Micron Wins Insight Award for Most Innovative Memory Device and Semiconductor of the Year

OTTAWA, Ontario, July 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- TechInsights, the leader in technology and IP consulting, is pleased to honor Micron with the Insight Award for Semiconductor of the year, for their introduction of the first 16 nanometer (nm) NAND flash process technology on the market.

TechInsights has done extensive research and analysis on Micron's 16 nm MLC NAND process; including memory cell configuration and materials identification. 

Micron faced stiff competition against other finalists which included the Oracle T5 16 core processor and the Apple A7, as well as winners of other categories, such as Intel's 22nm eDRAM which won for Most Innovative Logic Process, and the Intel 22nm Bay Trail which won for Most Innovative Applications Processor. Although all three category winners had significant industry milestones; such as Intel's implementation of eDRAM as cache memory, and Intel's Bay Trail being first to market for 22nm finFETS in an SoC. It was, however, Micron's ability to overcome the major scaling challenges in the fast growing Flash-based storage sector that led TechInsights to award Micron with the top honors.

"The innovative cell structure in our 16nm NAND flash is the foundation that enables us to help our customers deliver cutting-edge storage solutions," said Brian Shirley, Micron's vice president of memory technology and solutions. "We are already delivering products leveraging the 16nm NAND process technology and are proud to have our design recognized by the TechInsights TechInsights Awards."

In order to qualify for this top prize, Micron had to first win in their category In the 11^th edition of the Insight Awards, the Most Innovative Memory Product category featured numerous submissions, including the Hynix 21 nm DRAM, which was identified as a finalist for its efforts to scale up production on the new 21 nm silicon fabrication process, making the selection of five finalists for this award a challenging task for the judging panel. Selecting Micron acknowledges the U.S. companies first-to-market status at the 16nm process node, and its ongoing leadership in storage technology development.

"Memory manufacturers continue to push the boundaries of lithography with each new generation of NAND and DRAM products", said Jason Abt, Director of Technical Intelligence. "In the absence of EUV, the industry has pretty much concluded that double-patterning is the only path forward for today's sub-20 nm lithography and Micron has set the bar with its 16 nm NAND process."

Since its introduction over a decade ago, the Insight Awards remain as the first industry-recognized program to celebrate engineering design and innovation at the semiconductor level. Winners are chosen independently from a judging panel consisting of senior analysts and engineers to ensure that devices submitted for consideration are evaluated on the merits of their design and technical achievements.

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About Micron

Micron Technology, Inc., is a global leader in advanced semiconductor systems. Micron's broad portfolio of high-performance memory technologies—including DRAM, NAND and NOR Flash—is the basis for solid state drives, modules, multichip packages and other system solutions. Backed by more than 35 years of technology leadership, Micron's memory solutions enable the world's most innovative computing, consumer, enterprise storage, networking, mobile, embedded and automotive applications. Micron's common stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the MU symbol. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc. visit www.micron.com.

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SOURCE TechInsights