Technology Development History
Technology Development History
In 1987, our company invented NAND flash memory. Since then, we have led the industry in improving microfabrication technology, increasing the integration density. Furthermore, we have leveraged chip-stacking technology to increase memory capacity, supporting the progress of electronic devices and the information society worldwide.
Technology Development History
Technology Development History
| Memories / Memory cards | SSDs | |
|---|---|---|
| Invented the world's first flash memory | 1984 | |
 Invented the world's first NAND Flash memory |
1987 | |
| Commercialized the world's first 4Mbit NAND Flash memory | 1991 | |
| ･Constructed Yokkaichi Plant ･Commercialized the world's first 16Mbit NAND Flash memory |
1992 | |
| Commercialized the world's first 256Mbit NAND Flash memory | 1998 | |
| Developed SD memory cards | 2000 | |
| Commercialized the world's first 1Gbit MLC NAND Flash memory | 2001 |  Developed PATA SSDs with SLC NAND Flash memory |
| Commercialized the world's first 2Gbit NAND Flash memory | 2003 | |
 Announced the world's first 3D Flash memory |
2007 | Commercialized SATA SSDs with 56nm MLC NAND Flash memory with the world's highest capacity of 128 GB |
| Commercialized 43nm NAND Flash memory | 2008 | Commercialized SATA SSDs with 43nm 512GB MLC NAND Flash memory |
| Reported 32nm NAND Flash memory at ISSCC and commercialized them | 2009 | Expanded the lineup of the industry's first 128GB Half Slim SATA/mSATA SSDs |
| Commercialized 24nm MLC NAND Flash memory with the world's highest density | 2010 |  Commercialized stick type SSDs thinner and smaller than mSATA SSDs (maximum capacity: 256 GB) |
| Commercialized the world's smallest 19nm MLC NAND Flash memory | 2011 | |
| Reported 19nm MLC NAND Flash memory at ISSCC and commercialized them | 2012 | Shipped samples of enterprise SAS SSDs with the industry's highest-class capacity of 1.6 TB using 24nm MLC NAND Flash memory |
| Commercialized the world's smallest 19nm second-generation MLC NAND Flash memory | 2013 | Commercialized and expanded the lineup of SAS/SATA SSDs with 19nm MLC NAND Flash memory |
| Commercialized the world's smallest 15nm NAND Flash memory | 2014 | |
| Commercialized 48layer BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory with the world's highest density | 2015 |  ･Commercialized the world's smallest NVMe™ single package SSD･Commercialized the industry's first 1024GB client NVMe™ SSD |
| Prototyped a 64layer BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory with the world's highest density | 2016 | Commercialized second-generation single package SSDs with BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory |
 ･Prototyped the world's first TLC BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory incorporating TSV technology･Prototyped a 96layer BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory ･Prototyped the world's first 64layer QLC BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory |
2017 | Commercialized and expanded the lineup of client and enterprise SSDs with 64layer BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory |
| Prototyped a 96layer QLC BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory | 2018 | Commercialized the industry's first SSDs with 96layer BiCS FLASH™ 3D Flash memory |
| *SLC: Single Level Cell *MLC: Multi Level Cell *TLC: Triple Level Cell *QLC: Quad Level Cell |
*PATA: Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment *SATA: Serial Advanced Technology Attachment *mSATA: mini SATA *SAS: Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) |
Awards
Awards
2020
| 2020/9/24 | JIII 2020 National Commendation for Invention "Imperial Invention Prize" "High Density 3D Flash Memory Device and Manufacturing Method Thereof" (patent no. 5016832). |
|---|---|
| 2020/3/13 | 18th JSAP Plasma Electronics Award |
| 2020/3/12 | APEX/JJAP Editorial Contribution Award from The Japan Society of Applied Physics |
2019
| 2019/11/27 | The Sort Benchmark committee JouleSort World Record *1 |
|---|---|
| 2019/11/19 | NANOTS2019 Best Interested Paper Award, Young Researcher's Encouragement Award |
| 2019/11/13 | AEC/APC Symposium Asia 2019 Best Paper Award "Robust Estimation of Mixed-Type Wafer Map Similarity Utilizing Non-negative Matrix Factorization" |
| 2019/11/5 |
A-SSCC Outstanding Contribution Award |
| 2019/9/18 | The 13th (2019) JSAP Fellow Award |
| 2019/3/10 | 17th JSAP Plasma Electronics Award |
| 2019/3/9 | JSAP Young Scientist Presentation Award |
| 2019/2/19 | IEEE SSCS Japan Industry Contribution Award |
| 2019/1/17 | 20th JSPS Plasma Science for Materials Award |
*1 As of Nov. 27, 2019 (1TB Sort/89kJoules)
2018
| 2018/11/13 | DPS2018 Nishizawa Award |
|---|---|
| 2018/10/27 | Special Jury Award of the 2018 Incentive Award to Young Woman Engineer from Japan Women Engineers Forum (JWEF) |
| 2018/9/18 | The 12th (2018) JSAP Fellow Award |
| 2018/9/11 | Connect Products and Services category in the field of Business Impact of the 6th Cloudera Data Impact Awards |
| 2018/6/6 | Award for Excellence of the 24th Semiconductor of the Year 2018 in the field of semiconductor devices from Electronic Device Industry News |
2017
| 2017/11/22 | IWDTF Young Award |
|---|---|
| 2017/11/16 | DPS2017 DPS Paper Award |
| 2017/11/10 | NANOTS2017 Best Interested Paper Award |
| 2017/8/4 | 70th (2016): Technological Development Encouragement Prize from the Motion Picture and Television Engineering Society of Japan, Inc. |
| 2017/6/26 | Gold Prize of the 2016 Field Innovation Award from the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI) |
| 2017/4/28 | Technical Development Prize (Progress & Development Prize) in the field of R&D of the 44th (2016) Technology Development Award from the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers |
| 2017/3/24 | 63rd (2016) Okochi Memorial Prize from the Okochi Memorial Foundation |
| 2017/2/14 | The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Prize of the 5th Management of Technology (MOT) & Innovation Award from Japan Techno-Economics Society (JATES) |
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Other Information about Technology Development History and Awards
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