Exhibition & Conference / Samsung Electronics Four new innovations insure Samsung a strong base from which to branch out On September 11 of this year, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced three new developments. Hwang Chang-gyu, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor department, announced a new kind of memory termed Phase-change Random Access Memory (PRAM); a highperformance NAND-on-chip hybrid disk drive; and a smaller, faster, and higher capacity flash memory design. Additionally, later the same month Samsung declared its intention to enter the non-memory chip market in competition with such well-known companies as Intel and AMD. Phase-changing random access Phase-change Random Access Memory, or PRAM, is expected to be the main memory device to replace highdensity NOR flash within the next ten years. The company unveiled the 512MMegabit (Mb) device at its sixth annual press conference in Seoul. More scalable than any other memory architecture being researched, PRAM features the fast processing speed of RAM for its operating functions combined with the non-volatile features of flash memory for storage. Samsung has given it the nickname of perfect RAM. Representatives from Samsung state that a key advantage in PRAM is its extremely fast performance. Because PRAM is said to be able to rewrite data without having to first erase previously accumulated data, it is approximately 30 times faster than conventional flash memory. PRAM is also expected to have at least 10 times the life span of flash memory. Samsung's new PRAM was developed by adopting the use of vertical diodes with the three-dimensional transistor structure that it now uses to produce DRAM. The new PRAM has the smallest 0.0467um2 cell size of any working memory that is free of inter-cell noise, allowing virtually unlimited scalability. Adoption of PRAM is expected to be especially popular in the future designs of multi-function handsets and for other mobile applications, where faster speeds translate into immediately noticeable boosts in performance. High-density versions will be produced first, starting with 512 Mb. PRAM will be a highly competitive choice over NOR flash, available beginning sometime in 2008. Samsung designed the cell size of its PRAM to be only half the size of NOR flash. Moreover, it requires 20 percent fewer process steps to produce than those used in the manufacturing of NOR flash memory. High performance hybrids The second advance announced by Samsung is a new system-on-chip (SoC) solution for its hybrid drive. In this new solution, Samsung's new SoC supports up to 4Gb flash memory as a data buffer. It maximizes the disk spindle down mode and reduces power consumption levels up to 80 percent compared with the conventional hard disk drive and improves drive reliability. It also supports the initial boot from the OneNAND, reducing the overall boot time by over 10 seconds. Samsung's SoC solution for the hybrid drive incorporates a high-speed serial ATA interface with native command queuing, an HDD controller, a SDRAM controller, a OneNAND controller, and Agere read channel into a single piece of silicon. The SoC solution also includes a dual CPU core (ARM7 and ARM9) embedded to enable independent operation of the memory, HDD, and motor. The hybrid drive solutions Samsung developed are collaborated efforts of each business division: Memory, System LSI and Storage. The company plans to release the SoC in November. 40-nanometer charge trap The third announcement from Samsung this month is that it has developed the industry's first 40-nanometer (nm) memory device. The new 32 Gigabit (Gb) NAND flash device is the first memory to incorporate a Charge Trap Flash (CTF) architecture, a revolutionary new approach to further increase manufacturing efficiency while greatly improving performance. The new CTF-based NAND flash memory increases the reliability of the memory by sharply reducing inter-cell noise levels. Its surprisingly simple structure also enables higher scalability which will eventually improve manufacturing process technology from 40 nm to 30 and even 20 nm. In each 32Gb device, the control gate in the CTF is only 20 percent as large as a conventional control gate in a typical floating gate structure. With CTF, there is no floating gate. Instead, the data is temporarily placed in a "holding chamber" of the non-conductive layer of the flash memory composed of silicon nitride (SiN). This results in a higher level of reliability and better control of the storage current. The 32Gb NAND flash memory can be used in memory cards with densities of up to 64-Gigabytes (GBs). One 64GB card can store over 64 hours of DVD resolution movies (40 movies) or 16,000 MP3 music files (1,340 hours). The CTF design is enabled through the use of a TANOS structure comprised of tantalum (metal), aluminum oxide (high k material), nitride, oxide and silicon. The use of a TANOS structure marks the first application of a metal layer coupled with a high k material to the NAND device. The TANOS CTF architecture, which serves as the foundation of the 40nm 32Gb CTF NAND flash announced today, was developed after extensive research of the Samsung Semiconductor R&D department. Samsung first revealed the TANOS structure through a paper at the 2003 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). Introduction of a 40nm manufacturing process for 32Gb NAND flash marks the seventh generation of NAND flash that follows the New Memory Growth Theory of double-density growth every 12 months, which was first presented by Dr. Chang Gyu Hwang, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor Business in a keynote address at ISSCC 2002. Large-scale integration, convergence The last announcement by Samsung Semiconductor in the month of September was plans to develop chips beyond just memory. Display Drive Intergrated circuits (DDI), the controlling chip for LCD panels on cell phones and other mobile devices is another one of the company's focuses. The company is also eyeing GPS system processors and CMOS image sensors. Finally, Samsung believes that convergence between different types of memory can serve to create a whole new blue ocean market for the company. Integrating existing products in new ways will enable the company to produce new, must-have products that could revolutionize the industry. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2005 parent company sales of US$56.7 billion and net income of US$7.5 billion. Employing approximately 128,000 people in over 120 offices in 57 countries, the company consists of five main business units: Digital Appliance Business, Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business and Telecommunication Network Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones, and TFT-LCDs.