Dongbu HiTek’s Semiconductor Division today announced that it has successfully led the foundry industry’s move into volume production of 128Mb NOR Flash Memory devices at the 90-nanometer CMOS processing node. The new high-density NOR Flash chips were jointly developed with Eon Silicon Solutions Inc., a leading Taiwan supplier of non-volatile memory devices.
Dongbu HiTek believes its early entry into the high-density NOR Flash market is well timed because the current 32Mb “sweet spot” has begun to give way to a demand for densities of 128Mb and higher. According to a December 2008 report from iSuppli, the unit sales of 128Mb NOR Flash chips will continue to grow from 471 million units this year to 565 million in 2012 when they will exceed the unit sales of the currently popular 32MB devices by more than 15 million units.
Dongbu HiTek also expects to fill a market void as Spansion Inc., formerly the world’s largest NOR Flash supplier, retrenches due to financial difficulties. The company also aims to gain a competitive edge over other NOR Flash suppliers who will be late to market with compact chips that specify 128 Mb and higher density levels. 30 Percent Smaller Die Size
According to Dongbu HiTek, the die size of the 90nm-level 128Mb NOR Flash device is as much as 30 percent smaller than current NOR Flash devices offering the same density. The ultra-small die size translates to more useful die per wafer, which in turn lowers manufacturing cost.
The company confirmed that it has reduced, by almost half, the logic circuits that control memory to minimize the size of the chip. Key to this substantial reduction was from a combination of superior DBH 90nm technology innovation combined with the state of art design from Eon. This technology supports both 1.8v and 3.3v devices.
Today’s announcement underscores Dongbu HiTek’s commitment to innovating specialized semiconductor technologies. In addition to being the world’s first foundry to start high volume production of 90nm-level NOR Flash devices, the Korean company expects to collaborate further with Taiwan based Eon Silicon Solutions to develop other industry-leading NOR Flash memory products.
