Samsung aims to produce ‘more than a thousand layers’ nand memory by 2030
Samsung wants to be able to produce nand memory with more than a thousand layers by 2030. This should theoretically make it possible to supply more affordable SSDs with larger capacities. In 2024, the company will begin mass production with its ninth generation nand memory.
Samsung claims at its Tech Day 2022 event that by 2030 it should be possible to produce NAND memory with ‘more than a thousand layers’, which can be used in SSDs. The manufacturer does not yet share any technical details about this nand memory.
The company writes that it will continue to drive “the need for faster, higher-capacity memory” by accelerating the transition to qlc-nand. With qlc-nand, a maximum of four bits can be stored per cell, compared to, for example, tlc-nand, which offers space for three bits per cell. This allows for a higher memory density, but comes at the cost of speed. Qlc-nand also wears out faster than nand memory with fewer bits per cell.
It is the first time that a manufacturer is promising NAND memory with a thousand layers. Memory manufacturer Micron .’s roadmap runs up to 500 layers and Sk Hynix spoke in 2019 about 800 layer nand memory by 2030. In theory, increasing the number of layers means manufacturers can extract more memory from a wafer. This reduces costs and users can expect cheaper and faster SSDs with more storage space in the future.
Sk Hynix and Micron previously announced that they are working on memory chips with 238 and 232 layers respectively. Samsung released its eighth generation 3D V-Nand memory earlier this year, also with more than 200 memory layers. This enabled the company to deliver a memory density of 512Gbit per chip. The tech giant will also announce during its event that the company will come with 1Tbit tlc nand chips later this year. The company also announced that mass production of Samsung’s ninth-generation 3D V-Nand will begin in 2024, but the company is not yet sharing concrete details about that memory type.