At one time the representative of Samsung once remarked that the company had been releasing 3D NAND memory for almost a year at a loss. This is not hard to believe, since it is definitely a new type of electronic device, which requires other equipment and modified process technology, which is always expensive. Western Digital, as its executive vice president of memory technologies, Siva Sivaram, admitted in an interview with EE Times that the benefits of 3D NAND release in comparison with the production of planar flash memory begin to be seen only now. This memory for the company became 512-Gbit 64-layer chips 3D NAND TLC.
The representative of the company emphasizes that it was the memory with the recording of three bits per cell that became a cheaper alternative to the planar 15-nm NAND. At the same time, the company takes into account the initial costs for new equipment and for capacity expansion. In other words, the whole complex of measures to bring multilayer memory to the market began to pay off after the release of 64-layer 3D NAND TLC.
The company confirms that 32-layer memory never left the laboratory, and 48-layer memory appeared in a very limited number of products. But 64-layer chips will find a way to more than 50 products of Western Digital. Until the end of the current calendar year, the company expects to produce over 75% of flash memory in the form of 3D NAND chips. For example, an incomplete month ago, Western Digital announced on the 64-layer memory 3D NAND consumer drives WD Blue 3D and SSD for enthusiasts SanDisk Ultra 3D. With corporate SSDs on 64-layer memory, it's harder and harder to recognize, but in time they will also appear.
According to analysts, 3D NAND will become truly profitable for memory production somewhere by the middle of 2018. This should be regarded as from the point of view of production cost . A further increase in the number of layers is a relatively difficult exercise, since etching holes at such a depth becomes technologically difficult. Alternatively, for example, you can see the stacking of multilayer chips or the transition to alternative non-volatile memory. For example - ReRAM. The Future Will show.