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This article presents a 1.2-V, 1.8-Gb/s/pin 16-Tb NAND flash memory multi-chip package incorporating 16 dies of 1-Tb NAND flash memory and the third-generation F-chip. The proposed third-generation F-chip is developed to meet the performance requirements of a high-capacity storage device that adopts a PCIe Gen four-host interface for higher data throughput. It is implemented with dual bi-directional transceiver architecture and signal retiming scheme to maximize the valid data window opening on solid-state drive (SSD) channels. Also, it facilitates training between F-chip and NAND using an on-chip delay-locked loop whose locking is proposed in strobe-based NAND systems to achieve sufficient signal integrity (SI) of the in-package channel at a speed of 1.8 Gb/s/pin. Embedded built-in self-test evaluates un-selected paths and determines if re-training is required without losing data throughput performance. This work achieves a 35% improvement in the I/O operational speed performance and a 23% reduction in the I/O power consumption in comparison with the previous generations.

The exponential data size growth in high-speed networks is a key motivator for nonvolatile memory development. To support this demand, higher density NAND is required: with a smaller cell size and higher interface speed. Generally, scaling down NAND technology requires addressing several common issues: 1) As the number of WL stack layers increases, the cell-string current is reduced due to the increased resistance in a cell string, 2) Deterioration of cell-to-cell interference, due to the reduction of cell pitch, 3) Support of higher IO bandwidth for faster data transfer speed [1]. Another challenge of this work was to minimize the die size because the peripheral circuit area is comparable to that of the cell array. Hence, we integrated the peripheral circuits below the cell array as introduced in [2]. Also, to cope with lower metal-contact height, a novel structure for the capacitor device was used to maximize capacitance per unit area.

In this paper, design challenges and key technologies to overcome the hurdles for the future 3D NAND are introduced. More specifically, state-of-the-art solutions for higher density, lower cost and higher bandwidth NAND is covered in detail.

A 1.2 V, 1.8 Gb/s/pin 16Tb-NAND flash memory multi-chip package incorporating with 16-dies of 1-Tb NAND flash memory and the 3rd generation F-Chip is proposed. The proposed F-Chip is developed to meet the performance requirements of high capacity storage devices that adopts PCIe Gen 4 host interface for faster data throughput. It is implemented with Toggle 4.0 standard on dual bi-directional transceiver architecture to achieve maximum valid data window on SSD channels. Also, it facilitates training between F-chip and NAND using on chip DLL and BIST to achieve sufficient signal integrity on in-package channel for 1.8Gb/s/pin. This work achieves a 35% improvement in the I/O operational speed performance and a 23% reduction in the I/O power consumption in comparison with the previous generations.