Intel thinks it can make NAND memory cells as small as 7 nm using current manufacturing processes and hopes to take NAND technology further with 3D technology. Keyvan Esfarjani, vice president technology & manufacturing at Intel and co-CEO of IMFT said this during the IMEC Technology Forum.
IMFT is the joint venture between Intel and Micron and working on 3D NAND. This new NAND type should deal with the scaling limits that are soon reached with current NAND manufacturing processes.
At the moment the smallest NAND memory commercially available in SSDs is 19 nm small and with traditional manufacturing methods it's expected that a size as small as 10 nm can be reached. Beyond that size the regular 2D NAND will likely not scale well anymore. Simplified, NAND memory works by controlling flow of electrons with a so called 'gate'. The gate is controlled by applying a voltage to it. Without any voltage the gate is down and electrons can't flow. If a voltage is applied the gate is up and electrons can flow.
Using 3D technology in chips is nothing new, Intel also uses 3D transistors in their CPUs. However 3D NAND technology is different, exact details aren't clear, except that t will consist of multiple layers of cells and that the 3D NAND will use Gate-All-Around structures. This seems to mean that the gate does not open by just going up and down, but can also be closed from left to right.
The challenge to refine this technology seems to be finding the right materials that can deal with the different way the 3D NAND will work. It's expected that the 2D NAND will be used for the coming years, but that eventually the 3D NAND will take over. Also Sandisk/Toshiba, SK Hynix and Samsung are working on similar technology. The latter expects to go in commercial production around 2014.
