[News] SK hynix Eyes EUV-Driven 6F² Scaling, Keeps 4F² and 3D DRAM in Play as Micron Holds Back

What happened

During its 3Q26 earnings call, SK hynix said it plans to maximize the potential of its existing 6F² architecture through process improvements and stable platform operations, while continuing to develop 4F² and 3D DRAM as potential next-generation options, with adoption tied to each technology's maturity and economic viability. According to News 1, SK hynix DRAM marketing head Park Joon-deok said advances in EUV lithography and process scaling offer further room to extend the 6F² platform, stressing that commercializing new cell architectures requires overcoming hurdles in yields, reliability, costs, product design and customer validation. By contrast, Micron has ruled out adopting 4F² DRAM currently, saying the technology is "not on the roadmap right now"; Micron President and Chief Technology and Product Officer Scott DeBoer said more than 20 years of research had failed to identify a sustainable scaling path, and that while technically feasible, the 4F² structure's process complexity and higher manufacturing costs limit its practical benefits. According to Chosun Biz, Samsung Electronics is developing a 4F² architecture based on vertical channel transistors (VCT), and Song Jae-hyuk, President and CTO of Samsung's Device Solutions (DS) division, confirmed the company's 4F² development efforts at SEDEX 2026 in Seoul on October 14. Separately, China's CXMT is pushing ahead with 4F² commercialization plans, aiming to launch its first 4F²-based server DDR5 RDIMM module by the end of 2026. SK hynix is also pursuing 4F² research: in a July blog post tied to VLSI 2026, it positioned 4F² vertical-gate (VG) DRAM as a way to extend scaling at sub-10nm nodes.

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Source and time

Source: TrendForce · 10/27/2026 · View original source