Elpida Memory and Spansion today announced they have created
the industry's first charge-trapping 1.8 V, 4-gigabit SLC
(Single Level Cell) NAND Flash memory.
This NAND memory, based on Spansion's MirrorBit charge-trapping
technology, is being produced at Elpida's Hiroshima factory.
Compared to floating-gate NAND Flash memory, charge-trapping
NAND Flash memory is more scalable and has a simpler cell
structure. It offers superior performance, faster read and
faster programming speeds, the companies claim.
Yukio Sakamoto, president and chief executive officer of
Elpida, said the following:
"Elpida has obtained good chips from its first trial lot of
charge trap NAND flash memory. This result demonstrates the
high level of technical expertise of both companies. Our
preparations to manufacture our NAND flash memory as soon as
possible are well underway, which should enable us to deliver
it to customers looking forward to it soon."
"This is an important milestone in our recently announced
alliance with Elpida," said John Kispert, president and CEO of
Spansion. "The teams have made significant progress in this
development and we believe it will benefit both Elpida's and
Spansion's customers with new NAND products targeted at the
specific market segments we each serve."
Elpida plans to combine NAND flash memory with Mobile RAM to
sell mobile consumer products. In addition, Spansion is
developing NAND solutions for the embedded and select wireless
markets and continues to produce and sell its NOR flash memory
products to its customers in the automotive, consumer,
communications, industrial and select wireless market segments.
Elpida plans to start shipping samples of the 1.8 V 4-gigabit
NAND flash memory during the fourth quarter of 2010, will begin
mass production during the first quarter of 2011, and is
developing 2-gigabit and 1-gigabit density products in addition
to its 4-gigabit products. Spansion will ship samples in the
first quarter of 2011 and will begin production in the second
quarter of 2011. Both companies are also developing 3.0 V
products and plan to develop 1-gigabit, 2-gigabit, and
4-gigabit products.