Kioxia Sample Shipments of 9th Gen BiCS FLASH 512Gb TLC Devices

Kioxia America, Inc. announced it has commenced sample shipments ⁽¹⁾ of 512Gb Triple-Level Cell (TLC) memory devices incorporating its 9th Gen BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology.

It plans to commence mass production in fiscal year 2025. The devices are designed to support applications requiring high performance and power efficiency in the low- to mid-level storage capacities. They will also be integrated into the company’s enterprise SSDs, in particular those that aim to maximize GPU efficiency in AI systems.

Kioxia continues to pursue a dual-axis strategy to address the diverse needs of cutting-edge applications while delivering competitive products providing optimal investment efficiency.

The 2 axes are:

9th Gen BiCS FLASH products: these achieve high performance at reduced production cost by leveraging CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, ⁽²⁾ which integrates existing memory cell technologies ⁽³⁾ with the latest CMOS technology.
10th Gen BiCS FLASH products: these incorporate an expansion in the number of memory layers to meet the expected future demand for larger-capacity, high-performance solutions.

The new 9th Gen BiCS FLASH 512Gb TLC, developed using a 120-layer stacking process based on 5th Gen BiCS FLASH technology and advanced CMOS technology, exhibits significant performance improvements over the firm’s existing BiCS FLASH products ⁽⁴⁾ with the same 512Gb capacity.

These include:

Write performance: 61% improvement
Read performance: 12% improvement
Power efficiency: enhanced by 36% during write operations and 27% during read operations
Data transfer speed: the Toggle DDR6.0 interface enables high-speed 3.6Gb/s ⁽⁵⁾ NAND interface performance
Bit density: increased by 8% through advancements in planar scaling

Additionally, the company has confirmed that the 512Gb TLC operates at NAND interface speeds of up to 4.8Gb/s ⁽⁵⁾ under demonstration conditions. The product lineup will be determined in accordance with market demands.

Kioxia is committed to strengthening its global partnerships and pursuing further innovation in order to continue delivering optimal solutions that meet the diverse needs of its customers.

⁽¹⁾ These samples are for the functional check purpose and the specifications of the samples may differ in mass production.
⁽²⁾ Technology wherein each CMOS wafer and cell array wafer are manufactured separately in their optimized condition and then bonded together.
⁽³⁾ 112-layer 5th Gen BiCS FLASH and 218-layer 8th Gen BiCS FLASH technologies. The new lineup of 9th Gen BiCS FLASH products will incorporate one of these, depending on the model.
⁽⁴⁾ 6th Gen BiCS FLASH, which is deploying the same 512Gb TLC product as this product.
⁽⁵⁾ 1Gb/s is calculated as 1,000,000,000bits/second. This value is obtained under a specific test environment at Kioxia and may vary depending on use conditions.