AsianScientist (Nov. 16, 2017) – A group of researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed ultra-flexible organic flash memory that meets industrial standards for electronics. They published their findings in Nature Communications.
Flash memory is a non-volatile, transistor-based data-storage device that has become essential in most electronic systems in daily life. Despite promising demonstrations in the early stages of organic electronics, the overall progress in flash memory development has been far slower than that of thin-film transistors (TFTs) or other devices made of flexible materials.
In particular, it has been challenging to develop flash memory that simultaneously exhibits a significant level of flexibility and performance. Moreover, the solution processing method used for the preparation of flexible polymeric dielectric layers is incompatible with flash memory.
In this study, a joint research team led by Professor Yoo Seunghyup of the School of Electrical Engineering and Professor Im Sung Gap of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST have solved the above problems and invented flash memory that is flexible, runs on low power and has long memory retention times.
The researchers created thin polymeric insulators grown using initiated chemical vapor deposition, a vapor-phase growth technique for polymers that was previously shown to be promising for the fabrication of flexible TFTs. They could fabricate flash memory on 6-micrometer-thick ultrathin plastic films and even on printing paper.
Notably, the flexible flash memory only required programming voltages around 10 volts and had a projected data retention time of over ten years. This is a significant improvement over conventional polymer insulating films that often function on voltages as high as 100 volts to attain long memory retention.
Their device also maintained its memory performance at a mechanical strain of 2.8 percent, compared to just 1 percent for existing inorganic insulation layer-based flash memory.
“This study illustrates that even highly flexible flash memory can be made to have a practically viable level of performance, so that it contributes to full-fledged wearable electronic devices and smart electronic paper,” said Yoo.
The article can be found at: Lee et al. (2017) Organic Flash Memory on Various Flexible Substrates for Foldable and Disposable Electronics.
———
Source: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
