Samsung to begin mass producing world’s slimmest DRAM

0.65mm LPDDR5X DRAM

Samsung Electronics Co. is set to begin mass production of its 12-nanometer-class LPDDR5X DRAM, the industry’s thinnest mobile DRAM, in 12- and 16-gigabyte packages, the company said on Tuesday.

The new product, with a thickness of 0.65 millimeters, is the slimmest among all existing LPDDR DRAMs with capacities of 12GB or more. Samsung Electronics optimized the package technology, circuit board, and epoxy molding compound (EMC) by stacking four layers of the industry’s smallest 12nm-class LPDDR DRAM. This has reduced the thickness by approximately 9 percent compared to the previous generation and improved thermal resistance by about 21.2 percent.

It also achieved the thinnest possible package, thinning the wafer by maximizing the back-lap process technology. Thin packaging is equally important for mobile DRAMs as low power consumption, high performance, and high capacity, and is also in line with the recent trend of mobile devices becoming slimmer with more internal components. Thin mobile DRAMs enable slim device designs and help manage internal heat more stably.

[Courtesy of Samsung Electronics Co.]

Samsung’s new product secures additional space due to its reduced thickness, facilitating air flow and aiding internal temperature control.

On-device artificial intelligence (AI), which requires high performance, typically activates a temperature control function to limit performance if the device temperature exceeds a certain threshold. By incorporating Samsung’s new DRAM, the activation of this function can be delayed, minimizing reductions in device performance such as speed and screen brightness.

According to market tracker Omdia, the capacity per unit of mobile DRAM in high-performance smartphones is expected to increase about 2.16 times from 7.02GB in 2023 to 15.22GB in 2028.

LPDDR DRAM is expanding beyond mobile devices to AI accelerators, PCs, automotive electronics, and many other devices where user data is generated, emerging as a key memory solution.

Samsung plans to supply this 0.65mm mobile LPDDR5X DRAM to mobile application processor and mobile device manufacturers in a timely manner, aiming to expand the low-power DRAM market. It also plans to develop the thinnest LPDDR DRAM packages with 24GB modules based on a 6-layer structure and 32GB modules based on an 8-layer structure.

“As the demand for high-performance on-device AI increases, the LPDDR DRAM’s ability to improve temperature control has become as important as its performance. We will continue to develop low-power DRAMs that are thinner than existing products and provide optimized solutions,” the company said.