EE Times: Semi News Samsung takes 16-Gbit NAND flash to 50 nm

LONDON - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has begun sampling a 50-nanometer, 16-Gbit NAND flash memory for use in solid-state disk drive applications. The memory is expected to go into volume production at some time during the first quarter of 2007, Samsung said.

Samsung did not state whether the 16-Gbit memory is monolithically integrated or made up from multiple chips in a single package, but it did say that the memory is the first NAND flash memory made using a 50 nanometer manufacturing process.

However, Samsung itself claimed to have made a 32-Gbit memory in a 40-nm process in September 2006 based on a novel high-k gate dielectric including tantalum. That claim came shortly after IM Flash Technologies LLC had claimed to have leapfrogged Samsung with a 4-Gbit NAND flash memory made using a 50-nm manufacturing process.

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