Organic Nonvolatile Memory Research Articles

Surface engineering of ferroelectric polymer for the enhanced electrical performance of organic transistor memory

We suggest a viable surface control method to improve the electrical properties of organic nonvolatile memory transistors. For viable surface control, the surface of the ferroelectric insulator in the memory field-effect transistors was modified using a smooth-contact-curing process. For the modification of the ferroelectric polymer, during the curing of the ferroelectric insulators, the smooth surface of a soft elastomer contacts intimately with the ferroelectric surface. This smooth-contact-curing process reduced the surface roughness of the ferroelectric insulator without degrading its ferroelectric properties. The reduced roughness of the ferroelectric insulator increases the mobility of the organic field-effect transistor by approximately eight times, which results in a high memory on–off ratio and a low-voltage reading operation.

Tuning non-volatile memory characteristics via molecular doping of polymer semiconductors based on ambipolar organic field-effect transistors

Abstract Expandability of organic electronics has stimulated ongoing research for the development of a variety of flexible and/or large-area optoelectronic applications. Among these electronic devices, organic non-volatile memories are emerging as suitable components for solid-state data storage because of their low-cost fabrication, large storage capacity, light weight, and conformable mechanical properties. To fully integrate organic memories with wearable and flexible/stretchable electronic systems, it is important to develop a device in which the properties such as threshold voltage and operating regime are controllable. This leads to improvement in the adaptability of the device to peripheral circuitry and encourages the development of multi-functional organic electronic components. Here, we investigate the tunable electrical properties of charge-trap (electret) memory devices based on organic field-effect transistors, obtained by the doping of an ambipolar polymer semiconductor. The electret memory devices using the doped semiconductor showed a remarkable enhancement in the charge-storage capacity, an excellent charge retention time of more than 107 s, and four-fold increase in charge carrier mobility. The improved memory characteristics associated with the controllable molecular doping could pave the way for the development of next-generation memory devices that are compatible with flexible and printed electronic technology.

Organic non-volatile memory based on pentacene/tris(8-hydroxy quinoline) aluminum heterojunction transistor

Non-volatile heterojunction transistor memory was fabricated by successively depositing pentacene/tris(8-hydroxy quinoline) aluminum(Alq3) layers. In this specified configuration, pentacene functioned as the active layer between the source and drain of field-effect transistor memory, and Alq3 was adopted as the charge-trapping layer. Operation of non-volatile memory was implemented by an electrical writing and light illumination erasing procedure. Band bending between pentacene and Alq3 due to the formation of a type II heterojunction prohibited back-injection of trapped charges, which demonstrated hysteresis for the transfer characteristics. The specified heterojunction structure (without a tunneling layer) enabled carriers to facilely transport between the active layer and charge trapping layer. Therefore, a large memory window (40.3 V, for a programming voltage of −80 V) and fast writing speed of less than 1 μs were demonstrated; in addition, the 1-bit non-volatile memory device showed a moderate retention time of more than 2 years. The large memory window, fast writing speed, and long retention time can potentially enable practical applications of non-volatile memory.

Solution Processed Organic Transistor Nonvolatile Memory With a Floating-Gate of Carbon Nanotubes

In this letter, an organic field-effect transistor nonvolatile memory (NVM), based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as a nano floating-gate, is demonstrated, for which a four-layer stacked core architecture was processed by following the sequential solution spin-coating method. The SWNTs, separated by spin-coating, are distributed in the matrix of copolymer poly (styrene-block-paraphenylene) to act as the charge trapping sites. The memory of the floating-gate organic transistor so prepared exhibits excellent NVM characteristics,with a large memory window of 26.7 V, memory on/off ratio larger than 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> , stable charge storage retention capability for over 3 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sup> s with a memory on/off ratio over 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , and the reliable memory endurance property of over 500 Hz.

High Performance Flexible Nonvolatile Memory Based on Vertical Organic Thin Film Transistor

AbstractFlexible floating‐gate organic transistor memory (FGOTM) is a potential candidate for emerging memory technologies. Unfortunately, conventional planar FGOTM suffers from weak driving ability and insufficient mechanical flexibility, which limits its commercial application. In this work, a novel flexible vertical FGOTM (VFGOTM) is reported. Benefitting from new vertical architecture, VFGOTM provides ultrashort channel length to afford an extremely high current density. Meanwhile, VFGOTM devices exhibit excellent memory performance and outstanding retention property. The memory properties of VFGOTM devices are comparable or even better than traditional planar FGOTM and much better than the reported organic nonvolatile memory with vertical transistor structures. More importantly, organic nonvolatile memory with vertical transistor structures is investigated for the first time on a flexible substrate. The results show that VFGOTM architecture allows vertical current flow across the channel layer to effectively eliminate the effect of mechanical bending during current transport, which significantly improves the mechanical stability of the flexible VFGOTM. Hence, with a combination of excellent driving ability, memory performance, and mechanical stability, VFGOTM devices meet the practical requirements for high performance memory applications, which have great potential for the application in a wide range of flexible and wearable electronics.

