China’s top chip firm steps closer to NAND flash lead
Yangtze Memory Technologies Company (YMTC), China’s top memory chip maker, has taken another step to becoming a global leader in its semiconductor market segment, according to TechInsights’ latest Disruptive Event report, amid the US government’s recent actions to hold back advanced integrated circuit development on the mainland.
That conclusion was reached by TechInsights, a Canadian semiconductor and microelectronics intelligence provider, after it found that YMTC has introduced “the first 200+ layer 3D NAND Flash available on the market”, before the industry’s leading memory chip makers Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology.
“At their current rate of innovation, YMTC is poised to be the uncontested global NAND Flash technology leader before 2030,” TechInsights said in the report published this week.
NAND Flash is a type of non-volatile storage technology that can retain data without power, which has made it ideal for electronics devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptop computers and solid-state drives (SSDs).
Proof of YMTC’s latest NAND Flash innovation, described in the report as Xtacking 3.0, was found in November by TechInsights, which performed reverse engineering analysis on a 2-terabyte SSD from Chinese surveillance camera maker Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology.
Founded in 2016, YMTC was credited in the report for producing “a 232-layer NAND Flash, ahead of its rivals”. This advanced technology makes the Chinese firm a “serious contender” that is “closing in on the global memory giants”, despite Covid-19 lockdowns in China, geopolitical challenges and US trade sanctions.
The advantages of YMTC’s accomplishment include greater storage and shortened development through its Xtacking system. “In YMTC’s Xtacking, the memory array is flipped and bonded to the CMOS [complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor transistor],” the report said.
“This approach, YMTC claims, reduces product development time by at least three months, and shortens the manufacturing cycle time by 20 per cent.”
In YMTC’s Xtacking, the memory array is flipped and bonded to the CMOS
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YMTC declined to comment. The company has not officially released its 232-layer memory chip. Despite its achievements, “YMTC still faces an uphill battle” because recent actions by Washington could significantly impact the company’s “ability to produce devices at scale, and to progress quickly to the next generation”, the report said.
The US curbs and the risk of being put under Washington’s trade blacklist reflects the major challenges faced by YMTC, which was reportedly dropped by Apple as a memory chip supplier.