Samsung prepares to launch 9th generation 280-layer V-NAND flash memory

At the upcoming ISSCC 2024 (IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference) scheduled for February 18-22 in San Francisco, Samsung is set to showcase its latest GDDR7 memory technology, achieving a remarkable speed of 37Gb/s for 16Gb modules.

As reported by TomsHardware, Samsung is gearing up to unveil products featuring its 9th generation V-NAND technology, which includes a 1Tb (128GB) QLC 3D NAND flash chip with an impressive 280 layers. This represents an advancement over the 236 layers of the 8th-generation V-NAND technology. The storage density of this new generation reaches 28.5Gb mm2, surpassing the industry’s current highest from Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), which stands at 20.62Gb mm2. Furthermore, the I/O speed has increased to 3.2 Gbps, a significant jump from the 2.4 Gbps of the previous generation.

As the world’s leading NAND flash memory supplier, Samsung has ambitious plans for the development of its V-NAND technology. Last year, Samsung announced that it would start producing the 9th generation V-NAND products in early 2024, continuing to use the dual-stack architecture with the industry’s highest number of layers. At that time, Samsung suggested that the layer count would exceed 300, higher than the current 280 layers. If feasible, Samsung might offer 16TB M.2 SSDs or single-sided 8TB products.

At ISSCC 2024, Samsung plans to showcase this 280-layer QLC 3D NAND flash memory. In addition, the company aims to present its next-generation DDR5 chips, with a frequency of 8000 MHz for 32Gbit modules, manufactured using Samsung’s fifth-generation 10nm-class process technology.