High-Performance Nonvolatile Organic Transistor Memory Using Quantum Dots-Based Floating Gate

A novel nonvolatile floating-gate transistor memory device using CdSe@ZnS quantum dots (QDs) embedded the insulating polymer as a charge-storage layer along with the rational design of device structure is presented. The core-shell structure CdSe@ZnS QDs can efficiently trap both holes and electrons under the applied writing/erasing operations, resulting in a considerable threshold voltage shifts (ΔV <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TH</sub> ) over 50 V and forming high-conductance (ON) and low-conductance (OFF) states at a gate voltage of 0 V. The value of threshold voltage shift is controlled by writing and erasing voltages, regardless with source-drain voltages. Furthermore, it exhibits a long retention time (the ΔV <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TH</sub> can maintain 76% at 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">8</sup> s) and outstanding endurance characteristics (>500 cycles), demonstrating extraordinary stable and reliable memory property. Moreover, a thin layer of Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> was introduced as tunneling dielectric layer which is essential for the high-performance floating-gate transistor memory device. The nonvolatile organic transistor memory devices using QDs-based floating gate show great potential application for high-performance organic memory devices.

Excellent low-voltage operating flexible ferroelectric organic transistor nonvolatile memory with a sandwiching ultrathin ferroelectric film

The high operating voltage is a primary issue preventing the commercial application of the ferroelectric organic field-effect transistor (Fe-OFET) nonvolatile memory (NVM). In this work, we propose a novel route to resolve this issue by employing two ultrathin AlOX interfacial layers sandwiching an ultrathin ferroelectric polymer film with a low coercive field, in the fabricated flexible Fe-OFET NVM. The operation voltage of Fe-OFET NVMs decreases with the downscaling thickness of the ferroelectric film. By inserting two ultrathin AlOX interfacial layers at both sides of the ultrathin ferroelectric film, not only the gate leakage is prominently depressed but also the mobility is greatly improved. Excellent memory performances, with large mobility of 1.7 ~ 3.3 cm2 V−1 s−1, high reliable memory switching endurance over 2700 cycles, high stable data storage retention capability over 8 × 104 s with memory on-off ratio larger than 102, are achieved at the low operating voltage of 4 V, which is the lowest value reported to data for all Fe-OFET NVMs. Simultaneously, outstanding mechanical fatigue property with the memory performances maintaining well over 7500 bending cycles at a bending radius of 5.5 mm is also achieved in our flexible FE-OFET NVM.

High performance organic nonvolatile memory transistors based on HfO2 and poly(α-methylstyrene) electret hybrid charge-trapping layers

In this work, we fabricated a high performance flash-type organic nonvolatile memory transistor, which adopted polymer-electret poly(α-methylstyrene) (PαMS) and HfO2 films as hybrid charge trapping layer (CTL). Compared with a single HfO2 or PαMS CTL structure, the hybrid HfO2/PαMS CTL structure can provide enhanced charge trapping efficiency to increase the device operation speed and reduce the leakage current to boost the device reliability. The fabricated nonvolatile organic memory transistors with the hybrid CTL shows excellent electrical properties, including low operation voltage (8 V), high speed (&amp;lt;10 ms), excellent data retention (on-off current ratio of 2.6 × 104 after 104 s), and good endurance (more than 2000 program/erase cycles). The present work provides useful idea for the design of future low-power consumption and highly reliable organic nonvolatile memories.

Controllable Organic Resistive Switching Achieved by One-Step Integration of Cone-Shaped Contact.

Conductive filaments (CFs)-based resistive random access memory possesses the ability of scaling down to sub-nanoscale with high-density integration architecture, making it the most promising nanoelectronic technology for reclaiming Moore's law. Compared with the extensive study in inorganic switching medium, the scientific challenge now is to understand the growth kinetics of nanoscale CFs in organic polymers, aiming to achieve controllable switching characteristics toward flexible and reliable nonvolatile organic memory. Here, this paper systematically investigates the resistive switching (RS) behaviors based on a widely adopted vertical architecture of Al/organic/indium-tin-oxide (ITO), with poly(9-vinylcarbazole) as the case study. A nanoscale Al filament with a dynamic-gap zone (DGZ) is directly observed using in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) , which demonstrates that the RS behaviors are related to the random formation of spliced filaments consisting of Al and oxygen vacancy dual conductive channels growing through carbazole groups. The randomicity of the filament formation can be depressed by introducing a cone-shaped contact via a one-step integration method. The conical electrode can effectively shorten the DGZ and enhance the localized electric field, thus reducing the switching voltage and improving the RS uniformity. This study provides a deeper insight of the multiple filamentary mechanisms for organic RS effect.

