[News] China Flash Unveils 28nm NOR Flash with 2Gb Capacity, Reportedly Reaching Industry’s Most Advanced Node
China’s memory push is expanding beyond giants CXMT and YMTC, with smaller players also moving into more advanced technologies. The Economic Daily News, citing MyDrivers, reports that China Flash, a Chinese memory developer, has unveiled its second-generation NOR Flash products built on a 28nm process.
The 28nm launch puts China Flash well ahead of the nodes used by mainstream NOR Flash rivals. The Economic Daily News notes that Taiwan’s Winbond uses 46nm, 58nm and 65nm nodes, while Macronix uses 48nm, 55nm and 75nm. On the other hand, China Flash’s second-generation NOR Flash is said to be the first NOR Flash product to move below the 40nm process, the report adds.
Beyond process technology, the company is also pushing the capacity envelope. MyDrivers notes that its second-generation NOR Flash offers up to 2Gb per chip, a 256-fold increase over the first generation. The Economic Daily News adds this is the largest known single-die capacity in the global NOR Flash market.
Behind the technology leap is China Flash’s proprietary secondary electron multiplication injection floating-gate architecture. The approach uses the secondary electron effect to enhance charge-injection efficiency into the floating gate, delivering higher programming efficiency and lower power consumption than conventional hot-electron injection, MyDrivers explains.
Key Challenges Remain
China Flash’s second-generation NOR Flash has made a strong showing on paper, but the technology lead has yet to be proven in mass production. While the company’s first-generation 8Mb NOR Flash has surpassed 600 million units in cumulative shipments, the second-generation lineup is only now moving toward qualification and mass production, the Economic Daily News reports, adding that its reliability, yield and production stability at scale will therefore be key factors to watch.
Market scale is another hurdle. According to the Economic Daily News, the global NOR Flash market remains dominated by Winbond, Macronix, Infineon, Micron and GigaDevice, while China Flash’s first-generation products, ranging from 4Mb to 512Mb, mainly target lower- and mid-capacity applications such as smart home devices, IoT and intelligent control platforms. The company therefore remains a niche player outside the global top five, the report notes.
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