Macronix International Co. today announced that it has launched its AEC-Q100 Grade 2/3 compliant NAND Flash memory product. With over 27 years of experience and capabilities in semiconductor design and fabrication, Macronix NAND Flash memory has passed all the stringent AEC-Q100 reliability standards, and becomes the first AEC-Q100 full compliant NAND Flash product supplier for Automotive applications.

The Automotive Electronics market has been advancing rapidly, from past applications such as the vehicle’s entertainment system, smart dashboards and clusters, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), to new technologies such as smart cars, Internet of Vehicles, and the autonomous car. Extending these trends in the future, each vehicle may resemble an individual artificial intelligence server and the demand for high reliable memory products will increase.

Macronix’s newly launched NAND Flash adopts its own patented 36nm semiconductor manufacturing technology that overcomes the short life cycle deficiency of NAND flash, which typically occurs with shrinking semiconductor technology nodes, or technology with multiple bits stored in each cell. Testing results indicate that the more bits stored within a single memory cell, the lower the number of P/E Cycles (program/erase cycles), in addition to decreasing the product’s reliability. Nevertheless, with patented manufacturing technologies and reliable circuit design IP (Intellectual property), Macronix’s series of NAND Flash memory are very efficient. The single bit per cell floating gate technology used thereof is not only fast but also reliable, which meets the requirements of high memory capacity, fast transmission rates as well as the highest reliability for automotive use. In general, Macronix’s NAND Flash memory is capable of storing data for at least 10 years or 100,000 programming times, surpassing current JEDEC standards.

Macronix NAND Flash family is offered in 1Gb to 8Gb densities, supporting both SPI and Parallel interface, with operation temperature range from -40°C to +105°C, with significantly improved reliability as compared to the conventional +85°C chip specification currently available in the market. Due to the stringent limitations of NAND Flash memory’s temperature compensation and work voltage, the extended operation temperature range of Macronix’s Automotive NAND Flash memory provides extra flexibility towards the NAND Flash memory’s data retention and full function operation capabilities, giving it a notable advantage in fanless applications, which is becoming increasingly common in space constrained Automotive applications.

In addition, to satisfy various power consumption requirements, Macronix’s NAND Flash is offered in both 1.8V and 3V power supply solutions. Macronix also offers 4-bit ECC and ECC-free solutions to satisfy different specifications and functional requirements.

This series of new products is produced in Macronix’s 12-inch Fab (Fab 5) located in the Hsinchu Science Park. The high quality and dependable delivery are two necessary conditions to gain an edge in the Automotive Electronics markets; with its own 12 inch Fab facility, Macronix is able to closely and directly monitor its production capacity and manufacturing progress in real-time, which are the key elements for earning and maintaining customer trust.

Macronix has been the world’s largest ROM manufacturer, and in recent years, it has been expanding rapidly in the NOR and NAND Flash memory markets, and is now the largest manufacturer of NOR Flash globally. Macronix’s other Automotive Flash memory product lines include Serial NOR Flash and Parallel NOR Flash.