Reversible Charge Trapping in Bis-Carbazole-Diimide Redox Polymers with Complete Luminescence Quenching Enabling Nondestructive Read-Out by Resonance Raman Spectroscopy.

The coupling of substituted carbazole compounds through carbon–carbon bond formation upon one-electron oxidation is shown to be a highly versatile approach to the formation of redox polymer films. Although the polymerization of single carbazole units has been proposed earlier, we show that by tethering pairs of carbazoles double sequential dimerization allows for facile formation of redox polymer films with fine control over film thickness. We show that the design of the monomers and in particular the bridging units is key to polymer formation, with the diaminobenzene motif proving advantageous, in terms of the matching to the redox potentials of the monomer and polymer film and thereby avoiding limitations in film thickness (autoinsulation), but introduces unacceptable instability due to the intrinsic redox activity of this moiety. The use of a diimide protecting group both avoids complications due to p-diamino-benzene redox chemistry and provides for a redox polymer in which the photoluminescence of the bis-carbazole moiety can be switched reversibly (on/off) with redox control. The monomer design approach is versatile enabling facile incorporation of additional functional units, such as naphthalene. Here we show that a multicomponent carbazole/naphthalene containing monomer (APCNDI) can form redox polymer films showing both p- and n- conductivity under ambient conditions and allows access to five distinct redox states, and a complex electrochromic response covering the whole of the UV/vis–NIR spectral region. The highly effective quenching of the photoluminescence of both components in poly-APCNDI enables detailed characterization of the redox polymer films. The poly-APCNDI films show extensive charge trapping, which can be read out spectroscopically in the case of films and is characterized as kinetic rather than chemical in origin on the basis of UV/vis–NIR absorption and resonance Raman spectroscopic analyses. The strong resonantly enhanced Raman scattering for the various oxidized and reduced states of APCNDI enables nondestructive “read-out” of the state of the polymer, including that in which charges are trapped kinetically at the surface, making poly-APCNDI highly suitable for application as a component in organic nonvolatile memory devices.

High-Performance Nonvolatile Organic Field-Effect Transistor Memory Based on Organic Semiconductor Heterostructures of Pentacene/P13/Pentacene as Both Charge Transport and Trapping Layers.

Nonvolatile organic field‐effect transistor (OFET) memory devices based on pentacene/N,N′‐ditridecylperylene‐3,4,9,10‐tetracarboxylic diimide (P13)/pentacene trilayer organic heterostructures have been proposed. The discontinuous n‐type P13 embedded in p‐type pentacene layers can not only provide electrons in the semiconductor layer that facilitates electron trapping process; it also works as charge trapping sites, which is attributed to the quantum well‐like pentacene/P13/pentacene organic heterostructures. The synergistic effects of charge trapping in the discontinuous P13 and the charge‐trapping property of the poly(4‐vinylphenol) (PVP) layer remarkably improve the memory performance. In addition, the trilayer organic heterostructures have also been successfully applied to multilevel and flexible nonvolatile memory devices. The results provide a novel design strategy to achieve high‐performance nonvolatile OFET memory devices and allow potential applications for different combinations of various organic semiconductor materials in OFET memory.

Floating-gate nanofibrous electret arrays for high performance nonvolatile organic transistor memory devices

Nanofibrous electret arrays based organic field-effect floating-gate transistor memory was firstly developed by electrospinning. The nanofiber arrays are composed of a novel porphyrin molecule of [5,15-bis[4-(pyridyl)ethynyl]-10,20-diphenyl]-21H,23H-porphyrin (DPP) as charge-trapping elements and polystyrene (PS) as the tunneling layer. The floating-gate transistor memory based on electrospinning nanofibrous electret arrays exhibited a reliable controllable threshold voltage shift and effective charge-trapping ability which was obviously superior to the counterparts fabricated with widely employed spin-coating technique. The result shows that electrospinning can be used as an effective artificial strategy to produce predesigned microstructure for the electrets, optimize the electrical memory characteristics, and may be applied in future nonwoven electronic memory devices.

Solution Processed Top-Gate High-Performance Organic Transistor Nonvolatile Memory With Separated Molecular Microdomains Floating-Gate

In this letter, a top-gate high-performance floating-gate organic field-effect transistor nonvolatile memory (FG-OFET-NVM), where the four-layer stacked core architecture is processed by a successive solution spin-coating method, is demonstrated. The floating-gate layer is prepared by spin-coating from a blend solution consisting of poly(styrene) (PS) and 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-Pen). As a result of phase separation, TIPS-Pen aggregates and forms many separated microdomains, which uniformly distribute in thematrix of PS as the charge-trapping sites. The optimal FG-OFET-NVM exhibits excellent memory characteristics, with a large memory window of 26 V, a desired reading voltage of 0 V, a memory ON/OFF ratio larger than 3500, programming/erasing switching endurance over 500 cycles, and good charge-storage retention with a memory ON/OFF ratio larger than 103 over 5000 s.

