According to Korean media ZDNet Korea, Samsung Electronics recently reached a patent licensing agreement with Yangtze Memory Technologies for "Hybrid Bonding" technology for 3D NAND. Starting with the 10th generation V-NAND (V10), Samsung will adopt Yangtze Memory's patented technology for production.
Samsung's 10th generation V-NAND (V10) will introduce several innovative technologies, with the most crucial being wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding technology. The main advantages of this technology are improved performance and thermal characteristics, significantly enhancing production efficiency.
The report indicates that Samsung chose to collaborate with Yangtze Memory primarily because Yangtze Memory established a comprehensive hybrid bonding patent system four years ago and has been co-leading the field with Xperi and TSMC. This made it difficult for Samsung to work around these patents.
When developing the 10th generation V-NAND (V10), Samsung faced reliability issues after exceeding 400 layers in the stacking process. Yangtze Memory's hybrid bonding technology (Xtacking), through direct wafer-to-wafer (W2W) bonding, shortens electrical paths and improves heat dissipation, becoming key to solving this technical challenge.
In traditional 3D NAND architecture, peripheral circuits occupy approximately 20-30% of the chip area. However, as 3D NAND technology stacks to 128 layers or higher, peripheral circuits may occupy more than 50% of the chip area. Additionally, this method can accommodate at most just over 300 layers of NAND.
Therefore, for 3D NAND manufacturers, hybrid bonding technology has become the core technology for developing NAND stacks with more than 400 layers. Yangtze Memory's hybrid bonding technology will drive the transformation of high-stack 3D NAND manufacturing toward CBA (CMOS Bonded Array) architecture.
Currently, Yangtze Memory's independently developed hybrid bonding technology has progressed to version 4.x and has successfully mass-produced 160-layer, 192-layer, and 232-layer products. The latest research report shows that earlier this year, Yangtze Memory also successfully commercialized 2yy (estimated 270-layer) 3D TLC (Triple-Level Cell) NAND.
TechInsights noted: "Yangtze Memory's 2yy 3D NAND is the highest density NAND product on the market and the industry's first 3D NAND to achieve a bit density exceeding 20Gb/mm²."
As NAND technology evolves toward higher layer counts (such as V10, V11, V12), Samsung will need to continue relying on Yangtze Memory's patent support. Korean media predicts that SK Hynix may also follow suit with similar cooperation. In February 2024, SK Hynix Vice President Kim Chun-hwan revealed during a keynote speech at "SEMICON Korea 2024" that SK Hynix is developing a next-generation platform that will improve the economic viability and mass production capability of 400-layer class NAND products through hybrid bonding technology.
