Micron has announced that the company is about to begin series production of its fourth-generation 3D NAND storage devices. Based on the company’s new Replacement Gate (RG) architecture, the memory manufacturer is preparing to begin production in the current quarter, i.e. this quarter.
Micron begins mass production of 128-layer 3D NAND
As Micron stated, the company’s fourth-generation 3D NAND has up to 128 active layers and uses RG technology, which replaces the traditional floating gate technology that Intel and Micron have been using for years.
This is a significant design change that is important for the future as it is at the core of Micron’s long-term technology plans. It is also the company’s first flash memory technology in a long time to be developed exclusively by Micron and not in collaboration with its former partner Intel. Micron expects this move to reduce tool size, lower costs, improve performance and facilitate the transition to next-generation nodes, presumably with more layers.
Micron has no plans to migrate all of its products to its fourth-generation 3D NAND technology and has already warned its investors that as a result of this technology change, it expects to see a significant company-wide reduction in cost per bit this year.
Micron said it plans to begin shipping its 128-layer PG-3D NAND products in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, which is this summer. In the meantime, Micron has not yet revealed which products it intends to build with this technology.