By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) Jul 31 -- China’s leading memory chip maker YMTC (长江存储) has staged a technological coup and broken a record with the release of a new device featuring 232 wordline layers, said Yole SystemPlus, part of Yole Group, after digging into the entire manufacturing process of YMTC’s Xtacking architecture.

At the very heart of the manufacture of all YMTC’s 3D NAND chips is the Xtacking approach. Known as YMTC’s hallmark, Xtacking involves the use of two separate wafers, whereas only one wafer is traditionally employed. It consists of building the NAND dies by joining a CMOS wafer and a NAND array wafer face to face, the two wafers being bonded together using metal pads. Both wafers can be manufactured simultaneously, enabling the manufacturer to shorten the production cycle in case of high memory demand, according to Yole SystemPlus.

Yole Intelligence asserts that over the past several quarters, the memory markets have faced the most dramatic downturn of the last 15 years. Despite the very challenging context, YMTC has accomplished significant progress.

However, YMTC does not yet have a significant market share seen as a threat by the major players. Despite its meteoric rise since its creation in 2016 and technological edge, YMTC is still fighting against the historical players including Samsung, SK hynix, Micron Technology, Western Digital, and Kioxia and is bearing the brunt of bilateral trade tensions with the US.

It is getting very hard for YMTC, with export controls in place from the Netherlands, Japan, and USA. It is also very serious about trialing domestic chip production equipment.

Yole said it will keep focusing on how long will the additional funding, provided this year by both private investors and the Chinese government enable YMTC to keep its head above water.