ANDY HSU: THE IDEATOR OF THE FASTEST FLASH MEMORY ARCHITECTURE

In the 1980s, the world was introduced to flash-based SSD or solid-state drives, which became a major landmark in storage technology. Since then, technology has advanced – and the focus in SSD development has been scaling and fitting more data into the same storage space. For many years, the fact – that NAND Memory was planar limited further development, making 2D NAND flash the only option. Thankfully, introducing 3D NAND flash technology changed all of that. The technology allows cells to be stacked instead of shrunk to improve storage capacity. Because the cells are stacked, each cell can be larger, resulting in increased storage and reliability. It’s also faster, lasts longer, and uses less energy. The technology also presented the opportunity for breakthroughs within its architecture. Seizing this opportunity, Mr. Andy Hsu, an award-winning technologist, is creating enormous waves in 3D NAND Flash Memory Technology. Under his stewardship, his tech firm, NEO Semiconductor, is pushing the limits of traditional NAND technology, with a rousing success across the globe.

THE FLASH MEMORY INNOVATOR

Andy is a technology maestro with over 25 years of extensive background in the Semiconductor industry. He spent over a decade heading R&D and engineering teams in startups and developed over 60 products in NOR flash, EEPROM, and NVSRAM. He’s also a non-volatile memory innovator, having over 100 awarded US patents. During his graduate school, he conducted research and wrote a thesis on Artificial Neural Networks. He holds a Master’s degree in Electrical, Computer, and System Engineering (ECSE) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and a Bachelor’s degree from Taiwan’s National Cheng-Kung University.

Being entirely encased in the technology circuit, Andy grew a keen interest in the evolving challenges within the industry. Even though technologies are continuously unfolding opportunities, companies often lack proper direction. Speaking of which, 3D NAND Flash Memory Technology was about to set new trends in storage technology. And it was lining up opportunities for an innovator to create breakthroughs. Understanding the prospects, Andy founded NEO Semiconductor. He followed his passion for pursuing technology breakthroughs and created the world’s fastest 3D NAND Flash Memory Architecture. His passion and dedication have spawned many breakthroughs over the last decade, and he aspires to shepherd the world into a new and evolved future.

Andy also looks up to leaders who have made a remarkable breakthrough in their careers. And amongst many, he had the best advice from Bob Duggan, former CEO of Pharmacyclics. He advised him to develop innovative technologies to benefit the world instead of focusing on profit, and great success would follow. And judging from his company’s growth, Andy has followed every word to the letter.

NEO SEMICONDUCTOR: CREATING PATH-BREAKING SOLUTIONS

Headquartered in San Jose, California, NEO Semiconductor R&D focused design house developing innovative solutions on 3D NAND Flash Technology, embedded flash technology (IoT), and other emerging memories. Over the last 8 years, it has earned over 20 patents in memory design architecture and cell structures. In 2018, the company made its big breakthrough launching the ‘X-NAND’, a revolutionary design architecture that can achieve SLC’s speed with TLC and QLC densities. It’s mainly based on the existing mainstream 3D NAND flash memory technology. NEO Semiconductor re-designed the architecture of the memory array and circuit to increase the speed without increasing the cost of the memory chip. This solves the slow speed problem of the traditional NAND flash memory. This is a critical innovation for today’s booming 5G, AI and IoT applications. X-NAND can drastically increase the speed of NAND flash memory by 3 times for random read and write, 15 times for sequential write, and 30 times for sequential read. 

GROWING AND BUILDING ON CHALLENGES

Creating an impactful change through 3D NAND Flash Technology hasn’t been easy for Andy and his team. Although they sought to resolve prevailing challenges, it required a lot of R&D to find the right direction. “We felt like explorers on the front lines of a foreign territory. We couldn’t even guarantee that we’d find any answers,” he explains. For many years, they operated in stealth mode, developing R&D projects until 2020. They took part in the Flash Memory Summit conference to debut the X-NAND innovation as a keynote speaker. And that was the light bulb moment. The project gained huge positive traction, and they earned the epithet of ‘Most Innovative Flash Memory Startup–FMS 2020’. Although it wasn’t easy, Andy believes it was the dedication of the team members, investors and other stakeholders that helped NEO Semiconductor attain new heights. Their courage and belief in taking challenges navigated the company even through the COVID-19 and ultimately achieve the desired goal.  

NEO Semiconductor’s meteoric rise reflects its inherent creativity, passion, and persistence. And its people who believe and share a common goal fuel these qualities. Andy believes these qualities are critical to R&D. They fuel the burning desire to keep moving despite intricacies and challenges. 

LEADING WITH A CREATIVE DRIVE

Employees, be it in an established enterprise or startup, are its greatest assets. It’s their determination that sets a company apart. NEO Semiconductor was born from a vision to develop innovations that can foster a better future. This vision stimulates its people to work tirelessly and strive forth. However, building and sustaining this talented and passionate team requires a visionary, such as Andy himself. He has always favoured passionate people, and working with a bunch of dream-chasers has proved fruitful. Andy also loves mentoring people, aligning self-growth with the organization. Open discussions and brainstorming sessions are conducted to discuss and generate creative ideas. “Everyone’s knowledge and expertise are limited, so we strongly encourage open conversation. During the exchange of knowledge, many brilliant ideas emerge,” asserts Andy.

He also pushes them to be persistent in driving creative ideas, especially engineers, to scour for better ideas, even if it’s an old project or a new one. The consistency eventually creates breakthroughs, and that is how Andy and his team keep the company’s wheels turning.  

PARTING WORDS OF THE LEADER

“Startup is a risky and challenging path, especially if it’s in the high-tech field. Hence, staying positive and optimistic is very important. Find strong partners, get support, be motivated, be ready for unforeseen challenges and even failure, and enjoy the journey. You will learn a lot and enrich your life.”

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