Chip maker uses a new design for a popular memory chip.

September 11, 2006

Samsung has developed a 32-gigabit NAND flash memory chip by using new materials and changing its design, the company said Monday.

The world’s largest memory chip maker showed off its latest engineering feat to also illustrate its product development plan in the next few years. The 32 Gb chip is coming out of the lab and won’t be mass-produced until 2008, the company said.

NAND’s popularity has risen with the explosive growth of digital cameras and digital music players in recent years.

Samsung engineers used a new design they call charge trap flash (CTF) to improve the control of electrical current running through the transistors. There is no floating gate in the CTF design. A nonconductive layer of silicon nitride is used to control the flow instead.

The Korea chip maker is also using new materials to make the 32 Gb chip, which for the first time uses a high-k dielectric material to minimize current leakage. The new materials, which formed a structure Samsung calls TANOS, are made of tantalum, aluminum oxide (high-k), nitride, oxide, and silicon.

When the 32-Gb chip arrives on the market, it will make it possible for Samsung to produce 64-gigabyte memory cards, which can store 64 hours of DVD video content, or 16,000 songs.

Samsung plans to use the 40 nanometer process to produce the chip and stay ahead of the competition. Because the NAND market is hot, Samsung is facing more challenges from newcomers and old foes alike, including IM Flash Technologies, an Intel-Micron Technology joint venture that began shipping chips this year.

Earlier this year, Toshiba beat Samsung in getting its 8 Gb chips to the market. Samsung began mass-producing the 8 Gb chips in July.