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Samsung Breaks New Ground with Industry's First 1Gb Mobile DRAM on 80nmBy Divya Narain TMCnet Contributing Editor Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Co. Ltd., a star in the semiconductor technology space, has emerged as the first manufacturer to develop a one gigabit mobile DRAM (dynamic random access memory) based on the 80nm process technology.
The latest innovation also termed as a low-power DDR (double data rate) or synchronous DRAM will find application in a range of mobile products including mobile phone handsets, digital still cameras, portable media players and portable gaming products. The new monolithic DRAM is a remarkable improvement over the currently used double-die stack chip as it is at least 30 percent more power efficient even though it uses the same packaging technique. Moreover, the new DRAM will have a significantly lower manufacturing cost as compared to other high density mobile solutions. The new chip also comes with a temperature-sensing, self-refresh capability that leads to 30 percent lower power drain in standby mode as compared to earlier chips. With a smaller form factor, the new 1Gb Mobile DRAM chip is 20 percent thinner than a multi-stack package of 512Mb dies. The chip can be used for making a single high-density package solution of 1.5Gb or even 2Gb Mobile DRAM memory which is expected to be in great demand in the second quarter of 2007. The chip can also be bundled up with Flash memory in multi-chip packaging including package-on-package designs. The mass production of the 1Gb Mobile DRAM will start early next year. -------- Divya Narain is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page. |