Toshiba to Launch World's First 32 nm Process NAND Flash Memory

Toshiba Corporation, reinforcing its leadership in the development and fabrication of cutting-edge, high density NAND flash memory, today announced that it will start shipping NAND flash memory products fabricated with 32nm process technology. Samples of the world's first 32 nm generation, 32-gigabit (Gb) single chips (4 gigabytes (GB)), offering the largest density of any NAND flash chip, are available from today, and 16 Gb chip (2 GB) products, the current mainstream density, will be available in July in Japan. The 32 Gb chips will first be applied to memory cards and USB memories and subsequently extended to embedded products.

Toshiba is leading the industry in applying 43 nm process technology to 32 GB products, which stack eight 32 Gb NAND flash memory chips. Application of the advanced 32 nm process technology will further shrink chip size, allowing Toshiba to boost productivity and bring further enhancements to high density, small sized products.

As more mobile phones and mobile equipment provide support for video and movies, demand for larger density, small sized memory products is growing stronger. By leading the industry in transition to finer geometry, Toshiba aims to reinforce and extend its leadership in the NAND flash memory market.

Toshiba will start mass production of 32 Gb NAND flash memories in July 2009, two months ahead of its original plan. 16 Gb products will start to ship from the third quarter of FY2009(October to December 2009). The new chips will be produced at Toshiba's Yokkaichi Operations, in Mie prefecture, Japan.

By accelerating process migration and integrating multi level cell technologies, and through continued advances in productivity, Toshiba intends to enhance its competitiveness in the memory business.