Micron Technology announced that it is the first in the industry to ship DDR5 memory chips manufactured using EUV semiconductor lithography. The memory is being shipped to select partners to evaluate the performance of today’s most advanced solutions. The new chips offer increased bandwidth, lower power consumption, and higher cell density — all essential for advancing AI, from gadgets to servers.
Image source: Micron
Micron’s new memory continues to be a 10nm product. There is no exact information on how close the process technology figure is to 10nm. But this is already the third approach to it and, more importantly, the company has finally moved to using lithographic scanners in the extreme ultraviolet range with a wavelength of 13.5 nm (EUV). Further scaling will be easier.
According to Micron, 16 Gb DDR5 chips have begun shipping to select partners. The memory crystals were manufactured using the 1γ (gamma) process technology. Previous process technologies of this class — 1α (alpha) and 1β (beta) — were implemented using scanners with a wavelength of 193 nm. Talking about the advantages of the 1γ generation chips, the company compares them with the previous generation DDR5 chips — 1β. Compared to them, the new products are 15% faster (up to 9200 MT/s), consume more than 20% less energy and have a 30% higher cell density on the crystal.
Improved memory characteristics will be in demand in peripherals with AI support, in PCs with AI functions, and in servers running large language models. Thus, the range of memory with 1γ technological standards will not be limited to the production of DDR5 chips, but will also be expanded by the release of other types of memory, such as LPDDR5X.