The history of memory chips: a brief introduction

On September 12, 1958, Jack Kilby from Texas Instruments successfully integrated five components, including a germanium transistor, to create the world's first germanium integrated circuit .

In July of the following year, Robert Norton Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor Company in the United States successfully invented the world's first silicon integrated circuit based on silicon planar technology .

Jack Kilby (left), Robert Noyce (right)

As everyone now knows, the inventions of these two giants are of extremely important significance. The emergence of integrated circuits has strongly promoted the miniaturization of electronic devices and laid the foundation for the full arrival of the chip era.

After entering the 1960s, with the development of computer technology, the electronics industry began to try to use integrated circuit technology in the field of computer storage.

At that time, semiconductor storage technology was divided into two directions: ROM and RAM. ROM is a read-only memory, and the stored data will not be lost due to power failure, also known as external memory. RAM is a random access memory, used to store computing data. After power failure, the data will be lost, also known as internal memory .

Today, we focus on the field of RAM.

In 1966, Robert H. Dennard from IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center first invented DRAM memory (dynamic random access memory).

Robert Dennard

This kind of memory is based on the "MOS transistor + capacitor structure" and has the characteristics of low energy consumption, fast reading and writing speed, and high integration. Until now, our computer memory, mobile phone memory, graphics card memory, etc. are all based on DRAM technology.

In June 1968, IBM registered a patent for transistor DRAM . However, just as they were preparing to industrialize DRAM, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an antitrust investigation against them.

These investigations delayed IBM's progress in DRAM industrialization, thus creating opportunities for other companies.

Soon after, in 1969, the Advanced Memory System company in California, USA, took the lead and successfully produced the world's first DRAM chip (with a capacity of only 1KB) and sold it to the computer manufacturer Honeywell. (Honeywell).

After Honeywell received the batch of DRAM chips, they found some problems in the process, so they found a newly established company and asked for help.

This company is Intel , which was co-founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce (the inventor of the silicon integrated circuit mentioned above) and Gordon Moore (the originator of Moore's Law) .

Robert Noyce (left) and Gordon Moore (right)

After the establishment of Intel, its main business was the development of transistor semiconductor memory chips.

At that time, there were two main research directions in semiconductor technology, namely bipolar transistors and field-effect (MOS) transistors . Intel itself didn't know which direction was correct, so it established two research groups to follow up on the two technical directions.

In April 1969, the bipolar group took the lead in making a breakthrough and launched the C3101, a 64-bit capacity static random access memory (SRAM) chip. This chip is Intel's first product, and its main customer is Honeywell.

Intel C3101

The FET team was not far behind, and in July 1969, they launched a 256-bit static random access memory chip, the C1101, which was the world's first large-capacity SRAM memory.

In October 1970, the field-effect transistor team continued its efforts and successfully launched its first DRAM chip (also considered to be the world's first mature commercial DRAM chip) - C1103 .

Intel C1103 has 18 pins, 1Kbit capacity, and sells for $10.

After its launch, C1103 achieved great success and quickly became the world's best-selling semiconductor memory, serving important customers such as HP and DEC.

With the help of C1103, Intel also grew rapidly. In 1972, Intel's number of employees exceeded 1,000 and its annual revenue exceeded 23 million US dollars. In 1974, Intel's DRAM products had a global market share of an astonishing 82.9%.

Intel's early teams

While Intel was making a fortune in the DRAM field, its competitors were also rising rapidly.

In 1973, American manufacturers such as Texas Instruments (TI) and Mostek successively entered the DRAM market.

After Intel launched C1103, Texas Instruments dismantled and copied it and studied the DRAM architecture and process through reverse engineering. Later, in 1971 and 1973, they launched 2K and 4K DRAM, becoming Intel's strong rival.

Texas Instruments, Intel's old rival

Mostek was founded (in 1969) by LJ Sevin, the former chief engineer of the Texas Instruments Semiconductor Center, and its technical strength is equally impressive.

In 1973, they launched a 16-pin DRAM product, MK4096, which also challenged Intel's market position (other companies all had 22 pins, and the fewer pins, the lower the manufacturing cost).

In 1976, Mostek launched the MK4116 , which used the POLY-II (double-layer polysilicon gate) process and had a capacity of 16K. This product was a huge success, reversing the market competition pattern and increasing its DRAM market share to 75%.

MK4116

Unfortunately, not long after, due to a malicious takeover from the capital market, Mostek's equity structure changed drastically, the management was in turmoil, technical personnel were rapidly lost, and the company quickly fell into a trough.

