Micron Abandons 4F² DRAM After Two Decades, Betting the Future on 3D Memory
Why Micron Is Suddenly Ditching 4F² DRAM as Rivals Double Down
Micron has ended more than twenty years of 4F² DRAM research, concluding the architecture offers no meaningful density gain while driving up manufacturing cost and complexity. CTO Scott DeBoer says capacitor spacing, not nominal cell footprint, sets real density. Samsung, SK hynix, and CXMT are pressing ahead with 4F² anyway, and CXMT claims 4F² server DDR5 RDIMMs by year's end. Micron will instead push 6F² scaling through its 1δ, 1-ε, and Angstrom-era nodes while racing toward true 3D DRAM.
Micron "invented" 4F² and spent over two decades trying to commercialize it before finally discarding it.