Samsung Electronics develops 512GB DDR5 DRAM with improved power efficiency.. Will it be supplied to Intel?

Samsung Electronics announced on the 25th that it has developed a 512GB DDR5 memory module that improves power efficiency by reducing short circuits. As the process is refined, it has solved the problem of short circuit that occurred in transistors. A process named’High-K Metal Gate’ (HKMG) was applied to this product. The HKMG process refers to the application of a material with a high dielectric constant (K) (High-K, Hi-K) to prevent leakage current due to miniaturization of the semiconductor process.

DRAM consists of a transistor and a capacitor. The capacitor stores charge, and the transistor acts as a switch that opens and closes the entrance of the capacitor. When electric charges are stored in the capacitor, it is recognized as ‘1’, otherwise it is recognized as ‘0’ and data is stored. The DRAM transmits data by repeating the clocks of 0 and 1 at an astronomical number per second.

This process change was made by changing the insulating film and the’gate’ applied to the transistor. Semiconductor manufacturing has moved to a microprocessing that incorporates extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure technology, because in this process, the leakage current increases and reliability decreases in the’pSiON’ material, which was an existing insulating film.

Accordingly, Samsung Electronics changed the pSiON material to Hi-K, which has a high dielectric constant (K). A dielectric material is a material that induces electricity, and the high constant means that the molecules in the material generate a large electric field. In this case, the polarity of the inner material is aligned in the opposite direction to the outer material (Hi-K), which reduces the sum of electric fields in the material, thereby reducing leakage current.

In addition, the material that used to serve as the gate of the existing transistor was also replaced with metal silicon from poly-silicon (Poly-Si). Samsung Electronics explained that metal silicon is more suitable for use with Hi-K materials than polycrystalline silicon.

Samsung Electronics said, “The DDR5 memory module of Samsung Electronics with HKMG can achieve high performance even at low voltage (1.1V), thereby increasing power efficiency, reducing power consumption by about 13% compared to the existing process, and laying the foundation for further reduction of the thickness of the insulating film in the future. “It is expected to be the optimal solution for applications where power efficiency is important, such as in data centers.”

This product has also applied 8-stage TSV (Through Silicon Via) technology for the first time as a general-purpose DRAM product. TSV is a method of making hundreds of fine holes in individual chips to connect the layers as the semiconductor becomes a stacked structure, and then connecting the top and bottom with silicon.

Chip stacking using TSV requires great technology in that a smaller hole is made in a small chip placed on a nano-unit circuit and connected with a silicon string. Samsung Electronics applied the 4-layer TSV process to DDR4 memory for the first time in the world in 2014, and has the leading technology in this field as it developed the 12-layer TSV packaging technology for the first time in the industry in 2019.

Samsung Electronics is working closely with Intel to include this product in the’Sapphire Rapids’, a’Xeon Scalable’ processor for servers currently being developed by Intel.

“DDR5 memory developed through process innovation is expected to further accelerate the development of high-performance computers that will expand their application fields to autonomous driving, smart cities, and medical industries, with outstanding performance and high energy efficiency,” said Sohn Young-soo, executive director of the product planning team at Samsung Electronics’ memory division. I am looking forward to it.”