South Korea’s tech gaint Samsung Electronics Co. recorded its largest-ever sales of NAND flash memory chips in the first quarter this year.

According to market research firm IHS Inc., the company posted record high sales of NAND (non-volatile storage) flash amounting to $2.615 billion. It was 3.1 percent increase from the previous quarter of $2.536 billion, almost double the global NAND flash market’s on-quarter growth rate of 1.6 percent.

While the global dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market is contracting due to the waning demand for PCs and servers, NAND flash market is growing rapidly as the demand for solid-state drives (SSD) is rising. Currently, almost 30 percent of laptop computers in the market are mounted with NAND flash and the chips are also increasingly used in servers.

Samsung Electronics’ global share in the NAND flash market increased 0.6 percentage point from the previous quarter to 42.6 percent in the first three months of this year, followed by Japan’s Toshiba Corp. with 28.0 percent market share, the U.S. Micron Technology Inc. with 18.8 percent and Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. with 10.6 percent.

Samsung’s technology to produce the third generation 48-layer V-NAND flash memory chips is unrivaled in the global market. Demand for the V-NAND is exceeding supply as it lasts 10 times longer while consuming 50 percent less power compared to conventional NAND memories.

Samsung, however is faced with escalating challenge from competition. Toshiba applies triple-level-cell (TLC) technology to more than 40 percent of its NAND flash memories, which store 3 bits of data per cell, and is conducting a pilot production of 48-layer NAND flash.

The world’s biggest chipmaker Intel Corp. announced its plan to convert its semiconductor fabrication plant in Dalian, China to manufacture 3D NAND flash memories. China’s state-owned contract chipmaker XMC broke ground for 3D NAND flash chip manufacturing factory in Wuhan, Hubei Province in March this year.

By Lee Seung-hoon

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