Highly Scalable and Reliable Cell Characteristics for 1Tb 9Th Generation 3D-NAND Flash Memory

A pioneering 9th-generation 3D-NAND flash memory has been successfully developed, offering highly reliable cell characteristics and achieving the smallest unit cell volume in the industry. To achieve higher bit density, the cell area has been aggressively scaled down in both vertical and lateral dimensions, resulting in a remarkable 50 % improvement in bit density compared to the 8th generation. Cell characteristic degradations and reliability concerns due to the extreme scaling were effectively mitigated using state-of the-art ONO material engineering and process innovations. This work establishes a new benchmark for scalable and reliable 3D-NAND flash memory solutions.