Micron Technology, Inc. (NYSE:MU) today announced that Semiconductor Insights has selected two of Micron's industry-leading DRAM and NAND innovations as the winners in its Eighth Annual Insight Awards program. Micron's 32-gigabit (Gb) 34-nanometer (nm) NAND flash won the Most Innovative Process Technology award and its 1Gb 50nm DDR2 won the Most Innovative DRAM Technology award.
“Micron is honored to receive these awards from such a renowned analysis company as Semiconductor Insights. The awards exemplify Micron's continued technology design and process innovation leadership for both DRAM and NAND flash,” said Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron's Memory Group. “Working alongside our partners, Micron continues to drive the advancement of memory technology.”
“Micron has made significant progress in the DRAM and NAND Flash arenas, showcasing the smallest process generations in both technologies, as well as delivering the first sub-40nm flash device. Their commitment to innovation is clearly demonstrated in their being chosen as the winner of not one, but two Insight Awards,” said Emil Alexov, Vice President and General Manager, Semiconductor Insights.
According to SI, the 32Gb, 34nm chip is the highest density monolithic multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chip the industry has seen. With its high density and tiny size, the chip enables customers to easily increase NAND storage capacity for a number of consumer and computing products such as digital cameras, personal music players and solid state drives. The 32Gb, 34nm NAND chip was jointly developed by Intel and Micron, and manufactured by the companies' NAND flash joint venture, IM Flash Technologies.
The 1Gb, 50nm DDR2 chip measures just 41mm², providing customers with the smallest DRAM die size currently available on the market. After analyzing the product, SI noted that the product features the most advanced DRAM process technology ever analyzed. The 50nm 1Gb DDR2 was jointly developed through Micron's DRAM joint development relationship with Nanya Technology Corporation.
The Insight Awards program recognizes companies for achieving great technical strides through innovative design and technical advancements in the semiconductor industry, shaping the world we live in. The awards were presented at the EE Times ACE Awards and Insight Award presentation on March 31, 2009, as part of TechInsight's Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose.