Samsung will present QLC NAND memory with 280 layers in February

Samsung will present a new QLC NAND memory with 280 layers next month. That would currently be the highest number of layers in the industry. Such NAND memory with more layers should make it possible to produce cheaper SSDs with more capacity.

Samsung will show the new QLC NAND memory on February 20 during the ISSCC 2024 trade show in San Francisco. The company will then give a presentation about ‘280-layer nand memory chips with four bits per cell and a density of 28.5 Gbit per mm²’. Chinese memory maker YMTC currently produces the QLC Nand with the highest data density, of 19.8 Gbit/mm². The memory chips each achieve transfer rates of 3.2Gbit/s and have a capacity of 1Tbit, which would amount to 128GB per chip.

This may concern Samsung’s new V9 NAND memory, as Samsung’s V8 NAND already has 238 layers. However, the manufacturer does not confirm this in the ISSCC planning. The memory maker previously shared first details about its ninth generation qlc-nand. Samsung previously said that the bit density of its V9 memory would be more than 80 percent higher than its V7 memory. The manufacturer also mentioned I/O speeds of 2.4Gbit/s in 2022, which would have been increased to 3.2Gbit/s according to the new listing. With the V7 memory of the South Korean tech giant, those speeds were 1.6 Gbit/s.

Samsung is not yet sharing any technical details about its new V9 NAND memory. Samsung previously confirmed that it wants to start production of its V9 QLC Nand in 2024 at the latest. It is not yet known when the first SSDs with this type of NAND will become available.