Toshiba Corporation has announced the development of the world's first 15-nanometer (nm) process technology which will be applied to 2-bit-per-cell 128-gigabit (16GB) NAND flash memory.


According to Toshiba, the new technology will get to mass production by end of April at Fab 5 and replace the second generation 19nm process technology, which is Toshiba's previous flagship process. With the new chip, Toshiba has achieved the world's smallest class chip size with 15nm manufacturing process as well as improved peripheral circuitry technology.

According to Toshiba, the new chips feature the same write speed as the chips made with 19nm manufacturing process but bring much faster data transfer rate of 533 megabits per second, or 1.3 times faster compared to older process.

Toshiba is currently also applying the 15nm process technology to 3-bit-per-cell chips which should enter mass production in the Q1 of this fiscal year. In addition, the company will also develop controllers for embedded NAND flash memory and introduce 3-bit-per-cell products for smartphones and tablets as well as eventually extend it to SSDs as well.



Source: Toshiba.com.