Multi-level non-volatile organic transistor-based memory using lithium-ion-encapsulated fullerene as a charge trapping layer

We report on multi-level non-volatile organic transistor-based memory using pentacene semiconductor and a lithium-ion-encapsulated fullerene (Li+@C60) as a charge trapping layer. Memory organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with a Si++/SiO2/Li+@C60/Cytop/Pentacene/Cu structure exhibited a performance of p-type transistor with a threshold voltage (Vth) of −5.98 V and a mobility (μ) of 0.84 cm2 V−1 s−1. The multi-level memory OFETs exhibited memory windows (ΔVth) of approximate 10 V, 16 V, and 32 V, with a programming gate voltage of 150 V for 0.5 s, 5 s, and 50 s, and an erasing gate voltage of −150 V for 0.17 s, 1.7 s, and 17 s, respectively. Four logic states were clearly distinguishable in our multi-level memory, and its data could be programmed or erased many times. The multi-level memory effect in our OFETs is ascribed to the electron-trapping ability of the Li+@C60 layer.

Flexible rewritable organic memory devices using nitrogen-doped CNTs/PEDOT:PSS composites

Nonvolatile rewritable organic memory devices based on poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and nitrogen doped multi-walled carbon nanotube (NCNT) nanocomposites were fabricated on glass and PET substrates.Organic memory devices with bistable resistive switching were obtained using very low NCTN concentration (∼0.002 wt%) in the polymeric matrix. The memory devices exhibited a good ON/OFF ratio of approximately three orders of magnitude, a good retention time of 104 s under operating voltages ≤ |4V| and a few hundredths of write-read-erase-read cycles. The bistable resistive switching is mainly attributed to the creation of oxygen vacancies. These defects are introduced into the thin native Al oxide (AlOx) layer on the bottom electrode during the first voltage sweep. The well-dispersed NCNTs immersed in PEDOT:PSS play a key role as conductive channels for the electronic transport, hindering the electron trapping at the AlOx-polymer interface and inducing a soft dielectric breakdown of the AlOx layer. These PEDOT:PSS + NCNTs memory devices are to easy to apply in flexible low-cost technology and provide the possibility of large-scale integration.

Effect of device structure on the resistive switching characteristics of organic polymers fabricated through all printed technology

Developments in organic bi-stable non-volatile memory devices have shown that organic materials are essential for the next generation of electrical memory unit owing to their low cost, high flexibility and large scalability. This study depicts an important aspect of organic memory devices by observing the effect of changing device structure on its switching characteristics. Memory devices with a bilayer and bulk-heterojunction structure were fabricated through an all printed technology by utilizing two organic polymers such as MEH: PPV and PMMA. Silver (Ag) was selected as the top and bottom electrode due to its high conductivity and easy processing. Though identical polymers were used in both device structures, but interestingly change in structure caused change in properties. It was observed that bilayer structure had much higher switching ratio and stability against various biasing cycles as compared to its bulk-heterojunction counterpart. Superior switching characteristics of bilayer structure were due to the presence of a well-defined interface between both polymers. Bulk-heterojunction device suffers the drawback of phase separation in a single organic layer between the two polymers.

A rapid decade withpss (RRL)– and nowSolar RRLis here

No abstract is available for this article.

A rapid decade with pss (RRL) – and now Solar RRL is here

No abstract is available for this article.

An organic nonvolatile resistive switching memory device fabricated with natural pectin from fruit peel

In this work, pectin, a by-product has not been recycled sustainably, is introduced as an insulator to fabricate a novel organic resistive switching memory devices with Ag/Pectin/FTO structure for the first time. The device exhibits superior switching endurance accompanied by an OFF/ON resistance ratio (storage density window) of ∼450. This work reveals for the first time that pectin from fruit peel is a promising material for nonvolatile memory applications.

Molecular floating-gate organic nonvolatile memory with a fully solution processed core architecture

In this paper, we demonstrated a floating-gate organic thin film transistor based nonvolatile memory, in which the core architecture was processed by a sequential three-step solution spin-coating method. The molecular semiconductor 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-Pen) distributing in the matrix of polymer poly(styrene) (PS), acting as the floating-gate and tunneling layer, respectively, was processed by one-step spin-coating from their blending solution. The effect of the proportion of TIPS-Pen in the matrix of PS on the memory performances of devices was researched. As a result, a good nonvolatile memory was achieved, with a memory window larger than 25 V, stable memory endurance property over 500 cycles and retention time longer than 5000 s with a high memory ratio larger than 102, at an optimal proportion of TIPS-Pen in the matrix of PS.