SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash storage solutions, has celebrated its 5 000th patent, the latest milestone and achievement from a company whose innovations have transformed the consumer electronics market for more than a quarter century.
The company was also recently named a Thomson Reuters 2014 Top 100 Global Innovator, recognizing its achievements as one of the world’s most innovative companies. It is the fourth consecutive year that SanDisk has earned this prestigious distinction.
Founded by three engineers in Silicon Valley more than 26 years ago, SanDisk is a flash storage pioneer that has remained deeply committed to engineering and innovation. SanDisk’s patent portfolio includes flash storage innovations that have enabled new markets and devices – from digital photography to USB drives to smartphones, tablets and thin-and-light notebooks. Increasingly, SanDisk is also focused on transforming the data centre.
“Since our inception, SanDisk’s passion for innovation and commitment to engineering excellence has enabled us to not only imagine the possibilities of technology, but also to create them,” says Sanjay Mehrotra, SanDisk’s co-founder, president, CEO, and holder of more than 70 patents.
“In 1991, SanDisk changed the face of storage with a 20Mb SSD, and today our innovations have helped to create a 4Tb SSD for the data centre. While we reflect upon these achievements, we are focused on developing the technologies and solutions that will drive the next phase of industry transformation.”
The SanDisk IP portfolio includes pivotal patents in flash memory device and design, process technology, packaging, test, applications, and system level technologies that have helped drive the wide adoption and proliferation of flash memory and expand the possibilities of storage.
SanDisk’s patented advancements have also enabled the company to continue to chronicle numerous highly impactful “firsts” in the digital industry, from launching the world’s first solid state drive (SSD) in 1991 to introducing the industry’s multi-level cell (MLC) flash technologies using two bits (X2) and three bits (X3) per cell. In the last year alone, SanDisk has introduced the world’s highest capacity enterprise solid-state SAS drive, the highest capacity SD cards and fastest microSD UHS-I cards, and 1Z-nanometer (nm) technology, the world’s smallest and most advanced NAND flash process node.
Thomson Reuters 2014 Top 100 Global Innovator program, an initiative of the IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters, honours the 100 corporations and institutions around the world that are at the heart of innovation as measured by a series of proprietary patent-related metrics. The Thomson Reuters 2014 Top 100 Global Innovator methodology is based on four principle criteria: overall patent volume, patent grant success rate, global reach of the portfolio, and patent influence as evidenced by citations.
“The Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators prove that they are the companies driving economic growth, creating jobs, and pioneering new products and services,” says Basil Moftah, president, Thomson Reuters IP & Science. “We congratulate SanDisk and are honoured to recognize their outstanding accomplishment for the fourth year in a row.”