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Samsung is gearing up for the growing demand for flash memory for data centers and mobile devices. For this purpose, a new production facility for 3D NAND is being built in the Pyeongtaek complex in South Korea. Production is scheduled to start in the second half of 2021.
Samsung’s Pyeongtaek complex continues to grow
Samsung’s “Gigafab” near the port city of Pyeongtaek in the South Korean province of Gyeonggi-do continues to grow. Only at the end of May did Samsung announce the expansion of the factory complex to include a production line with 5 nm EUV technology for the foundry business (contract manufacturing), which is to begin series production in the second half of 2021.
On Monday, Samsung followed another press release announcing the expansion of production capacity for the manufacturer’s 3D-NAND, which Samsung called V-NAND. Samsung also speaks of the second half of 2021 for mass production, but a different manufacturing process is likely to be used.
More 3D NAND for increasing demand
Samsung justifies the expansion with the expectation that demand for NAND flash memory will continue to grow, which is increasingly needed, particularly in data centers and for mobile devices such as smartphones. Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and the switch to the fast 5G radio network, which can be used to transfer larger amounts of data in a short time, are the driving forces behind the growth in global storage requirements.
It remains to be seen what type of 3D-NAND will roll off the assembly line next year. Samsung is currently with the sixth generation (V-NAND V6), which has between 110 and 128 layers depending on the specification; Samsung officially only speaks of “1xx layer“. In the coming seventh generation (V-NAND V7) at least 160 layers from two composite layer towers (double stack) are expected.
Samsung’s dominance shakes
Samsung has been the market leader in the production and sales of NAND flash for many years and has long been technically far ahead of the competition. But competitors have now caught up. The partners Kioxia and Western Digital already have larger shares in the global market than Samsung. However, the market leader does not only have to defend itself against the established competition, because with YMTC a newcomer from China is entering the global 3D NAND market, who wants to make a huge entry with investments of billions of US dollars by the Chinese state. With its 128-layer NAND and partnerships with various Taiwanese industry giants, YMTC could soon gain significant market share.
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