The Chinese managed to develop and release the world's most capacious flash memory. What is the progress?

, how US sanctions hit the production of Chinese memory chips. Nevertheless, businesses in China related to the production of electronics manage not only to survive, but also to implement very interesting projects.

The same company YMTC launched mass production of 232-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips. Competitors have similar developments, but either not everything is ready, or there are nuances in chip production. Details are under the cut.

YMTC and sanctions

Very little time has passed since the introduction of sanctions, and one of the largest suppliers of memory chips in China and the world, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., has fallen on hard times. The fact is that four companies at once refused to cooperate with her – three from the USA, these are Applied Materials, KLA and Lam Research, plus the Dutch ASML. Perhaps they will be able to supply the technologies necessary to YMTC in the future, but only with the approval of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce – a special license will be required.

What kind of company is this? Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTС) is a leading memory chip manufacturer in China. At the beginning of 2021, it announced that it plans to double the production of NAND chips. At the same time, it became known that the company was going to compete with technology giants Samsung and Micron. And in the same year, it launched pilot production of 192-layer 3D NAND memory.

According to YTMC representatives, creating a production line for new chips was not easy, but everything was successful. As a result, even the American corporation Apple became interested in this memory, which can choose chips for installation in its own devices. Everything went so well that on September 7, 2022, Apple included YTMC in the list of flash memory suppliers for the iPhone 14.

With the help of a Chinese partner, Apple planned to diversify the supply of memory chips for its devices – now it is very dependent on South Korean companies. In addition, the new partnership made it possible to reduce the cost of NAND memory and further promote their devices in the Chinese market.

Previously, Applied Materials, KLA and Lam Research supplied YMTC with equipment to produce 3D NAND with 128 or more layers. Well, then tough sanctions came into play and we had to forget about the partnership with Apple.

Everything goes as usual

According to SCMP media, and other online media, the company succeeded release the world’s most capacious flash memory. This is 232-layer QLC 3D NAND. The record here is not in the number of layers – several companies managed to achieve a similar number of layers in a chip. We are talking about the ability to store four, rather than three, bits of information at once in one cell. Accordingly, the recording density of the modules immediately increased, reaching 19.8 Gbits per square millimeter.

The fact that the company has such a memory and has developed it became known a year ago, in 2022. But it was unclear whether the company would be able to produce chips under sanctions, and technical details also remained unknown.

Memory architecture – Xtacking 3.0. NAND chips developed using this architecture are composed of two crystals. One of them contains an array of 3D NAND memory cells, and the other contains power and control circuits. All this is produced using different technological processes, primarily because the elements of one chip are manufactured on different silicon wafers. To form a chip, all elements are combined into a single complex.

Now NAND chips with a new architecture, produced by YTMC, have been shipped to Chinese companies. Thus, the 1-terabyte ZhiTai Ti600 drive, which is based on 232-layer QLC memory manufactured by YMTC, went on sale in China.

As for competitors, 232-bit memory, with 3 bits per cell (not four, like the Chinese), is being produced or is about to be produced by companies such as Micron, Solidigm, Samsung. As for the South Korean company, at one time it was engaged in a project to create a 236-layer NAND chip. But then she immediately switched to developing new, ninth generation chips. Well, Samsung’s focus has shifted from 232-layer chips.

YMTC is trying to get out of the crisis

Now she has to piece together equipment that is not only complex, but also relatively simple, but not in stock. For example, these are holders that are designed to carry silicon wafers during the process of creating chips. The company is looking for equipment within the country, and is gradually hiring specialists abroad – although not in the USA, but in other countries.

In China, and not only YMTC has problems due to the lack of qualified specialists who know the technologies and have the skills to manage production based on these technologies. The point is that the United States has prohibited its citizens, residents, or green card recipients from working for Chinese companies that produce certain types of semiconductor products.

The state also helps. Thus, the Chinese government allocated $7 billion to YMTC precisely for the purpose of finding domestic suppliers of lithography equipment. Moreover, this is done in a hurry – if there is no such equipment, then the company will soon have very serious problems.

So far everything is working out – YTMC has established the production of modern NAND chips, and has established logistics chains within China itself. The country has a huge domestic market for electronic products, which allows chip suppliers not only to survive, but also to feel good about themselves.