Samsung Electronics has reached a patent license agreement with domestic memory chip giant Changjiang Storage, and will use Changjiang Storage's 3D NAND "hybrid bonding" technology for the development and manufacture of 400+ layer V-NAND.

Samsung plans to adopt this advanced technology for the first time in the 10th generation of V-NAND (V10) products.The number of stacked layers of V10 NAND is expected to be 420 to 430 layers, and the goal is to mass-produce it in the second half of this year.

At present, the number of stacking layers of mainstream 3D NAND products in the industry is still stuck at about 300 layers. SK Hynix has the highest mass production product: 286 layers, and Samsung has the highest mass production product: 321 layers.

Facing the process bottleneck of high-level NAND manufacturing, Samsung chose to introduce W2W (Wafer-to-Wafer) hybrid bonding technology, and the global pioneer of this technology is Changjiang Storage.

As 3D NAND continues to stack to a higher level, traditional manufacturing methods have encountered serious challenges.：

Chip area is limited: In traditional architectures, peripheral circuits occupy about 20% to 30% of the chip area. As the number of layers increases, the area may reach 50%, resulting in a decrease in storage density.Electrical performance bottleneck: High-level stacking causes the signal transmission path to become longer, affecting data throughput and increasing power

consumption.Mechanical stress problem: When 3D NAND reaches more than 300 layers, the underlying circuit is under tremendous pressure, which can easily cause damage.
In order to solve these problems, Samsung chose to adopt Changjiang Storage's Xtacking (crystal Stack) technology, which is the world's first successful commercial 3D NAND hybrid bonding process.

As early as 2018, Changjiang Storage launched the Xtacking (crystal stack) architecture, took the lead in introducing Hybrid Bonding technology in 3D NAND manufacturing, and established a complete patent layout.
Hybrid Bonding is mainly divided into two types: W2W (Wafer-to-Wafer, wafer-to-wafer), D2W (Die-to-Wafer, die-to-wafer)
Changjiang Storage's CBA (CMOS Bonded Array) architecture adopts W2W hybrid bonding, which has multiple advantages over traditional methods.：
✔ Remove traditional bumps, shorten circuit paths, and increase I/O density ✔ Significantly increase signal transmission rate, reduce power consumption, and improve energy efficiency ✔ Reduce mechanical stress, improve product stability and reliability ✔ Separate manufacturing of NAND and peripheral CMOS circuits to optimize processes and reduce costs