Samsung Electronics has partnered with Nvidia to accelerate development of next-generation NAND flash memory chips, industry sources confirmed.
Samsung has jointly developed with Nvidia an artificial intelligence system that dramatically speeds up research and development of ultra-low-power NAND based on ferroelectric materials—a technology that will determine AI chip performance. The strategy reflects both companies' efforts to secure technological leadership in next-generation chip competition as they lead the global AI semiconductor boom.
According to industry sources on the 12th, a joint research team from Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor Research Institute, Nvidia, and Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a "Physics-Informed Neural Operator (PINO)" model capable of analyzing ferroelectric NAND device performance more than 10,000 times faster than conventional methods. The research findings have been released globally.
Ferroelectric materials are novel substances that can maintain polarization—separation of positive and negative charges—without continuous electrical input. Research into applying these materials to NAND memory devices has been active due to their ability to store information efficiently with minimal power consumption, with Samsung Electronics leading these efforts. Ferroelectric NAND refers to NAND made with ferroelectric materials instead of conventional silicon.
Commercializing ferroelectric NAND requires follow-up research that precisely analyzes and improves material performance characteristics such as threshold voltage and data retention through computer simulation. Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD), the analysis tool widely used in the semiconductor industry, typically requires 60 hours per operation, limiting research speed. The Samsung and Nvidia research team succeeded in reducing operation time to under 10 seconds using AI trained on physical laws.
Based on the research results, Samsung Electronics will collaborate with Nvidia—its largest memory customer—on ferroelectric NAND development through commercialization, drawing attention to their future moves. Late last year, Samsung announced ferroelectric NAND technology capable of reducing power consumption by 96% compared to conventional NAND in the international journal Nature, signaling a major industry innovation.
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, South Korea leads the top five countries in global ferroelectric patent share at 43.1%, driven by Samsung Electronics' 27.8% share.
