SK Hynix unveils industry’s fastest mobile DRAM chip LPDDR5T

SK Hynix Inc., the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, said on Wednesday it has developed the world’s fastest mobile DRAM chip and sent sample products to customers for certification.

The new product, LPDDR5T, operates at a data rate of 9.6 gigabits per second (Gbps), 13% faster than the company’s previous generation LPDDR5X chip unveiled in November, it said.

The company said it provided customers with samples of a 16 gigabyte (GB) multi-chip package, which combines multiple LPDDR5T, or lower power double data rate 5 turbo, chips into one package.

The packaged product can process 77 GB of data per second, meaning 15 full-HD quality movies can be transferred in one second, it said.

Running in the ultra-low voltage range of 1.01V to 1.12V set by JEDEC, the international semiconductor standards council, the latest chip uses less power than previous models.

MASS PRODUCTION IN H2

SK Hynix plans to begin mass production in the second half of this year, using cutting-edge 1a technology, which applies to fourth-generation 10-nanometer DRAM products.

The key advantage of the 1a technology is that it grants a 25% increase in the number of chips produced using the same-sized wafer, compared with the third generation based on the 1z nanometer node.

The company also said it used High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology to slash power consumption and improve efficiency.

Using HKMG technology for the insulation layer reduces current leakage and improves power efficiency, making such chips especially suitable for energy-consuming data centers.

GAME CHANGER

LPDDR DRAM is becoming the standard for a variety of devices because of its low-power and high-performance characteristics, expanding its use beyond smartphones to PCs, high-end computing (HPC) and servers.

LPDDR memory is also an important component in vehicles as a massive amount of data processing is required for autonomous driving.

As the need for faster, smaller and more power-efficient memory increases across various sectors, chipmakers expect LPDDR DRAM to be widely used in artificial intelligence (AI) and metaverse businesses.

“With the development of LPDDR5T, we have fulfilled customers’ demand for ultra-high-performance products,” said Ryu Sung-soo, head of DRAM Product Planning at SK Hynix.

“We will continue to work on the technology development to lead the next-generation semiconductor market and become a game changer to the IT world.”

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, said in October it has successfully proven the performance of its latest LPDDR5X DRAM on Qualcomm Technologies Inc.’s Snapdragon mobile platform at a speed of 8.5 Gbps.

Write to Sungsu Bae at baebae@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.