Samsung announces industry-first 45 nm embedded flash logic process development

SOUTH KOREA: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd announced the industry’s first 45 nanometer (nm) embedded flash (“eFlash”) logic process development.

Samsung successfully implemented the new process into the smart card test chip, which means that this process technology fulfills the stringent quality requirements of the security solution market and can be successfully deployed on a commercial scale.

“Samsung’s 45nm eFlash logic process has the potential to be broadly adopted into various components for security solutions and mobile devices, including smart card IC, NFC IC, eSE (embedded secure element) and TPM (Trusted platform module),” said Taehoon Kim, VP of marketing, System LSI Business, Samsung Electronics. “The excellent performance from this smart card test chip will help solidify our leadership in the security IC market.”

The smart card IC based on Samsung’s 45nm eFlash logic process guarantees high reliability and endurance of 1 million cycles per flash memory cell. The performance results are the industry’s best class and superior to any other solutions currently on the market, generally rated for 500,000 cycles.

Through the improvement in both flash cell structure and operating scheme, the test chip features random access time to read memory that is 50 percent faster and the power efficiency is enhanced by 25 percent over previous products built on the 80nm eFlash logic process.

Samsung’s advanced 45nm eFlash logic technology, built on the technological synergies created through decades of know-how and experience in both embedded flash and logic processes, will enable Samsung to provide competitive performance levels and greater value to its foundry and ASIC customers in the field of consumer microcontrollers and automotive chips that require higher speed, larger memory capacity and higher power efficiency.

Initial smart card IC samples for commercialization using this 45nm eFlash logic technology are expected to be available in the second half of 2014.