And So It And So It Begins, Samsung's New 250 GB SATA SSD 6th Generation V-NAND Gose Into Production
Even though Samsung continues to push its current fifth-generation 3D V-NAND flash, the company is in the process of mass-producing 250GB SATA SSD's based on the sixth-generation V-NAND. Samsung has achieved the impossible by adding more than 100 layers to 256Gb (TLC) dies, which is much faster, consumes less energy, and is cost-effective.
You maybe curious as to how Samsung manage to implement 100+layer 3-bit V-NAND. They did it by using a 136-layer electricity conductive mold stack and punch cylindrical holes through the actual layer using channel hole etching technology evenly across the stack creating a uniform charge trap flash (CTF for short) cells. The sixth-generation V-NAND will add 40% more cells to the previous generation V-NAND. It will have 9-times more layers — reducing the number of channel holes needed to create a 256 Gb die to 670 million from over 930 million from the previous generation. This result in smaller chip size and fewer manufacturing steps.
In addition to much-improved power efficiency, the new V-NAND performance will be improved by 10% while using 15% less power. Samsung also states that 100+layers will not be the limit; the company made claims that it can stack three of these stacks together. Creating a future V-NAND solution totaling 300+layers without hindering chip performance.
At this very moment, Samsung is manufacturing 256 Gbs dies based on the 100+layert V-NAND 250 GB capacity for their SATA solid-state drive. Currently, the solid-state drives are in the process of being mass-produced and will be available to consumers in the coming months.
