KIOXIA Europe GmbH
Delivering Innovative Flash Memory Storage

Paul Rowan, Vice President, KIOXIA Europe GmbHPaul Rowan, Vice President
Solid-state drives (SSDs), which are at the heart of data storage, must innovate with new technologies, such as PCIe® 4.0 and Value SAS, to improve storage performance and increase value. This will also create more server storage options with higher SSD capacities, encryption to protect data, and a variety of endurances to match application workload profiles, such as read-intensive, mixed-use, and write-intensive. That’s where KIOXIA Europe GmbH can help. The company enables this innovation through new SSD technologies to keep server storage well-matched with HPE ProLiant servers.

KIOXIA Europe GmbH is a member of the KIOXIA global support team for HPE, and as a flash technology leader, the KIOXIA mission is to uplift the world with “memory” by offering one of the industry’s broadest SSD portfolios. KIOXIA is committed to delivering innovative flash memory storage that enriches people’s lives and expands society’s horizons. “HPE ProLiant servers continually innovate with new technologies to improve application performance and efficiency, while increasing overall value to customers. Working closely with the HPE engineering team, we provide SSDs that continually increase performance and server efficiency,” says Paul Rowan, the Vice President at KIOXIA Europe GmbH. Further, by providing more performance per dollar, HPE ProLiant servers can better service data-intensive applications with cost-effective SSD solutions. KIOXIA offers Value SAS and Data Center NVMe SSDs that provide more performance and reliability than SATA SSDs at a price that makes it easy to make the change.

We will continue to allocate considerable engineering resources to further push the performance envelope and are expanding our production facilities to help us meet this objective

Inspired by the pioneering work done by Toshiba Memory, KIOXIA invests heavily in research and development (R&D) to keep getting further ahead of rival SSD vendors. They are also making efforts to enhance its BiCS FLASH™ technology. “We will continue to allocate considerable engineering resources to further push the performance envelope and are expanding our production facilities to help us meet this objective,” mentions Mr. Rowan. “Currently, KIOXIA is very strong in the Flash memory and SSD market and we expect to grow our share in the near future.” To create a new era of storage solutions, KIOXIA will further strengthen its research and technology development, leveraging the expertise that enabled it to release the world’s first NAND flash memory and 3D flash memory.

To retain its leadership position in the market, KIOXIA has started to expand the production of proprietary BiCS FLASH™ 3D flash memory by extending two fabrication facilities, “Y7” in Yokkaichi and “K2” in Kitakami, both located in Japan. “Thanks to our R&D centre, we are able to conduct vital development work in relation to the processes and circuit topologies needed for non-volatile memories to keep on evolving by leveraging a wide range of verification techniques,” states Mr. Rowan.

To further accelerate the development speed and address the needs of increasingly diverse research themes, KIOXIA not only promotes collaboration between in-house divisions and laboratories, but also undertakes R&D projects in collaboration with universities, technical communities, and research institutes both in Japan and abroad. “We also apply the results of these activities to a broad range of products and R&D themes while capturing ideas from wide communities,” informs Mr. Rowan. “We see the need for a growing variety of NAND flash types, such as single-level cell (SLC), storage class memory (SCM), and quad-level cell (QLC), which we can manufacture in a feasible way through our labs’ dedicated lines.”

KIOXIA Europe GmbH News

Kioxia and Western Digital's Joint Venture To Receive Up To 150 Billion Yen Government Subsidy for Yokkaichi and Kitakami Plants

TOKYO & SAN JOSE, Calif. --Kioxia Corporation and Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) announced today that their joint venture manufacturing facilities at Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants have been approved to receive an up to 150 billion yen subsidy, including facilities that will produce its latest generation of 3D flash memory based on the innovative wafer bonding technology and future generation advanced nodes. The subsidy will be granted under a designated government program aimed at facilitating corporate investment in cutting-edge semiconductor production facilities and securing stable production of semiconductors in Japan. This marks the second time that Kioxia’s and Western Digital’s joint venture manufacturing facilities are receiving this subsidy from the Japanese government. Previously, the joint venture manufacturing facility at Yokkaichi was approved to receive up to 92.9 billion yen subsidy from the Japanese government in 2022.

Leveraging an over 20-year joint venture partnership, Kioxia and Western Digital will continue to enhance the development and production capabilities of cutting-edge flash memory at the Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants in Japan. In addition, the two companies will contribute to the development of semiconductor-related industries and talent.

“We appreciate the support of the Japanese government and will continue to produce cutting-edge flash memory, which is indispensable for technologies that underpin the expanding digital transformation of society. With this subsidy, we will continue to contribute to the advancement of the semiconductor industry and the development of local and domestic economies,” said Nobuo Hayasaka, President and CEO of Kioxia.

David Goeckeler, CEO of Western Digital said, “We thank the Japanese government for their ongoing and unwavering commitment to our joint venture flash memory manufacturing facilities in Japan and our long track record of innovations in the NAND flash industry. This support recognizes the important role of advanced memory and data storage technologies in addressing a diverse and growing set of data-driven applications.”

Kioxia and Western Digital have the longest and most successful joint venture partnership in the semiconductor industry, creating category-defining products such as the 3D flash memory.