Yeah, forming the staircase at the edge of the memory array is a big deal with a lot of steps, and it can take up a significant chunk of die area. But they can

Yeah, forming the staircase at the edge of the memory array is a big deal with a lot of steps, and it can take up a significant chunk of die area. But they can apparently do it with a very small number of photolithography masks: https://www.techinsights.com/webinar/memory-process-webinar-3d-nand-word-line-pad-wlp https://www.techinsights.com/webinar/memory-process-webinar-...