Have you ever wondered how your smartphone can store countless pictures, songs, or videos? Or, have you wondered when you download a podcast to your smartphone, where does it actually get stored? In this video, we will open up your smartphone and take a look at the inside of the memory storage microchip. This same microchip is also used to store data in solid-state drives, or SSDs in your computer, in tablets, and inside flash drives. The technology is called VNAND or V-NAND, and it’s incredible how engineers were able to fit such an insane amount of memory storage capacity in such a small space.
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Written, animated, and edited- Teddy Tablante
Twitter: @teddytablante
Voice Over- Phil Lee
Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro into SSDs
2:06 – Example of Saving a Picture
4:17 – Pixel Calculations
5:19 – Single Memory Cell
7:59 – Vertical Strings and Pages
10:34 – Control Gates of VNAND
12:00 – Calculations of Example Array
13:09 – True size of an SSD microchip
14:50 – Overall chip in an SSD
16:07 – Outro
16:32 – Creator’s comments
16:54 – Future Episodes
This video is part of a series that intends to thoroughly explain how SSDs, and more specifically how VNAND works. These are the episodes in the series:
1) [18min] Overview on how SSDs / VNAND / Smartphone storage works.
2) [3min] Quick/Abridged episode of the overview
3) How charge trap flash works. (details on a single memory cell)
4) How strings of memory cells work (details on a stack of memory cells)
5) How a massive array of memory cells are organized. (Terabit Cell Array Transistor, TCAT)
6) How is VNAND manufactured?
7) Possible episode on an analogy using a city & apartments to explain VNAND.
Key Branches from this video are: Microchips, CPUs, Integrated Circuits,
Erratum:
Animation built using Blender 2.82a https://www.blender.org/
Post with Adobe Premiere Pro
Book References:
Aritome, Seiichi. (2015). NAND flash memory technologies. IEEE Press Series on Microelectronic Systems. Wiley. [2nd most useful resource]
Cai, Yu et al. (2013) Threshold Voltage Distribution in MLC NAND Flash Memory: Characterization Analysis, and Modeling. 2013 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition. IEEE.
Micheloni, Rino. Marelli, Alessia. Eshghi, Kam. (2018) Inside solid state drives (SSDs) Second edition. Springer Series in Advanced Microelectronics Volume 37. Springer.
Micheloni, Rino. (2017) Solid-state-drives (SSDs) Modeling, Simulation tools & strategies. Springer Series in Advanced Microelectronics Volume 58. Springer
Micheloni, Rino. Crippa, Luca. (2016) 3D flash memories. Springer. [Chapter 4- Most useful resource]
Pierret, Robert F. (1996) Semiconductor Device Fundamentals. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Prince, Betty. (2014) Vertical 3D Memory Technologies. Wiley
Internet References:
Crisp, Simon. (29/01/2018) Samsung SSD860 PRO 4TB SSD Review. Kitguru.net
https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/samsung-ssd860-pro-4tb-ssd-review/all/1/ (Accessed 07/05/2020)
Mellor, Chris. (28/07/2016) QLC flash istricky stuff to make and use, so here’s a primer. TheRegister.co.uk
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/28/qlc_flash_primer/ (Accessed 07/05/2020)
Samsung Website. Samsung 1TB Details and Specifications www.samsung.com
https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/solid-state-drives/ssd-860-evo-2-5–sata-iii-1tb-mz-76e1t0b-am/ (Accessed 07/05/2020)
Shah, Dhiram. (27/02/2019) Samsung Begins Mass Production of Frist 512 GB eUFS3.0 for Next-Generation Mobile Devices. Fareastgizmos.com
https://fareastgizmos.com/smartphone/samsung-begins-mass-production-of-first-512gb-eufs-3-0-for-next-generation-mobile-devices.php (Accessed 07/05/2020)
Wikipedia contributors. “Charge Trap Flash.” “Flash Memory.” “Floating-gate Mosfet.” “Samsung Electronics.” “Solid-State drive.” “Solid-state storage.” “Three-dimensional integrated circuit.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Visited May, 2020
Yoon, Alex. (15/02/2018) Understanding Memory, An inside look at different memory types and how they work. Semiengineering.com
https://semiengineering.com/whats-really-happening-inside-memory/ (Accessed 07/05/2020)
#SSD #VNAND #Microchip
