SANDISK receives prestigious award at 2009 International solid state circuit conference

IEEE Honors SanDisk’s Groundbreaking X3 Technology And Innovative Multi-Level Cell Solutions 

ISSCC CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.– SanDisk Corporation today announced that it has received the Lewis Winner Outstanding Paper Award at the 2009 IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), which is being held Feb 8-12 at the San Francisco Marriot Hotel. The award was presented to Yan Li, who delivered a paper at last year’s conference entitled “A 16Gb 3b/Cell NAND Flash Memory in 56nm with 8MB/s Write Rate,” which detailed key advancements leading to the development of 3-bit-per-cell (X3) memory on 56 nanometer (nm) technology.

“On behalf of the team at SanDisk, I am honored to receive this prestigious award in recognition of our successful development of the 3-bit-per-cell technology,” said Yan Li, senior design manager, SanDisk. “Utilizing patented All Bit Line (ABL) architecture with advanced proprietary programming algorithms and multilevel data storage management schemes, we produced the X3 NAND flash memory chip without sacrificing performance or reliability.”

“Multi-level flash memory design is a complex topic, particularly when one is concerned with achieving high write-rate. This outstanding paper describes a clear advance in the combination of high level and high rate, achieving 3 bits-per-cell at 8 MB/s,” said Dr. Kenneth C. Smith, ISSCC Awards Chair.

SanDisk co-developed 3-bit-per-cell technology with its memory technology and manufacturing partner, Toshiba. X3 enables high manufacturing efficiency and lower die cost, while maintaining performance and reliability found in conventional multilevel cell (MLC) chips.