SK Hynix, a latecomer in the NAND memory area, overtook Japan's Toshiba and America's Micron Technology, becoming the world's second company to launch 3D NAND mass-production.
The memory chip industry has focused on improving the capacity and performance of memory chips by promoting the miniaturization of the process.
If the circuit linewidth of a chip is reduced, the number of chips that can be produced from a sheet of wafer with a diameter of 30 centimeters increases, with the speed of electrons' movement improving. To wit, it allows the production of memory chips which can process data at a faster speed while consuming less electricity.
The processing miniaturization, however, faced technical limits several years ago, making it difficult for chip makers to make further progress. To overcome the so-called "showstopper" problem in microelectronics, chip makers developed 3D NAND. Instead of narrowing the linewidth of circuits, they attempted to improve performance and speed by building circuits in layers.
After more than 10 years of R&D efforts, Samsung Electronics developed a 24-stack model in late 2013 and launched the 48-stack one from August 2015.
Toshiba, which developed NAND memory chips first in the world, and Micron, both have failed to establish a NAND mass-production system. Against this backdrop, SK Hynix succeeded in doing so, overtaking the frontrunners in NAND production.
