Recently, the 11th EEVIA Annual China Hard Technology Media Forum and industry chain Research and Innovation Trend Outlook Seminar was grandly opened in Shenzhen. Zhang Jing, product market manager of Zhaoyi Innovation Memory Division, was invited to attend, with the title of “Continuous development, Zhaoyi’s new generation of storage products to help industry innovation”, shared Zhaoyi Innovation’s extensive layout in the field of embedded memory, as well as innovative thinking for the wave of industrial technological change, and jointly discussed the development trend of the memory market under the “semiconductor industry fluctuation cycle”.

GD Flash’s pioneering road: 14 years to achieve 21.2 billion shipments

As we all know, Flash is a non-volatile memory, in the case of power failure and power failure, the stored content will not be lost, is an essential component of most electronic systems. As a company with memory as a starting point, Zhayi Innovation launched the first domestic SPI NOR Flash in 2009, after years of product development and market expansion, the cumulative shipment of Flash products has exceeded 21.2 billion, and the market share has steadily increased.

“Ten years ago, Flash was used in consumer products such as USB sticks, DVDS and LCD TVS; Ten years later, the automotive, industrial, Internet of things, 5G communication and other fields have become popular application scenarios for Flash.” Zhang Jing said in the presentation: “Following the pace of technological change, Zhaoyi Innovation Flash continues to lead breakthroughs, and now offers 27 product families, 16 product capacities, 4 voltage ranges, 7 temperature specifications and 29 packaging methods, covering almost all application scenarios that require storage code.”

Zhaoyi innovative memory products on display

So, how do developers choose the right Flash product? Zhang Jing from different applications to Flash capacity, read performance, packaging and other aspects of understanding.

In terms of capacity, according to different applications and system complexity, the Flash capacity required for different embedded systems to store code varies greatly, for example, the Flash capacity required for consumer electronics is 512Kb to 4Gb, and the Flash capacity required for Internet of Things devices is 1Mb to 256Mb. At present, Zhaoyi innovative NOR Flash series offers a capacity range from 512Kb to 2Gb, of which 512Mb, 1Gb, 2Gb SPI NOR Flash products are large capacity to fill the gap of domestic NOR Flash; The SLC NAND Flash series is available in a capacity range of 1Gb to 8Gb, enabling large capacity data storage needs in consumer electronics, PC peripheral, network communications, automotive/industrial and other fields.

In terms of performance, the GD25T/LT series is the industry’s first ultra-high performance and ultra-high reliability vehicle gauge level 4-port SPI NOR Flash products, with a data throughput of up to 200MB/s, built-in ECC algorithm and CRC verification function, which can meet the stringent requirements of on-board applications. GD25X/LX series is further expanded, is an 8-port SPI NOR Flash product, data throughput can reach 400MB/s, to achieve the industry’s highest level of product performance, enabling a wide range of automotive electronics applications.

In terms of packaging, Zhaoeasy innovation is a leader in the storage industry, for example, in the 64Mb capacity, Zhaoeasy innovation launched the industry’s ultra-small size of 3 x 2 x 0.4mm FO-USON8 package products, which is fully compatible with the traditional 3 x 2mm USON8 package. The maximum supported capacity in a traditional 3 x 2 USON8 package is 32Mb. This means that developers do not need to change the PCB, just replace a Flash Flash with a Mega easy innovation FO-USON8 package to achieve double the capacity. Not only that, in May this year, Zhaoeasy innovation launched the GD25LE128EXH chip using 3 x 3 x 0.4mm FO-USON8 package, which is the smallest plastic packaging product that can be achieved in the industry at 128Mb capacity, and is fully compatible with the traditional 3 x 4mm USON8 package. The maximum support capacity of the traditional 3 x 4 mm USON8 package is 64Mb, and the developer can double the capacity without changing the PCB and replacing the GD25LE128EXH chip, which can well meet the pursuit of “light, thin and small” for wearable electronic products.

Explore the energy-efficient application of advanced process SoC, and 1.2V ultra-low voltage Flash contributes to green carbon

With the development of the dual-carbon concept, the application needs of high energy efficiency and low power consumption are increasingly prominent in the semiconductor field. At the same time, SoC main chips for mobile devices, cloud computing, automotive electronics, wearable and other applications are also moving towards advanced processes of 7nm and below; In general, the more advanced the process node, the higher the performance of the SoC main chip and the lower the power consumption. At this time, the SoC’s core power supply voltage is also reduced to 1.2V, if the conventional 1.8V NOR Flash is used, the peripheral circuit design will become complicated, and the difficulty of product development will be increased.

As shown in the figure below, the SoC with core voltage of 1.2V communicates with NOR Flash of 1.8V. The SoC design needs to add a booster circuit to increase the internal 1.2V voltage to 1.8V, so as to match the 1.8V voltage level of the external NOR Flash. This obviously increases the complexity of the circuit design and increases the overall power consumption. The solution on the right is that the NOR Flash core power supply and IO interface power supply voltage are both 1.2V, which is consistent with the SoC core voltage 1.2V, which can simplify the power supply design, eliminate the boost circuit of the SoC, and reduce the system power consumption.