While major NAND chip producers are moving forward to transition their manufacturing processes to below 30nm, the advance makes sense only if volume production is feasible, industry sources have commented. This is reflected in the longer product certification times as processes advanced to smaller scales, the sources pointed out.
It took three to six months initially for chip vendors to gain customer validation for their 30nm-class made products, the sources indicated. However, the period has been extended to as long as nine months as requirements for product performance, quality and reliability are stricter, and harder to meet, the sources said.
Both Samsung Electronics' and Toshiba's 2Xnm-made products have not yet been certified by their biggest customer Apple, the sources claimed.
Micron Technology and Intel were ahead of peers in volume producing chips using their jointly-developed 25nm technology in the first half of 2011, followed by Samsung's ramp-up of 27nm, Toshiba's 24nm and Hynix Semiconductor's 26nm. This marked the beginning of a race among major NAND chip suppliers to transition to 20nm-class processes, the sources said.
Competition will become fierce in the second half of the year as Micron and Intel are set to advance to 20nm from 25nm, and so are Samsung, Toshiba and Hynix from 27nm to 21nm, from 24nm to 19nm and from 26nm to 20nm, respectively, the sources believe.