In 1979, the company was acquired by United Technologies Corporation (UTC) of the United States. Later, it was sold to STMicroelectronics.

In October 1978, four Mostek technicians left their jobs to co-found a new storage technology company in the basement of a dental office in Idaho.

This company later became the storage industry giant - Micron .

Micron's founding team

In addition to domestic competitors, the greater threat Intel faces comes from abroad. More specifically, from Japan .

In the 1970s, Japan's economy rose rapidly. In order to occupy a favorable position in the global technology industry chain, they have made careful layout in the field of semiconductor technology.

In 1976, Japan established the VLSI Joint Research and Development Body (VLSI: THE VERY LARGE SCALE INTEGRATED) through a national system.

The joint R&D body has a total of 6 laboratories, specializing in research in the fields of high-precision processing technology, silicon crystallization technology, process processing technology, monitoring and evaluation technology, and device design technology.

Soon after, this joint R&D group successfully conquered core semiconductor processing equipment such as electron beam lithography machines and dry etching devices, as well as leading process technology and semiconductor design capabilities, laying the foundation for the take-off of the Japanese semiconductor industry.

In 1977, with the help of the VLSI project, Japan successfully developed 64K DRAM, matching the research and development progress of American companies.

By the 1980s, Japanese manufacturers (Fujitsu, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, NEC, Toshiba, etc.) continued to make efforts and began to surpass American companies by virtue of their quality and price advantages.

In 1986, Japan's global market share of memory products rose to 65%, while that of the United States fell to 30%.

Under fierce market competition, Intel Corporation of the United States directly announced that it would abandon the DRAM market (1985). The only one that can survive in the cracks of Japanese manufacturers is Motorola.

Global Semiconductor Company Ranking (1987)

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Just when Japanese semiconductor manufacturers were about to dominate the market, the external political environment began to undergo subtle changes.

In 1985, the Cold War atmosphere between the United States and the Soviet Union continued to weaken, and trade frictions between Japan and the United States continued to increase. Under the pressure of huge fiscal deficit, the Reagan administration in the United States began to shift its attention to suppressing the Japanese economy .

This year, the United States led the famous Plaza Accord , forcing the yen to appreciate. At the same time, the Semiconductor Industry Association of the United States also launched an anti-dumping lawsuit against Japanese semiconductors and other products. Later, the two countries reached a price supervision agreement on Japanese semiconductor products.

Under the successive blows, the market share of Japanese semiconductor products plummeted and it soon lost its dominance.

█The rise of Korean semiconductors

So, have the market shares given up by Japanese manufacturers been taken away by American manufacturers?

not at all.

As the saying goes, "The mantis stalks the cicada, but the oriole is behind." While Japanese manufacturers were rapidly losing ground, another competitor from the United States emerged, and that was South Korea .

As early as when Japan launched the VLSI project, the South Korean government was also not idle. They established the Korea Institute of Electronics Technology (KIET) in the Gumi Industrial Park in North Gyeongsang Province , recruited American semiconductor talents with high salaries, and focused on the research and development of key integrated circuit technologies.

In addition to KIET, Korean chaebols such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai and Daewoo have also taken a fancy to the market prospects of semiconductor technology. They have digested and absorbed it and accumulated technological strength by purchasing and introducing technology patents and processing equipment.

In 1984, Samsung Semiconductor built its first memory factory and mass-produced 64K DRAM. No one expected that this little-known Korean company would become a "giant " in the industry in the future .

The DRAM industry has experienced nearly 40 years of development since the 1980s. If we use one word to describe these 40 years, it would be "bloody" .

The reason is very simple. The biggest characteristic of the DRAM semiconductor industry is its cyclical pattern. Industry insiders once concluded that DRAM semiconductor storage will lose money for two years for every year it makes money. The so-called "make one and lose two . "

Under this strong cyclical law, it is very difficult to survive in the long run. DRAM manufacturers need to have strong cash flow and financing capabilities to maintain high-intensity R&D expenditures and keep the team stable.

During the loss cycle, DRAM manufacturers need more money to survive. In a boom cycle, one cannot be careless. Manufacturers need to be very cautious when choosing the time to expand production capacity. Otherwise, supply may exceed demand and profits may turn into losses.

Forty years ago, there were about 40-50 DRAM manufacturers in the world. Nowadays, there are only three companies left, which shows how cruel the competition is.

Over the past forty years, one company has not only managed to survive, but has also defeated countless rivals and maintained its dominance for a long time. This company is the aforementioned Samsung .

