Intel and Micron to Produce New 25nm NAND Flash Memory Chips
It is being reported that Intel and Micron plan to unveil a family of new 25-nanometer flash memory chips via their IM Flash Technologies joint venture early next week. This gives both Intel and Micron the upper hand and lead in NAND flash devices and products. The first 25-nm NAND device is a multi-level-cell (MLC), 8-GB device, which is said to reduce IC count by 50 percent over previous products.
At a die size of 167mm a 300mm fab should be able to manufacture just over 400 dice per wafer. This gives a manufacturing cost of about $4.00 per chip, or $0.50/GB. Compare this to a more common 45nm MLC NAND on a 300mm line which should cost about $1.75/GB. Since the price of NAND flash has been hovering around $2.00/GB for the past year, and seems poised to continue at that price through 2010, the 25nm process will give the companies a significant margin boost over their current 34nm chip whose cost we estimate at $1.00/GB.
The companies made it very clear that they do not plan to drive prices down to follow cost. Instead, we can expect for Micron and Intel to continue to charge market prices and simply pocket larger margins than can their competition.
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