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

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

2021

2021/4/9 IEEE EDTM2021 Best Paper Award ”Cryogenic Operation of 3D Flash Memory for New Applications and Bit Cost Scaling with 6-Bit per Cell (HLC) and Beyond”

 

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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