Samsung begins mass production of QLC 9th-generation V-NAND

Samsung has announced the mass production of its groundbreaking one-terabit (Tb) quad-level cell (QLC) 9th-generation vertical NAND (V-NAND). This follows the successful rollout of the triple-level cell (TLC) version earlier this year.

Samsung’s QLC 9th-generation V-NAND brings several innovations, including the industry’s highest layer count achieved through its Channel Hole Etching technology and a double stack structure. This new NAND offers an 86 percent higher bit density compared to the previous generation, further optimizing performance for AI-driven enterprise SSD applications.

SungHoi Hur, Executive Vice President and Head of Flash Product & Technology at Samsung Electronics, emphasized the importance of this advancement. "Kicking off the successful mass production of QLC 9th-generation V-NAND just four months after the TLC version allows us to offer a full lineup of advanced SSD solutions that address the needs for the AI era," Hur said.

The QLC technology also introduces predictive program technology, which doubles write performance and boosts data input/output speed by 60 percent. Additionally, Samsung has enhanced power efficiency, cutting read and write power consumption by 30 percent and 50 percent, respectively. This improvement comes from Samsung’s Low-Power Design technology, which minimizes power usage by reducing the voltage necessary to drive NAND cells.

As Samsung expands its 9th-gen V-NAND lineup, it plans to incorporate this technology into various applications, from branded consumer products to mobile Universal Flash Storage (UFS), PCs, and server SSDs. Cloud service providers are expected to benefit from the improved performance and efficiency, as the demand for high-capacity storage solutions continues to grow in the AI era.