SK hynix announced that it has started this month mass production of the 8 Gb LPDDR4 low-powered mobile DRAM based on the 1anm, the fourth generation of the 10nm process technology.
The latest mobile DRAM products will be available to smartphone manufacturers from the second half of 2021.
This is the first time that SK hynix is using Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) equipment for mass production after proving the stability of the cutting edge lithography technology.
As technology migration continues to ultra-micro levels, an increasing number of semiconductor companies are adopting the EUV equipment for the photo process where circuit patterns are drawn on the wafer surfaces.
Industry experts believe that a semiconductor company's leadership in technology will depend on how it can fully take advantage of the EUV equipment. SK hynix plans to use the EUV technology for production of all its 1anm DRAM products going forward as it has proved the stability of the process.
The company expects the 1anm technology to lead to a 25% increase in the number of DRAM chips produced from the same size of a wafer, compared with the previous 1znm node. SK hynix anticipates that the 1anm DRAM will help alleviate the supply and demand conditions of the global markets following an increase in DRAM demand globally.
The new product stably runs 4266Mbps, the fastest transfer rate in a standard LPDDR4 mobile DRAM specification, and has reduced power consumption by 20%. SK hynix will apply its 1anm technology to its DDR5 products, the world's first next-generation DRAM launched in October 2020, from early next year.
