Hyundai starts long road toward 4G DRAM output

Electronic News, Oct 14, 1996 by Peter Brown

Mountain View, Calif.--Hyundai Electronics signed a joint development agreement with Eaton Semiconductor Equipment Operations to develop the equipment needed to make 4-gigabit DRAMs. However, don't look for the large memory devices to be on the shelf of an electronics discount superstore near you anytime soon.

Industry executives said 4G DRAM won't be available for an estimated 10- to 12 years. The obstacles to implementing the technology at that density level include equipment, packaging, process geometries and market-need just to name a few

"What we have to realize is we are just about to bring out and sample 256-megabit in late '97 or early '98," said Mark Ellsberry, VP of memory marketing at Hyundai."Many companies have delivered samples but that doesn't mean much for production. We think we will be selling them in 1998."

Hyundai and Eaton will develop low energy ion implanters designed specifically for advanced DRAM and logic manufacturing.

"We can learn a lot in 10 years. Whatever happens, it will have to be a practical evolution of memory," Mr. Ellsberry noted. "This is the first part of the equation--to build the production line or at least a prototype for a production line. After this we will be able to focus our attention to the next step in the process."

George Robillard, VP of memory products at Hyundai-competitor Fujitsu, said that company will be developing its own 4G DRAMs in a similar time frame. "It is quite normal to be working on the longest part of the process 10- to 12 years in advance of when that process will be in production."

Mr. Robillard pushed the time-frame for 4G DRAMs out a bit further than Hyundai's projection, however, saying he doesn't expect them to come into their own until sometime after the year 2008.

"First off the process technology would have to be scaled all the way down to 0.07-micron before we could do it. Most people are pushing 0.25 and the industry standard is pretty much 0.35. The second aspect would be to start manufacturing 12-inch (300mm) or even 16-inch wafers. And the third and most important aspect is that there aren't any practical applications that require that much memory; not even close."

Cecil Conkle, assistant VP of DRAM marketing at Mitsubishi, agreed with Mr. Robillard's assessment, commenting that any move in such an early cycle of the development would have "nil impact on the market" and that by the time a 4G DRAM would be available in the market--approximately 2010 he estimates--"PCs will have fallen behind DRAMs so far that they would still have no use for such a dense memory."

Mr. Conkle cited concerns such as packaging issues including having the appropriate number of pins required for such a complex device. He also noted that the silicon in a 4G DRAM would be roughly an inch on each side, requiring improvements in DRAM manufacturing capabilities due to such a large piece of silicon.

Jeff Mailloux, DRAM marketing manager for Micron Technology, said that process technology is a big concern but so is granularity and bandwidth issues that have not even been discussed yet among major DRAM manufacturers.

"However, it's not too early to be investing in process development, however. That is a very good idea. Not too early for that at all," Mr. Mailloux said.

According to Kevin Krehbiel, NEC's DRAM product marketing manager, NEC has roadmaps to the year 2020 for 4G devices and beyond.

"NEC is in a strong technical position in that we are in high production of 64-megabit DRAM already and we have shown working silicon for one gigabit DRAM," Mr. Krehbiel said. "As far as four-gigabit DRAM, this is all going to depend upon what the market demands. If they want four gigs of DRAM then NEC and other companies will be there."

Mr. Krehbiel said NEC will more than likely do most of its design and equipment manufacturing and development in-house. So an agreement such as the one Eaton and Hyundai signed would more than likely not come about in the NEC camp.