Last month, Micron disclosed its DRAM and NAND memory roadmaps for the next several years, revealing plans to use wafer bonding, new materials that enable making NAND cells smaller, High-NA EUV lithography, and detailing its moves toward 3D DRAM. Perhaps the most revealing part of Micron's story is that the company plans to expand its portfolio of custom DRAM and NAND products as AI developers increasingly require memory and storage solutions optimized for their unique processor architectures and specific workloads.

" DRAM is nearing atomic limits at this point: although we have confidence in several more planar nodes, we are very focused on making sure that we introduce 3D DRAM at the optimal time from a cost and performance point of view," said Scott DeBoer, president and chief technology and products officer at Micron, at the company's event earlier this month. "[With 3D NAND, we are] really focused on new materials densifying the cell architecture, and continuing to focus on that XYZ scaling going forward."

In a surprising move, Micron decided to abandon plans to produce DRAM with 4F 2 memory cells , unlike its rivals at CXMT, Samsung, and SK hynix, citing the lack of a viable scaling path beyond where Micron is today. Instead, Micron's roadmap for the coming years includes wafer bonding, High-NA EUV lithography, new materials, and eventually 3D DRAM . The company plans to begin mass production of its next-generation 1δ memory in the second half of 2027, while subsequent 1ε, ζÅ, and ηÅ technologies are at various stages of development.

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