Taiwanese semiconductor company Winbond Electronics has introduced an 8Mbit serial flash memory for edge devices in space-constrained IoT applications.

The 8Mbit 3V NOR W25Q80RV is the first in a family of small form factor serial flash devices with higher read performance addressing the needs of connected edge devices used in industrial and consumer applications.

This flash memory produced in Winbond’s own 30.5cm wafer fabrication facility is manufactured using 58nm technology and is significantly smaller than its predecessor, which was built using 90nm technology. The KGD known good die and WLCSP wafer-level chip-scale package versions of this device can be used in various small-form-factor IoT devices.

“The internet of things is expanding to 50 billion connected devices by 2023,” said Alan Niebel, president of WebFeet Research, an independent market-research firm. “Winbond’s 3V 8Mbit serial flash is suitable for both automotive and IoT segments. Overall, IoT is poised to grow in this new connected world with all shipments of serial flash totalling 12.9bn units worldwide by 2027.”

The company has been supporting those using the 8Mbit serial slash with the existing generation of W25QxxDV for several years in applications including instrumentation, networking, PCs, printers, automotive and gaming. Now it believes the time has come to support these applications to include new use-cases such as wireless connectivity with KGD and WLCSP in smaller lead frame packages.

Winbond has been a high-volume provider of KGD products for more than ten years. KGDs are fully baked and tested to have the same reliability level as packaged products. They are suitable for stacking with MCUs or SoCs requiring high-speed flash access. With faster read speed to enhance system performance, faster programming for efficient manufacturing and firmware OTA (over-the-air) update coupled with the smaller form factor aspect of SIP (system-in-package), this 8Mbit flash provides more value for various embedded systems.

The W25Q80RV supports all popular single, dual, quad and QPI commands and read modes. It is suitable for executing code (XIP) directly from flash as well as code shadowing to RAM. This device operates on a single 2.7 to 3.6V power supply with power-down current down to 1μA.

The flash is organised as small 4kbyte sectors, which allow for flexibility and storage efficiency in applications that require code, data and parameter storage. SPI clock frequencies of up to 133MHz single data rate and 66MHz double data rate are supported. The read command bypass mode allows for faster memory access with as few as eight clocks of instruction-overhead to read a 24bit address, allowing for true XIP (execute in place) operation.

“Winbond is proud and committed to innovate and differentiate by designing our serial flash KGD and WLCSP for use in specialised applications requiring small-form-factor and non-volatile storage for MCUs and SoCs,” said Jackson Huang, vice president at Winbond.

Winbond Electronics is headquartered in Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP), and has subsidiaries in the USA, Japan, Israel, China, Hong Kong and Germany.