Samsung Electronics has begun mass producing the industry's first 4-bit (QLC, quad-level cell) 4-terabyte (TB) SATA solid-state drive (SSD) for consumers. Based on 1-terabit (Tb) V-NAND with performance equivalent to the company's 3-bit design, Samsung's QLC SSD is expected to bring a new level of efficiency to consumer SSDs, Samsung said. With its new 1Tb 4-bit V-NAND chip, Samsung will be able to efficiently produce a 128GB memory card for smartphones that will lead the charge toward higher capacities for high-performance memory storage. Typically, as data stored within a memory cell increases from three bits to four, the chip capacity per unit area would rise and the electrical charge (used to determine information from a sensor) would decrease by as much as 50% making it considerably more difficult to maintain a device's desired performance and speed. However, Samsung said its 4-bit 4TB QLC SATA SSD maintains its performance levels at the same level as a 3-bit SSD, by using a 3-bit SSD controller and TurboWrite technology, while increasing drive capacity through the use of 32 chips, all based on 64-layer fourth-generation 1Tb V-NAND. The 4-bit QLC SSD enables a sequential read speed of 540 MB/s and a sequential write speed of 520 MB/s, and comes with a three-year warranty. Samsung plans to introduce several 4-bit consumer SSDs later in 2018 with 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities in the widely used 2.5-inch form factor.

Samsung Electronics has introduced two new ISOCELL image sensors: 1.28-micrometer 12-megapixel ISOCELL Fast 2L9 with Dual Pixel technology, and ultra-small 0.9-microemter 24-megapixel ISOCELL Slim 2X7 with Tetracell technology. Samsung ISOCELL image sensors fall into four categories - Fast, Slim, Bright and Dual - depending on their key attributes, according to the vendor. As market demand for sleeker smartphones with advanced features increases, ISOCELL Fast 2L9 and Slim 2X7 both offer high resolution image sensors in small chip packages, delivering detailed pictures in low-light environments without a camera bump. Samsung ISOCELL Fast 2L9 and ISOCELL Slim 2X7 are new image sensors that fully utilize Samsung's advanced pixel technology, and are highly versatile as they can be placed in both front and rear of a smartphone, according to the company.

Samsung Electronics has increased the production volume of its 8GB high bandwidth memory-2 (HBM2) to meet growing market needs across a wide range of applications including AI, high-performance computing (HPC), advanced graphics, network systems and enterprise servers. Samsung's 8GB HBM2 consists of eight 8Gb HBM2 dies and a buffer die at the bottom of the stack, which are all vertically interconnected by TSVs and microbumps. With each die containing over 5,000 TSVs, a single Samsung 8GB HBM2 package has over 40,000 TSVs, according to the vendor. The utilization of so many TSVs, including spares, ensures high performance, by enabling data paths to be switched to different TSVs when a delay in data transmission occurs. The HBM2 is also designed to prevent overheating beyond certain temperature to guarantee high reliability. In meeting increasing market demand, Samsung anticipates that its volume production of the 8GB HBM2 will cover more than 50% of its HBM2 production by the first half of 2018.