Hynix has produced flash memory with 15 nanometer features

EETimes – Hynix has produced a 15-nm NAND flash memory cell which it plans to unveil at this year’s International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

Hynix is due to report on an 84-nm pitch memory process for the production of 1-Gbit phase-change memories and beyond. As memory process are usually denoted by the half-pitch that is effectively a 42-nm process.

Hynix Semiconductor researchers have demonstrated a NAND flash memory cell with a geometry somewhere in middle between 10- and 19-nm. At this level of miniaturization it becomes hard to measure the geometry and variability is high. According to the organizers the mid-1X-nm NAND flash memory has “excellent electrical characteristics and reliability” and the memory includes a word-line air-gap. What is not yet clear and will hopefully be included in the paper is the endurance cycling performance. As geometries decrease there is a tendency for NAND flash memory to show lower endurance significantly below the 10^6 cycles that were frequently specified at geometries above 100-nm.

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