND flash memory chips with a 3-bit cell structure. NAND flash memory with a 3-bit cell structure can store (write) 3 bits of information in a single clock cycle, allowing it to store more information than SLC (single-level cell) structures, which consist of 1-bit units, or MLC (multi-level cell) structures, which consist of 2-bit units. The manufacturing process technology required to produce 3-bit NAND flash chips is identical to that of SLC or MLC. However, the logic circuitry embedded in these chips is slightly more complex than that of these 1-bit or 2-bit cell structures.

NAND flash chips, composed of floating gates, write or erase information by applying an operating voltage divided into 2 to the power of 3, or 8, steps to these gates in order to store 3 bits of information simultaneously. The very small unit logic circuit embedded in this chip