Samsung Electronics Begins DRAM Mass Production Using 60 nm-Class Technology
March 7, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. began mass producing the industry's first 1 gigabit (Gb) DDR2 dynamic random access memory (DRAM) using 60 nanometer (nm)-class process technology.
Use of the new process technology is a significant milestone in that it increases production efficiency by 40% over the 80 nm process technology deployed in DRAM fabrication since early 2006 and offers twice the productivity of 90 nm general process technology, said Samsung.
Samsung said ample market availability of 1 Gb DRAM will further increase the demand for large density DRAMs, especially as the new Vista operating system imposes a DRAM requirement of at least 1 gigabyte (GB).
Samsung's lineup of 60 nm 1 Gb DRAM-based modules includes 512 megabytes (MB), 1GB and 2 GB densities supporting either 667 Mbps or 800 Mbps speeds with customer validation.
Samsung said it anticipates such a high degree of receptivity to the 60 nm process that it should drive greater demand for 1 Gb DRAM chips in the near future over today’s mainstream density of 512 MB.
Samsung said its continuous technology migration below 90 nm relied heavily on the company's extensive use of three-dimensional (3D) transistor technologies to build increasingly smaller chips.
One of the key technologies involved in the development of Samsung's 3D transistor is a recess channel array transistor (RCAT) that builds the DRAM cell three-dimensionally to minimize its size while increasing its density.
Samsung's proprietary RCAT technology doubles the refresh cycle, which is critical for enabling efficient fabrication on a nm-scale. Samsung was using RCAT for DRAM fabrication from 90 nm. This 3D technology is expected to enable DRAM fabrication to 50 nm and lower, said Samsung.
In addition to its 60 nm process technology innovation, Samsung's use of metal-insulator metal (MIM) for its capacitors provides enhanced data storage in sub-70 nm designs.
Furthermore, the use of a recently-announced selective epitaxial growth (SEG) technology provides for a broader electron channel and optimizes the speed of each chip's electrons to reduce power consumption and enable higher performance, said Samsung.
The 60 nm 1 Gb DDR2 DRAM, which was first developed by Samsung in 2005, is the latest in a line of Samsung industry "firsts" in nano-scale DRAM advancements, according to Samsung. This record of DRAM innovation stretches from the introduction of 150 nm DRAM technology in 2000 to a yet-to-be-deployed 50 nm process technology developed in October 2006.
The 60 nm process is expected to become the mainstream circuit technology for DRAM in 2008. In the first year of market availability alone, 60 nm DRAM revenues are expected to reach U.S. $2.3B worldwide and further increase to U.S. $32B by 2009, said Samsung.
Source: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.