Elpida starts mass production of 40nm memory chips

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 23 December 2009, 19:26 IST
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Tokyo: The Hiroshima plant of Elpida Memory, a supplier of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) has started mass production of 2GB DDR3 SDRAM chips using 40 nanometer (nm) process technology. Elpida said that the thin process technology will allow the company to make processors that are more affordable. Since completing the development of the DDR3 SDRAM last October, Elpida took two months to ramp up mass production, reports Xbit. To begin with, Elpida will implement a phased expansion of 40nm 2Gb DDR3 SDRAM mass production at its Hiroshima Plant. The 40nm process production will also start at Elpida's Taiwan subsidiary Rexchip, in the second quarter of 2010 that is aimed at ramping up the production of the cheaper products. Elpida is also looking at transferring the 40nm process technology to its foundry partners ProMOS and Winbond, depending on the DRAM market conditions. According to Elpida, compared to its 50nm DDR3 SDRAM, the new 2GB DDR3 SDRAM can achieve 44 percent more chips per wafer. It also claims that it can achieve 100 percent yield for DDR3 products that operate at 1600 MHz, which is the fastest officially ratified speed standard for current DDR3. The 40nm SDRAM uses two-thirds less power compared to 50nm products and it can support 1.2 volts/1.35 volts operation and also DDR3 standard 1.5 volts, which can result in around 50 percent less power usage.