Samsung Electronics

Some of you may have heard of the story of Samsung. They adopted a "killer" strategy that has been written into the textbooks of countless business schools - counter-cyclical investment .

Simply put, counter-cyclical investment means taking advantage of the cyclical nature of an industry and, when the industry is in a downturn and competitors are shrinking their scale, doing the opposite and increasing investment, expanding production capacity, and further suppressing prices, thereby exacerbating competitors' losses or even causing them to go bankrupt.

In other words, everyone will be burned to death, but I am richer. I will burn you to death and I will continue to live.

Samsung, a company that relies on the power of South Korea, has successively adopted a "counter-cyclical investment" strategy, defeated countless opponents, and became the leader in the semiconductor storage field.

Next, let’s take a closer look at what has happened in the past few decades.

• The first “counter-cyclical investment”
  

Samsung’s first “counter-cyclical investment” took place in the mid-1980s as mentioned above.

At that time, the war between Japan and the United States was in full swing, the DRAM market was generally sluggish, and prices plummeted. The price of DRAM chips fell from US$4 per piece (1984) to US$0.3 per piece (1985).

• The second “counter-cyclical investment”

In 1992, an explosion occurred at Japan's Sumitomo resin factory, resulting in tight supply of raw materials and a sharp rise in memory prices . This year, Samsung took the lead in launching the world's first 64M D RAM.

In 1993, the global semiconductor market began to weaken again. At this time, Samsung repeated its old trick and adopted a second "counter-cyclical investment". They invested in building an 8-inch silicon wafer production line for the production of DRAM.

In 1995, the release of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system greatly stimulated the demand for memory, driving up memory prices significantly, and Samsung's investment paid off. Major manufacturers around the world realized this and invested in expanding production capacity.

The good times did not last long. By the end of 1995, the 8-inch wafer fabs of various manufacturers were put into production, which led to a sharp increase in production capacity, which in turn caused the supply of DRAM to exceed demand. As a result, the seller's market turned into a buyer's market, and prices began to fall again.

Under this situation, manufacturers are forced to cut production and reduce the scale of investment.

Samsung continues to expand investment. In 1996, Samsung launched the world's first 1GB DRAM, establishing itself as an industry leader.

From 1996 to 1998, DRAM continued to be in a downward cycle.

In 1999, the downward trend in DRAM prices eased. Because of the emergence of the Internet bubble, the DRAM industry entered a short-term boom stage.

This year, amid fierce competition, the memory industry has undergone several major changes :

On the Korean side, Hyundai Memory of Korea merged with LG Semiconductor to form Hyundai Semiconductor. Later, it was split from Hyundai Group (in 2001) and renamed Hynix .

In the United States, Micron acquired the memory division of Texas Instruments.

On the Japanese side, the DRAM businesses of Hitachi, NEC, and Mitsubishi Electric were integrated to form ELPIDA .

In the European department, the semiconductor department of Siemens Group became independent and established Yiheng Technology. A few years later, in 2002, the name was changed to Infineon . Later, in 2006, Infineon Technologies' Memory Division was split and became Qimonda .

In 2000, among the top five global DRAM market share, two were Korean manufacturers, namely Samsung ranked first (23.00%) and Hyundai ranked third (19.36%).

Soon after, the Internet bubble burst and the global economic crisis broke out. The PC market was hit hard, the market demand for DRAM also dropped rapidly, and the price took another dive.

In 2001, the DRAM market size was halved from US$28.8 billion to US$11 billion.

From 2002 to 2006, the DRAM market gradually recovered from its lows and the overall growth situation was good.

In 2006, Samsung developed the world's first 1GB DRAM using 50nm technology, while Hynix developed the world's fastest 200MHz 512MB Mobile DRAM at the time.

During that period, the DRAM market gradually formed a five-strong structure, namely: Samsung (South Korea), SK Hynix (South Korea), Qimonda (Germany), Micron (US) and Elpida (Japan).

• The third “counter-cyclical investment”

In 2007, Microsoft launched Vista, which consumed a lot of memory. DRAM manufacturers expected a huge increase in memory demand and increased their production capacity.

But in reality, Vista's sales were very poor and did not boost the memory market, leading to overcapacity again.

What is even more tragic is that in 2008, the financial crisis broke out, causing the DRAM market to worsen. Memory prices have been falling, even falling below material costs.

During this critical period, Samsung resorted to the "counter-cyclical investment" strategy for the third time to further expand production capacity and exacerbate industry losses.

