Hynix will ship the 10nm DRAM of 2nd generation in the 2nd half of 2019

Since the fourth quarter of last year, the global memory market has changed from rising to falling, the decline rate of the price is far beyond the expectation in the first quarter of 2019, it is resulting in a sharp reduction in the sales revenue for Micron, Samsung and Hynix. According to the reports, there is a 50% drop in Q1 profit for Micron and a 65% drop for Hynix. These main suppliers have said they are going to cut production to rise up prices, and maybe the dropping status of NAND Flash is really coming to an end?

As part of its Q1 financial report for 2019, SK Hynix announced that it would increase DRAM production capability for its first generation of 10 NM (1x nm) DRAM. And they will begin to produce and sell the memory of the second generation of 10nm manufacturing technology (also known as 1Y nm) in the second half of this year. Accelerating the transition to 10nm technology will enable the company to increase DRAM output, ultimately reduce costs and prepare for next-generation memory.

The first batch of products to be manufactured using SK Hynix 1Y nm production technology will be 8 Gb DDR4-3200 memory chips. Hynix said that the new production process can reduce the chip size of 8 Gb DDR4 devices by 20% and reduce their power consumption by 15%, it is the data comparing to use 1x nm manufacturing technology for production. In addition, the upcoming 8 Gb DDR4-3200 chip of SK Hynix has two important improvements: the four-phase clock scheme and the Sense amplifier control technology. The four-phase clock improves the signal strength and remains stable at high data transmission rates; at the same time, the SAC reduces the possibility of data errors that may occur when the transistor size is reduced.

Although these technologies are important even now for DDR4, it is reported that SK Hynix will use its 1Y nm process to manufacture DDR5, LPDDR5 and GDDR6 DRAM. Therefore, Hynix must upgrade its second generation of 10nm manufacturing technology as soon as possible to prepare for the future.

The transition from old size to 10nm DRAM manufacturing technology has been very slow led by SK Hynix. The second-generation of 10nm products from Micron and Samsung have already begun to ship, and the second-generation 10nm manufacturing technology from SK Hynix seems to be used in commercial products in the second half of 2019. Hynix reported that there is 65% drop in profit in the first quarter of 2019, although it is less than the data predicted at the same period of last year, the demand for servers will have a big increasing in the third quarter of 2019. Along with the launch of 5G phones into the market, maybe the memory price has really reached the bottom line of the market?

Therefore, let’s look forward the actions adopted by these NAND flash suppliers, they will change their sales strategy and protect their profits. We hope this industry will restart in one health situation.