Today's hot spots
1. The 3D flash memory material of Jiaoxia was contaminated, affecting the production of the two factories in Japan
2. Nikkei: PC demand is weak, DRAM prices have fallen
3. Samsung will push 200+ layers of NAND flash memory at the end of the year
4. Silicon wafer supply continues to be tight! Shenggao's production capacity in 2026 is sold out
5. Toshiba announced a roadmap for HDDs to launch 30TB hard drives as soon as 2023
01
The 3D flash memory material of Jiaoxia was contaminated, affecting the production of the two factories in Japan
According to the official website of The Combined Armored Man and the Associated Press, due to the contamination of materials used for flash memory production, the production of two production plants in Japan has been affected, and efforts are currently being made to resume normal operations.
Since late January, some of the operations of The Armory Man's plant in Yokkaichi and Kitakami in Japan have been affected. The reason is speculated to be a component that contains impurities in the specific production process of 3D flash BiCS FLASH. At present, the armored man is working hard to take measures to strive for an early resumption of normal operation. Kaoya expects that the production shipment of its 2D NAND flash memory is not expected to be affected and will continue to do its best to reduce the impact on customers.
Western Digital, which has a joint venture with Jiaoxia to manufacture flash memory, said that the affected flash memory is as high as 6.5 exabytes. Given the severity of the production disruption, a significant impact on SSD supply is expected to be seen in the near future.
Western Digital and Armored Man have not proposed a specific date for when production could possibly resume. The chip typically takes about three months from the silicon wafer to the finished product that can be applied to electronics, and any interruption will still have an impact in the months after the restart of production.
It is reported that there are six factories in the Yokkaichi factory area, covering an area of 694,000 square meters and employing 6,300 people. The Kitakami plant is made up of several factories, and a new K2 production facility is under construction that will add 136,000 square meters of production space.
The data shows that in 2021, the shipment of armored SSDs will account for about 8.5% by capacity, and Western Digital will account for 15.4%. Prior to this incident, Samsung's production in Xi'an was also hit by Covid restrictions, all of which could eventually lead to a shortage of NAND-based products.
02
Nikkei: PC demand is weak, DRAM prices turned down
According to the Nikkei Shimbun, dram prices have turned downward again, mainly due to the suspension of demand for the home economy, the weakening of demand from PCs, coupled with the shortage of chips and the chaos in the supply chain, which has led to the stagnation of production of smart phones and other products, resulting in the expansion of the trend of temporarily delaying the purchase of DRAM.
In January 2022, the wholesale price of mainstream products DDR4 8Gb was about $3.10 each, down 3% from the previous month, and the price of 4Gb products with smaller capacity was $2.50 each, down 3% from the previous month, all for the fifth time in six months.
Regarding future price trends, Semiconductor Trading Co., Ltd. said that "due to the seasonal off-season from January to March, it is expected that the demand for DRAM will continue to decline moderately."
03
Samsung will push 200+ layers of NAND flash memory at the end of the year
According to The Korean media BusinessKorea, Samsung Electronics plans to mass-produce 176 layers of NAND Flash flash memory at the end of 2021, but considering the actual market conditions, it was finally decided to postpone it to the first quarter of 2022. However, micron, a major U.S. storage company, preemptively produced 176-layer NAND Flash flash memory, and market participants predict that Samsung will accelerate the pace of mass production of NAND Flash flash memory above 200 layers to regain the technology leadership title that Micron stole.
It is estimated that Samsung's 128-layer monolithic storage will be stacked with 96 layers, and a total of 224 layers of NAND Flash flash memory will be launched, and compared with the 176-layer product, the production efficiency and data transmission speed of 224-layer NAND Flash flash memory can be increased by 30%.
At present, in addition to Samsung's active layout of more than 200 layers of NAND Flash flash memory, other Micron and SK Hynix are also accelerating the development of NAND Flash flash memory above 200 layers, which is expected to be another decisive field of NAND Flash flash memory.
04 Silicon wafer supply continues to be tight! Shenggao's production capacity in 2026 is sold out
According to Bloomberg, Sumco, a major supplier of silicon wafers in the semiconductor industry, said its capacity by 2026 is sold out, suggesting that the shortage of silicon wafers may not ease for years to come.
Senggo, one of the few companies to offer dedicated silicon wafers, said after earnings on Wednesday that its 300mm silicon wafer capacity is fully booked for the next five years and does not currently accept long-term orders for 150mm and 200mm silicon wafers, but demand is likely to continue to outstrip supply in the coming years.
Shenggao said that despite strong demand from customers who need long-term supply, it is simply unable to expand production this year. The company has done everything it can to optimize its existing production line, and the imbalance between supply and demand for its full suite of products, including 200 mm and 300 mm silicon wafers, is consistent.
05
Toshiba announced a roadmap for HDDs, launching 30TB hard drives as soon as 2023
A few days ago, Toshiba held an investor conference in Japan, and Hiroyuki Sato, President and CEO of Toshiba Electronic Components and Storage Co., Ltd., announced the roadmap for Toshiba's next-generation hard drives. To meet the surge in market demand, Toshiba plans to use its proprietary technologies, including FC-MAMR (Magnetic Flux Control - Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording), MAS-MAMR (Microwave Assisted Switching - Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording) and magnetic sheet stacking technology, to launch hard drives with a capacity of 30 TB or even higher by fiscal year 2023.
According to previously published information, Toshiba's MAS-MAMR technology will use microwaves to change the coercivity of the hard disk media even more, making the track narrower, and thus increasing the area density. The technology was jointly developed by Showa Denko, TDK and Toshiba as part of the MAMR technology.