In the spring of 2009, the third-ranked German manufacturer Qimonda declared bankruptcy, and European manufacturers officially withdrew from the DRAM market.

Qimonda

In 2011, DRAM supply once again exceeded actual demand and prices plummeted. This time, Elpida failed to survive and declared bankruptcy, marking the complete withdrawal of Japanese manufacturers from the DRAM industry.

Elpida chip

As a result, the top five became the top three, leaving only Samsung (South Korea), Micron (US), and Hynix (South Korea) in the DRAM field. The combined market share of the three companies exceeds 93%.

The DRAM memory market has not changed much since 2011. However, the user demand and market environment of DRAM have changed a lot.

In addition to traditional PCs, with the rapid development of mobile Internet and the Internet of Things, smart phones, wearable devices, and Internet of Things devices (cameras, etc.) have risen rapidly, greatly driving the demand for DRAM.

The development of cloud computing, big data and AI has driven the increase in the number of data centers, resulting in a sharp increase in servers and network equipment, and also stimulated the growth of DRAM sales.

These demands have gradually led to the subdivision of DRAM into standard DRAM, mobile DRAM, graphics DRAM, niche DRAM and other categories.

Standard DRAM is mainly used in PCs, servers, etc. Mobile DRAM is mainly LPDDR, which is used in scenarios such as smartphones and tablets. Graphics DDR is used for graphics card memory (GDDR). Niche DRAM is mainly used in products such as LCD TVs, digital set-top boxes, and network players.

LPDDR

The strong demand in multiple product scenarios has driven up the price of DRAM. Around 2018, the demand for digital currencies such as Bitcoin exploded, ushering in a rare "golden period" for the DRAM market.

After 2019, memory prices fell more due to early production capacity expansion and destocking factors. Cryptocurrency market prices collapsed and the smartphone market entered a mature stage, resulting in weak market demand and DRAM once again entering a trough.

According to data released by relevant institutions, the DRAM market will enter a period of improvement from the second half of 2020 to May 2022.

Since June this year, the DRAM market has plummeted. Sales dropped by 36% in June and by 21% in July. It can be said to be a complete collapse and terrible. According to agency forecasts, the decline will further expand in the fourth quarter.

DRAM prices plummet

Next, let’s look at the development of DRAM over the years from a technical perspective.

DRAM chips have always used shrinking processes to increase storage density.

Every upgrade of DRAM manufacturing process requires a huge investment.

For example, the upgrade from 30nm to 20nm requires 30% more photolithography masks and doubles the number of non-photolithography process steps. The clean room plant area requirement also increases by more than 80% as the number of equipment increases.

In the past, these costs could be offset by more chips per wafer and the premium brought by performance. However, as the process continues to shrink, the gap between increased costs and revenues is gradually narrowing.

Around 2013, when the process technology entered 20nm, the manufacturing difficulty increased significantly. After 18/16nm, further reduction in size in two dimensions no longer has cost and performance advantages.

As a result, DRAM chip manufacturers began to find another way and began to study the expansion capabilities in the Z direction. In other words, we are beginning to promote 3D packaging.

As the industry leader, Samsung was the first to realize 3D DRAM from a packaging perspective. They used TSV packaging technology to stack multiple DRAM chips, thereby greatly improving the capacity and performance of a single memory stick. Later, various manufacturers followed suit, and 3D DRAM became mainstream.

In terms of product standards, the industry generally adopts the product standards set by the Joint Solid State Technology Association (JEDEC), which is the familiar DDR1-DDR5.

The three DRAM giants all have the mass production capabilities of DDR5/LPDDR5. Samsung is tinkering with DDR6 and is said to have completed the design in 2024.

In terms of chip manufacturing process, the current description of DRAM is different from the past. In the past, it was directly called 40nm and 20nm. Now, because the circuit structure is three-dimensional, the linear measurement method is no longer applicable, and terms such as 1X, 1Y, 1Z, 1α, 1β, and 1γ have emerged to express the process.

█The past and present of China’s DRAM industry

Finally, let’s take a look at the development of the domestic DRAM industry.

China is one of the important markets for semiconductor memory in the world and is also a "must compete" for global semiconductor memory manufacturers.

However, to be realistic, the development of our own DRAM industry lags far behind that of our competitors .

The start of the domestic DRAM industry can be traced back to the 1990s.

At that time, Japan's NEC established two joint ventures in mainland China to engage in the production of DRAM.

The first one was Shougang NEC , a joint venture between NEC and Shougang in 1991 .

