Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. have announced that their industry-leading 20nm NAND was named Semiconductor of the Year in the 10th Annual Insight Awards hosted by UBM TechInsights. The Insight Awards recognize achievements in the semiconductor and electronics industry and are one of the most highly regarded awards for technical innovation. Devices are analyzed by UBM’s team of experts and are subjected to a rigorous judging process.
Intel and Micron, through their IMFT joint development project, created leading-edge 20nm NAND flash process technology and products to enable new breakthroughs in storage for consumer and compute applications. The 20nm process is used for high-capacity, multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash devices, which are in volume production today. They provide a dense, small form factor storage option for saving music, video, e-books and other data on smartphones, tablets and computing solutions such as solid-state drives (SSDs).
“We’re honored that UBM TechInsights has chosen to recognize our joint R&D team’s efforts to create a truly innovative breakthrough in NAND cell technology,” said Glen Hawk, vice president of Micron’s NAND Solutions Group. “Our ongoing work with Intel is driving new horizons in nonvolatile memory and is a key foundation of our storage technology leadership.”
“The Intel-Micron joint development has been a unique example in the industry of working together to achieve common goals, while also pushing the technology bar to create innovative breakthroughs,” said Rob Crooke, Intel vice president and GM of the Intel Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group. “We appreciate UBM’s role in validating our process and their acknowledgment that the Intel-Micron 20nm NAND process is not only a first in flash memory process technology, but also an overall winner in semiconductor design.”
During the decision-making process, UBM TechInsights did extensive analysis on the companies’ 20nm MLC NAND Flash, including examination of the device at the package and die levels and analysis of the process technology, memory cell configuration, and materials. Their circuit analysis verified that the Micron/Intel Flash component was the first to be manufactured at the 20nm process node. They also noted that replacing the traditional silicon dioxide gate with a high-k dielectric allowed the R&D team to reduce cell leakage while keeping power consumption low—a must for lightweight, portable applications.
“We received a record amount of entries this year for our 10th edition of the Insight Awards, which made determining winners for our categories very difficult,” said Joel Martin, senior vice president of UBM Marketing and Product Management. “It speaks to the engineering innovation found within Intel-Micron’s submission that they were selected as Semiconductor of the Year.”
For more information on the awards program, visit www.ubmtechinsights.com/news-and-events/insight-awards/.
You can view a video of the award presentation in San Jose on Micron’s Innovations Blog.