Intel and Micron Technology have jointly announced a 20nm, 128Gb multilevel-cell (MLC) NAND falsh device. The companies also announced mass production of their 20nm 64Gb NAND.

Manufactured by Intel and Micron's joint venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), the new 20nm monolithic 128Gb device enables a terabit (Tb) of data storage in a fingertip-size package by using just eight die. It also provides twice the storage capacity and performance of the companies' existing 20nm 64Gb NAND device. The 128Gb device meets the high-speed ONFI 3.0 specification to achieve speeds of 333 megatransfers per second, ideal for tablets, smartphones and other small form factor consumer and computing devices.

Intel and Micron also revealed that the key to their success with 20nm process technology is due to a new cell structure that enables more aggressive cell scaling than conventional architectures. Their 20nm NAND uses a planar cell structure to overcome the inherent difficulties that accompany advanced process technology, enabling performance and reliability on par with the previous generation. The planar cell structure successfully breaks the scaling constraints of the standard NAND floating gate cell by integrating the first Hi-K/metal gate stack on NAND production.

In addition, Intel and Micron also noted that the December production ramp of their 20nm 64Gb NAND flash product will enable a rapid transition to the 128Gb device in 2012. Samples of the 128Gb device will be available in January, closely followed by mass production in the first half of 2012.