Shougang NEC began producing 4M DRAM in 1995 using a 6-inch 1.2 micron process (later upgraded to 16M). Later, in 1997, the global price of DRAM plummeted, and Shougang NEC suffered a heavy blow and has never recovered since then. Later, Shougang NEC became an overseas foundry base of NEC and withdrew from the DRAM industry.

The second one was Huahong NEC, a joint venture between NEC and Huahong Group established in 1997 .

Hua Hong NEC started to produce the mainstream 64M DRAM memory chips using 8-inch 0.35-micron process technology in September 1999. After 2001, as NEC withdrew from the DRAM market, Hua Hong also withdrew from the DRAM industry.

In 2004, China launched its second attempt at the DRAM industry. The one who took action this time was SMIC .

At that time, SMIC invested in and built mainland China's first 12-inch wafer fab (Fab4) in Beijing. In 2006, it mass-produced 80nm technology and OEMed DRAM for Qimonda and Elpida.

The good times did not last long. In 2008, SMIC withdrew from the DRAM business due to business adjustments. The second attempt was declared a failure.

In 2015, China's DRAM procurement amount was approximately US$12 billion, accounting for 21.6% of global DRAM supply. The current situation of heavy reliance on imports has prompted China to start its third attempt at the DRAM business.

The most representative of this attempt are the three major memory bases in Wuhan, Hefei and Xiamen. With the help of industrial policies at the national and local levels, these bases have invested a large amount of capital (more than 250 billion yuan) to develop semiconductor storage technology and cultivate talents.

At present, the more representative domestic companies in the DRAM field are Hefei Changxin, Fujian Jinhua, Unigroup Guoxin, GigaDevice, Beijing Siliconware, Dongxin Semiconductor, Nanya Technology ( Taiwan, China ), Winbond Electronics (Taiwan, China), Powerchip ( Taiwan, China ) , etc.

Hefei Changxin is the leading company in DRAM memory chips in China. Their DRAM technology mainly comes from bankrupt German DRAM manufacturer Qimonda and Japanese manufacturer Elpida.

On September 20, 2019, Hefei Changxin announced the start of production of the first 12-inch DRAM factory in mainland China, and released the first 8G DDR4 manufactured using the 19nm process, which was a historic breakthrough.

According to the agency's forecast, Hefei Changxin's production capacity is expected to reach 125,000 pieces from 2022 to 2023 .

Everyone should have heard of Jinhua, Fujian . In the past few years, they were sanctioned by the US government and made a lot of news.

In May 2016, Fujian Jinhua cooperated with UMC to produce niche DRAM. In December 2017, Micron accused Fujian Jinhua and UMC of misappropriating its own memory chip technology . In January 2018, Fujian Jinhua also filed a lawsuit against Micron for patent infringement . In October 2018, Fujian Jinhua was included in the export control entity list. In November 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice sued UMC and Fujian Jinhua for stealing Micron’s trade secrets.

After a lot of trouble, UMC couldn't bear it anymore. At the end of January 2019, UMC announced that it would withdraw from the Fujian Jinhua DRAM project. In November 2021, UMC and Micron reached a settlement. At present, Fujian Jinhua’s review has not yet completed the final results.

Okay, I have written so much, and everyone who reads this is true love.

In short, DRAM memory is an important component of products such as computers and mobile phones, and is also an indispensable "part" of digital infrastructure.

At present, domestic DRAM memory has basically solved the problem of availability. The next step is to solve the problem of improving the yield rate and increasing the production capacity. In terms of financing capabilities, supporting industrial chain and talent echelon, we still need to continue to strengthen and move forward cautiously.

We hope that we can break the "top three" pattern as soon as possible and occupy a more important position in the DRAM field.

References:

1. " Who will solve this DRAM technology dilemma?" 》, Wang Kaiqi, Global Semiconductor Observer;

2. " The American Story of DRAM ", Xingguang Press;

3. " The Development History of Storage Technology ", Xie Changsheng;

4. "DRAM chip localization substitution process is tortuous, but the future is bright", Xiangcai Securities, Wang Pan and Wang Wenrui;

5. "Storage majors make another big gamble", Semiconductor Industry Observation;

6. "Memory Chip Industry Research Report", Guosen Securities;

7. "Domestic storage is waiting for a revolution", Fu Bin, Guoke;

8. "There is no more comprehensive article on semiconductor storage than this one", Xinshiye;

9. "Technology Brochure 035 - Flash Memory for Semiconductor Storage", Wu Mijin, Zhihu;
10. Related entries in Baidu Encyclopedia and Wikipedia.

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